THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 21 #03 TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 2006 22,300 copies every week $1 at newsagents only
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Stop work order sought for highway construction A coalition of conservation groups has appealed to the state and federal environment ministers to place a stop work order over construction on the Pacific highway upgrade between Yelgun and Brunswick Heads. High levels of sediment in runoff have caused an ’environmental catastrophe’ says the North Coast Environment Council, Conservation of North Ocean Shores, and the South Golden Beach and New Brighton Progress Associations. ‘No self respecting fish would want to go into that environment,’ said Richard Whitling, a spokesperson for the coalition who are concerned about the impact the highway construction works are having on the Brunswick River Estuary, the Billinudgel, Marshalls Creek and Brunswick River Nature Reserves and the Cape Byron Marine Park.
‘The waterway is totally chocked full of silt particularly in the upper estuary and close to the SEPP 14 wetlands near the Billinudgel Nature Reserve. There is no doubt that many organisms have been smothered by the silt,’ he added. ‘Excessive sediment in water bodies is universally acknowledged as a pollutant. There are many environmental regulations aimed at preventing this type of pollution. However these regulations have in this case failed,’ said the coalition in a press release on Monday. ‘We believe that this failure is the result of the massive scale of the project and that the regulations were never envisaged to have to control a project of this magnitude.’ According to the coalition excessive sediment can smother water plants and animals, prevent fish
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Peter Saulwick farewelled
from breathing by clogging their gills, reduce their ability to breed and increase death rates. After repeatedly raising its concerns with the state and federal environment ministers, and reporting the pollution to the Department of Environment and Conservation, the coalition took the step of calling for a stop work order over the construction site. ‘We suggest the existing project staff be redeployed toward implementing the best possible means of containing this situation. In the context of this $256 million project, the costs associated with these measures are relatively small.’ Mr Whitling told The Echo that he believes the RTA is breaking the conditions of its licence issued by the Department of Environment continued on page 2
Oils ain’t oils when FEHVA’s on the boil
Anna and Sammy say goodbye to their father Peter Saulwick at Saturday’s memorial service at the Byron Bay Surf Club. Together with the rest of Peter’s family, Anna and Sam released doves to farewell a much loved father, friend and partner. Peter Saulwick, long time operator of the Beach Café, died suddenly of a heart attack recently. Photo Jeff Dawson
Flood planning needs revision
It’s not every day that a parliamentary secretary gets a rousing, standing ‘implore’ to sing, however when it’s Shadow PS for the Arts Peter Garrett and he happens to have on stage two ex-Oil members, Rob Hirst and Jim Majinie, and the occasion is the opening of FEHVA at the Byron Bay Community Centre then the usual rules don’t apply. Photo Jeff ‘Greasy’ Dawson
Lesley Patterson The north of the shire can expect a flood of the seriousness of the June 30, 2005 event once every 50 years according to a major new report commissioned by Byron Shire Council. The June 30 storm caused major flooding, left Council with a $2 million damage bill and rang alarm bells among many about what changing weather patterns might hold in store for the Shire in the future. Council appointed consultants SMEC Australia to find out how often the Shire could expect major flooding on the scale of the June 30 event, and whether existing flood height and frequency information needed to be updated. Flood frequency estimates are usually expressed as Annual Recurrence Intervals
or ARIs. The 1 in 100 year event or 1:100 ARI is a standard benchmark used by councils in their planning decisions. SMEC’s report contains some unsettling information for residents in the north of the shire and will be discussed by Council at this week’s ordinary meeting. SMEC has calculated that the area along Marshall’s Creek from the Capricornia Canal to Billinudgel could experience a June 30 size flood every 50 years. It also concluded that current 1:100 year flood level estimates are not high enough and need to be revised upwards by around 200 mm. One of the major repercussions is that the flood levee at South Golden Beach is now 100mm
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