Never before has the extraction of 45 billion litres of water been attempted on an aquifer with the geological characteristics that exist at Kangaloon with so little scientific study.

The Upper Nepean Groundwater Community Reference Group (the CRG) was appointed by the NSW Minister for the Environment, Mr. Bob Debus to represent the views of the local area in considering the proposal to construct a bore field in the Upper Nepean River Catchment area, (known as the Kangaloon Aquifer).

This group met and reviewed all the technical papers made available by the Sydney Catchment Authority. In the end, they concluded that the proposal ought not go ahead.  

They said: “The proposal to pump high quality drinking water from the Kangaloon Aquifer for general residential and industrial use in Sydney and the Illawarra is inequitable to present and future generations of this community and does not follow ecologically sustainable development principles.”

They went further, to say: “The community feels that this project has been rushed, and the full implications of development cannot be ascertained in the short timeframe that investigations have occurred. A five-year moratorium on development would enable adequate data input, improved modelling outcomes and more detailed ecosystem studies.”

So, in effect, a well qualified and experienced group of people who were selected by the SCA as being representative of the local Southern Highland community considered the details of the SCA’s proposal, and rejected it. And they said that the SCA ought to allow five years of environmental study, in conjunction with extensive testing, to see if the bore field proposal would not affect the local community, and the physical environment.  

The text of the CRG report has been published on the SCA’s website, but it is for all intents and purposes it is hidden and inaccessible, being found on Pages 76 to 88 of a large (106 page) .pdf file. This document has been re-published on a private website, in a conveniently accessible manner. Just click on the hot link below:

http://ungcrg-report.blogspot.com/2006/11/crg-report.html

  It has come to the attention of the members of the CRG that the NSW Government has dismissed their Report , and is pressing ahead with the bore field proposal, to pump from the Kangaloon Aquifer, contrary to advice from their own Environmental Consultants, and independent experts who reviewed various technical papers. And contrary to the advice of the CRG.