UPDATE ON SHANNON CREEK

After three years of calling for North Coast Water to undertake a comprehensive survey of the Shannon Creek dam site with a comprehensive Species Impact Statement, we finally have a document that confirms what many of us have known for years, the Shannon Creek is a truly remarkable ecosystem.

The SIS describes no less than 13 flora communities, five of which are listed, or expected to be listed, as Endangered. The 5,000 hectare site, which includes the Chambigne Nature Reserve contains a variety of habitats from dry rainforest to coastal freshwater wetland. These habitats are known to support:

• 7 Endangered plant species,
• 5 Vulnerable plant species, and
• 7 RoTAP plant species (Rare or threatened Australian Plants)(3 nominated as endangered)
• 10 threatened bird species
• 24 threatened mammal species
• 2 threatened snakes, and
• 2 threatened frogs.

This is a far cry from the single plant species and 20 fauna described in the EIS that was published in 1999, and there is still a very real chance that further animals and plants will be found there in the future.

Unfortunately the SIS fails to put forward any plan to save any of the thousand threatened trees, shrubs and herbs that will be destroyed in the process of building this dam. In fact the entire document is designed to justify this destruction and avoid any responsibility.

The SIS not only reveals the beauty of Shannon Creek, but also drops the bombshell that this wonderfully biodiverse ecosystem is now under a death sentence.

This comes with the news that a particularly nasty die-back causing fungus, known as Phytophthora cinnamomi, has been identified at the site.

Because the fungus is especially destructive to sandstone plant communities, the Friends of Shannon Creek Action Group raised concerns last year when calling for safeguards and checks to be put in place to ensure the pathogen was not introduced with some of the thousands of truck loads rock and sand that is to be carted into the site.

Only in November last year, we were informed by the same consultant responsible for this SIS, that the pathogen was unlikely to be a problem because it had never been identified in the area before.

Governments, both State and Federal, have recognised the threat by declaring the fungus a Key Threatening Process. It is known to be spread by earth-moving activities and vehicle movements. It is also spread large distances in storm water where the spores swim towards their target in soil moisture.

The discovery of the pathogen on NCW's land, just a month after we had been told it was unlikely to occur, is devastating, but where has it come from? North Coast Water are frantically attempting to distance themselves with continuous claims in the SIS that the pathogen was present prior to construction of the Regional Water Supply Project. However, there is no current sign of die-back, and the SIS attempts to explain this by saying:

• that local flora may be immune. The area, however, contains numerous species that are known to be susceptible,
• that summer rains experienced on the North Coast offset the effects of die-back. This too is not supported by the fact that the pathogen requires warm, damp conditions to become fully active.
• That perhaps the susceptible plant species have already died out years ago. As already stated there are numerous susceptible species still growing healthily at Shannon Creek. There is another scenario put forward in the Management Plan prepared for the site, and that is the pathogen has only recently been introduced and, supported by the current dry weather conditions, has yet to become active. Although mentioning this possibility, the SIS ignores it and continues to push the fact that the fungus was present before construction of the site began. So let us look at some facts.
• As stated earlier, there is no current sign of die-back.
• There were no samples that tested positive to the pathogen found along either of the two access roads, suggesting the pathogen is contained on site.
• Although stating that construction of the project has yet to begin, considerable work has already been undertaken, including creation of some 3.5km of bush tracks; major earth-moving for geotechnical investigations across the entire Shannon Creek valley, and the construction of a two hectare stock-pile site on the Black Swamp Property with the upgrading of some 2.5km of road to access the stockpile. Much of the equipment used in these activities has come from outside the region, as were some 80 truck loads of pipes for stockpiling.
• Since North Coast Water declared Shannon Creek as the preferred site, the property has swarmed with surveyors, ecologists, engineers, anthropologists, geologists and their own employees. These contractors have come from as far afield as Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and all point in between. Convoys of as many as 6 vehicles at a time have been observed entering the property.
• The most infected site, 8 of the 11 positive samples tested, appears to be directly down-slope from the stockpile site, which has been constructed to drain directly onto the access track into Black Swamp, just 500 metres away.

  All the evidence points to NCW's activities contaminating the site, and possibly the entire valley will follow.

  So where to from here? That is a question the Plan of Management attempts to answer with a plethora of impractical, and in some cases, unworkable solutions which will, so is the claim, contain the outbreak.

  Both State and Federal Departments of Environment have been informed but have yet to respond to our call for an immediate lock-down of the site until an acceptable plan is formulated.

  We will keep you informed.

  -John Edwards