Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Another Australian environmental impact statement rendered meaningless by 5 week comment period

The owner of land near the proposed Wyaralong dam south-west of Brisbane says the Government has not given people enough time to comment on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project.

Public comment on the EIS for the $333 million dam, to be built near Beaudesert, closes on December 12.

Prue Firth, whose grandfather settled in the region more than 100 years ago, says a lot of people in the area do not have internet access and cannot afford hard copies of the report.

"It's totally unrealistic to expect people to be able to digest this and respond in the five-week period that we have been given," she said.

(This exact EIS tactic was repeated a few weeks ago with the Traveston Dam: Australian dam proponents try an end run around environmental impact statement )

Here is the full article.