Mayor appeals for calm in water fight
TWEED Mayor Katie Milne has pleaded with anti-water mining activists to calm down and let the council deal with businesses allegedly breaching development conditions.
The Mayor was responding to protests from activists who blocked trucks carting water from one business, Mount Warning Spring Water, at Uki to bottlers on Saturday.
The weekend protest followed a turbulent month for both sides in the water extraction fight.
The business did not respond to Bulletin approaches for comment.
There are 11 active and pending water mining sites across the Tweed Shire.
A former NSW Labor MP and minister, Jack Hallam, had a water mining business approved by council this month.
The Karlos family, who have been extracting water from a Urliup property for 13 years, had an application to use bigger trucks thrown out by the Land and Environment Court on Wednesday last week.
The family has vowed to lodge a new application.
Outspoken opponent and Tweed Water Mining Alliance spokesman Jeremy Tager said it was a critical time.
“Our view is the Hallam decision opened the doors and we are going to be flooded with new applications with extensions,” he said. “Each one of these has to be fought.”
Cr Milne said the council was trying to crack down on alleged breaches but needed more time.
Protesters on Saturday stopped two trucks they believed were breaching conditions, saying they believed the trucks were only permitted to cart water from the properties on week days. But the Bulletin found the development approval conditions for Mount Warning Spring Water stated: “Daily truck movements, bottled and bulk water, are limited to a maximum of 12 trips per weekday and eight trips per day on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.”
Cr Milne said while many in the community wanted the council to take immediate compliance action, there were legal and statutory processes that needed to be followed.
“We are attempting to establish a legally firm and fiscally responsible basis for any required compliance actions,” Cr Milne said.
“I want to reassure the community that we are taking their concerns about truck movements and extraction quantities very seriously and we are working through the issues.”
Cr Milne said the council was investigating alleged unauthorised activity at three approved water mines. In two cases, the council said the owners were going to file applications to legitimise what they were doing.
But Mr Tager said that was not good enough.
“Our view is no, they shouldn’t be allowed to do that and should be shut down,” he said.