Community Consultation on the Draft EIS for the Enlarged Cotter Dam
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Appendix N Community feedback – community consultation on the Draft EIS for the enlarged Cotter Dam Environmental impact statement February 2009 Community Feedback Community Consultation on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Enlarged Cotter Dam February 2009 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 1 INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 Background 3 1.2 Enlarged Cotter Dam project 3 1.3 Community consultation program 3 2 CONSULTATION FRAMEWORK 5 2.1 Purpose 5 2.2 Statutory Consultation 5 2.3 Consultation context 6 3 CONSULTATION STRATEGY 7 3.2 Stakeholder groups 7 3.3 Consultation activities 8 3.4 Complementary consultation 9 3.5 Promotion and advertising 10 3.6 Potential audience 11 4 DELIVERY OF THE CONSULTATION PROGRAM 13 4.1 Implementation of consultation activities 13 4.2 Participation in consultation activities 15 4.3 Data capture 15 5 KEY ISSUES AND CONCERNS 16 5.1 Government agency consultation 21 5.2 Non-government organisations 21 5.3 General Public 23 5.4 Submissions received by ACTPLA 23 6 CONCLUSION 24 6.1 Consideration of consultation outcomes 24 6.2 Future opportunities for the community to comment 24 Appendix A Organisations and community groups contacted Appendix B Promotional examples Appendix C National Capital Planning Authority letter of support Appendix D Register of comments made and ACTEW’s response Executive summary The Enlarged Cotter Dam is an important project in ACTEW’s long term plan to ensure a secure and sustainable water supply for the ACT and region. The enlargement of the Cotter Dam has been the subject of discussion and planning by ACTEW and the ACT Government for many years and therefore community discussion and associated media attention has extended over a long period. It is important that the community continue to be engaged throughout this project including the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This document details the stakeholder and community engagement activities undertaken during the consultation on the draft EIS for the Enlarged Cotter Dam and reports on the outcomes of the community consultation. This program complemented the ACT Planning and Land Authority’s (ACTPLA) formal public notification of the Draft EIS. Consultation The Cotter Dam holds particular significance in the Canberra community as a well-loved recreation area and as such plans to enlarge the reservoir have the potential to impact on the local community, raising questions that relate not only to the construction project and associated water security, but also to the possible impacts on the Cotter recreation area. Building on a long term commitment by ACTEW to involve the broader community and key stakeholders in the planning stages to secure a future water supply for Canberra, the preparation of the EIS included a detailed community consultation program. Further to the formal statutory requirements to display the draft EIS for public comment (to ‘publicly notify’), ACTEW sought to draw the community’s attention to the release of the document and encourage community feedback and contribution to the process of preparing the final EIS. This was promoted through a substantial media campaign and a range of community presentations and information sessions. While there were 47 specific representations made during the consultation period, through the extensive media and promotion campaign, it is estimated that a potential audience in excess of 330,000 was made aware of the project and the opportunity to comment, with over 200 people participating in a presentation, attending a community information session on the draft EIS or calling the information hotline. Representations made during the consultation period covered a wide variety of issues, the most common issues raised were: • impact on Cotter Road; in particular traffic impacts and possible road closures during construction • impact on equestrian communities; in terms of access to relevant properties, behavior of traffic and large trucks during construction • impact on endangered fish species; while the investment in fish protection strategies, including the establishment of artificial fish habitats was acknowledged, there is concern about the options that exist if the fish protection strategies don’t work • terrestrial biodiversity; suggestions of additional areas of study or analysis. • construction impacts and processes; including comments about the establishment and on-going monitoring of work method statements, construction environmental management plans and dam safety matters; In addition to the above regular issues, other comments included consideration of planning alternatives to enlarging the Cotter Dam; consultation; bushfire management; noise, odour or dust impacts; water quality, heritage, water restrictions and greenhouse offsets. COMMUNITY FEEDBACK COMMUNITY CONSULTATION ON THE ENLARGED COTTER DAM DRAFT ENV RONMENTAL MPACT STATEMENT 1 While there were several representations during the consultation period expressing opposition to the Enlarged Cotter Dam project, the majority of comments were supportive. Most of the feedback received dealt with the process or nature of construction of the project. All representations received during the consultation period has been responded to and details of any amendments or clarification made in preparation of the final EIS are provided in Appendix D to this report. Consultation commitment The consultation undertaken during the preparation of the EIS forms part of an ongoing community engagement program that will continue throughout the life of the project. If the project proceeds, the continuing community engagement program will feature regular community updates through the ACTEW website, media and newsletters. The establishment of viewing platforms and information signage in the completed Cotter area is also being investigated. Community groups that have expressed a particular interest in the project, including recreational groups, local residents of Cotter Road and professional or industry groups will be encouraged to play an ongoing part in the successful construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam. Planning pathway The EIS will form an attachment to the development application (DA) that will be submitted by ACTEW to ACTPLA as part of the next phase of planning approvals. This development application will also be available for public comment as required by the ACT Planning and Development ACT 2007. ACTEW will be encouraging community groups and key stakeholders to provide further comment on the project at this stage. WATER SECURITY – MAJOR PROJECTS 2 NOVEMBER 2008 1 Introduction 1.1 Background One of the key challenges for the ACT and region in the short, medium and long term is to build additional water supply assets that can cope with reduced average inflow into the reservoirs and longer, more frequent droughts, without having to impose higher level water restrictions for extended periods. The enlargement of the Cotter Reservoir will deliver a more secure water supply for Canberra and Region and was chosen as a high priority because of its ability to deliver economic benefit to the community, reliability of water supply and low environmental impacts. The decision to proceed with the Enlarged Cotter Dam as a priority is based on extensive work over many years including: • The ACT Government water resources strategy Think water, act water – a strategy for sustainable water resources management on 28 April 2004. • The detailed assessment and evaluation of environmental, social, economic and technical issues of the options as part of ACTEW’s 2004 Future Water Options project • A review of the water supply options in 2007; the results of which are detailed in Water security for the ACT and region – Recommendations to the ACT Government, July 2007 A complete discussion of the rationale for proceeding with the Enlarged Cotter Dam Project is included in the Environmental Impact Statement. 1.2 Enlarged Cotter Dam project The EIS was prepared to assess the impacts associated with the proposed Enlarged Cotter Dam and is an important statutory requirement in the process of gaining approval for the project. The EIS provides an overview of the project, assesses potential impacts, discusses the significant impacts and proposes mitigation strategies to address them. The existing Cotter Dam lies on the Cotter River in the Lower Cotter Catchment approximately 18 kilometres (km) due west of Canberra. It is just upstream of the confluence of the Cotter, Paddys and Murrumbidgee rivers, near the Cotter Avenue, Cotter Bend and Casuarina Sands recreation areas, Cotter Campground and Cotter Pumping Station. The new dam will be constructed approximately 125 metres (m) downstream of the existing dam. The project comprises a main dam with two adjacent earth rockfill saddle dams. The new dam will be approximately 80m high and the adjacent saddle dams will be built to approximate heights of 11m and 16m. The storage capacity will increase from approximately 4 gigalitres (GL) to 80GL. Subject to approval, construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam is planned to commence in spring of 2009, with completion expected in 2011. Construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam is being delivered through an alliance framework by ACTEW’s Water Security - Major Projects team. 1.3 Community consultation program The Community Engagement and Stakeholder Management Plan for the Enlarged Cotter Dam forms part of a hierarchy of community engagement plans and activities that help to inform the community about projects across the Water Security – Major Projects