Good to see that ACT Greens are ensuring that Canberrans are not duped by ACTEW’s Cotter dam enlargement cost blow-out.
From the ABC news website: ‘The cost of enlarging the dam to 77 gigalitres was first estimated to cost $120 million in 2005. But in September Canberra’s water authority ACTEW announced the price tag would be $363 million. ACTEW wants to increase household water bills by about $100 a year to pay for it. Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury says they will table a motion in the Legislative Assembly next week to have the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) review the cost of the dam. Mr Rattenbury says if the ICRC decides the price is too high it can stop ACTEW from passing on the full cost to consumers. ‘That will put significant pressure on ACTEW to rework the costings,” he said’.
Nice work Shane et al; the dam enlargement is obviously much-needed, but I’m also glad somebody is ensuring that we get good value for money.
The dam was always going to cost around $350m. Even back in 2005. The private industry partners were so concerned about the ACT Governments refusal to accept reality that they nearly walked away from the project.
Rattenbury’s stunt is just another desperate attempt at relevance.
We’re all going to pay the full price of the dam one way or another – either equitably through increase in water costs across all households or through some other additional tax, fee or levy dreamt up by StanDOPE and his pathetic cronies.
All three of Canberra’s dams are on the Cotter River – I think there’s a problem of supply with this setup.
Presently, the headwaters of our largest river, the Murrumbidgee, are diverted into the Snowy scheme by Tantangarra Dam, and for those who have never been there for a look, not one drop of water comes down the river to us. Sadly, the mighty Snowy Scheme is coming to the end of its life – another victim of global warming.
I say lets blow up Tantangarra Dam and get our water back! It’s our water, not Victoria’s!!! We can then pick it up at the existing Cotter Pumping Station because that’s where gravity will take it. Total cost to the tax payer? Less than $100k.
another victim of global warming
Of course, it has nothing to do with damming the river…