Tillegra memo shows dam decision was just politics

Dr Kaye said: "The 28 September 2006 memo from Hunter Water Managing Director Kevin Young to senior staff in the then Water Minister David Campbell's office has finally been dragged into the public domain.
 
"The memo expressed no preference for a $250 million dam at Tillegra  near Dungog. It was just one of the four projects 'that [were] worthy of consideration'.
 
"In fact, only one of the projects, bigger pumps at Balickera Pumping Station, was under 'active consideration'.
 
"Forty five days later, on November 13, Premier Morris Iemma and his Water Minister David Campbell announced the dam with a $342 million price tag.
 
"In that crucial period, there was no planning document, study or other analysis indicating the superiority of Tillegra.
 
"There was no study showing any need for a new supply project of this magnitude or cost.
 
"The conclusion is inescapable.
 
"Tillegra was then, and remains to this day, a political decision.
 
"If the announcement of Tillegra had been anything other than a political manoeuvre to deflect attention from the political troubles of the Iemma government, there would have been a massive paper trail of studies.
 
"No such trail exists.
 
"Hunter Water and the Rees government have left un-explained the remarkable switch from Tillegra dam being the second worst water supply option to the must-have project to stop the region running out of water.
 
"Hunter residents are now facing a $477 million bill for a dam they neither need nor want," Dr Kaye said.
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455