My Traveston Crossing Dam submission and alternate plan is highlighted on the menu bar. Some may wonder at the inclusion of the Stradbroke Island aquifer consideration. The Traveston Crossing Dam EIS glosses over the alternate water supplies that may be introduced instead of the said dam supply. The resource behind desalinated water is inexhaustible, in fact, much to our concern, is increasing. It is therefore of guaranteed supply, not subject to climate dependent water sourcing and associated ramifications and is located close to the major growth areas of Brisbane and the Gold Coast and between. The fact that desalination hardly rates more than a mention in the EIS, obscures the potential for desalination as an alternative source of supply to the Traveston Crossing Dam.The Stradbroke Island aquifer is under stress each time a drought period eventuates. It is submitted that this occurs naturally and can only be seriously exacerbated by water extraction for mainland export. Its inclusion, together with the target volumes anticipated from Stages 1 and 2 of the Traveston Crossing Dam is there to demonstrate that desalination can cope with replacing all three targets and then more for population expansion under an equivalent target such as the proposed Sydney desalination target alone. Further, Stradbroke Island has substantial access to bay or ocean intake and disposal outlets for large volumes of disposal waters. A criteria cited by the EIS as problematic. Again Stradbroke Island has ample crown lands for such an industry. A criteria (suitable land availability) cited by the EIS as problematic.

It is submitted that the EIS is substantially in breach of the Environmental Protection Act for the reasons stated in the submission and that the relevant arm of the Government regulating the Stradbroke Island aquifer extraction should be subjected to an independent monitoring body, with full regard to the dunal, and importantly the Island peripheral ecology as it relates to fresh water table dependency.