Help protect the Fitzroy River
Help protect the Fitzroy River
A proposal to extract 50 billion litres from the Fitzroy River for industrial agriculture, in an area proposed as a National Park is out for public comment this week. Send a message to the EPA and tell them this proposal is unacceptable.
UPDATE 22.09.17: the comment period has now closed, but you can still sign our petition here.
Every message counts and a personalised message is best.
TIPS FOR YOUR MESSAGE:
- This proposal should be assessed as a Proposal Unlikely to be Environmentally Acceptable for the following reasons:
- The Margaret River is an important tributary of the Fitzroy River and the irrigation project area is in the proposed Fitzroy River National Park area.
- The proposal contradicts the WA Government’s election commitment to protect the Fitzroy River and not allow the river or its tributaries to be dammed.
- The irrigation and damming could do irreversible damage to the river, which is National Heritage-listed and supports endangered species like the Freshwater Sawfish.
- The proposal could bring all the social, economic and environmental problems that have plagued the Murray-Darling Catchment to the Kimberley.
- One of the dams planned would be 40 billion litres - this is 6.5 times the annual water usage of Broome - an unsustainable amount.
- No studies have been undertaken or proposed on the flora and fauna that may be affected by the clearing of over 8,000 hectares of land, or the areas that would be affected by changes in the river.
- The company plans to take up to 4 times their annual entitlement during a big wet season – this would disrupt the life giving floods that keep the Fitzroy River and the Kimberley coast healthy.