INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOGGING OF THIS SCALE PRESENTS AN ELEVATED RISK OF FIRE IN A TIME OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Projects that create known risks to the environment, local lives and properties is culpable negligence. Yet that’s exactly what UPC-TasNetworks transmission line does to the Loongana Valley.
UPC-TasNetworks proposed 60-90m-wide easement route cuts through our entire valley from west to east replacing native forest and timber plantations with permanently cleared land – over 90 football fields in just the valley section alone. With an already changing, drying climate this will further dry out the landscape and adjacent wet forests, which would otherwise protect our community from a dangerous fire. Every resident and property will be at direct risk.
Loongana has one narrow, winding, unsealed road in and out, through forest, over bridges with wooden foundations, and we have no mobile reception or fire brigade, and to date we have no TFS-approved Safe Place of Last Resort. Transmission lines should not go through forests, and certainly not through forest so close to a community. TasNetworks have designed a route that will be a clear and present danger for us all, ensuring that our only escape route from fire will be under the line itself. One of the most serious consequences of this are Flashovers. Flashovers occur when thick smoke and/or flame itself forms a conductive pathway between powerline and the surrounds. The potential for forming fires ahead of the main front will have our community trapped very quickly.
Currently this proposed transmission route amounts to culpable negligence. Does proceeding with these known risks leave our publically owned Tasnetworks vulnerable to a class action?
Currently this proposed transmission route amounts to culpable negligence. Does proceeding with these known risks leave our publically owned Tasnetworks vulnerable to a class action?
"We’ve had nearly a year of “community consultation”, and come to the conclusion that the UPC-TasNetworks-Marinus Project have spent more time and money on Melbourne-based PR consultants to do box ticking in-order to fast-track an unacceptable route than actual fact-based research on all possible routes before the cheapest one is selected." |
Worse, the Valley regularly experiences high winds as measured on the Beaufort Scale and the easements will channel and intensify these strong winds through our community. A drier landscape, with more dry fuel load, and a wind tunnel running west to east, increases the risk of faster-moving fires, impacting residents before they can escape.
A severe fire could destroy one of the Central Coast’s few remaining areas of high bio-diversity in an increasingly fragmented landscape.
If the proposed route goes ahead, and these risks are assessed by insurance companies, local residents in and near the valley may be unable to find affordable insurance cover, if at all. Resulting property devaluations will hurt locals and communities, a number of whom run tourist businesses.
One of the local creeks providing drinking water
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Some residents derive their water from springs, which may be contaminated by the herbicides required to keep the power line clear. Residents will have to pay for water testing, and even find new sources of drinking water. |
All proposed tourism business initiatives in the Valley are on hold. If the transmission line goes ahead, there will be less reason for visitors to come, and greater risk for Valley residents in providing for them.
Loongana residents have been forced to bear the burden of uncertainty, misinformation, and potential costs imposed upon us – all for offshore investors and Mainland electricity consumers. This has caused anxiety and distress amongst community, who are facing risks to their livelihoods, their amenity, and their work in preserving refuges and links for flora and fauna between the Loongana Range, the Black Bluff and the Leven Canyon.
Our community should not be asked to bear this burden. We are being forced to bear the costs of UPC-TasNetworks cheapest transmission option, before other routes are thoroughly and transparently explored.
