SEQWATER staff have copped a roasting from Capalaba residents, annoyed at the authority’s announcement that the Leslie Harrison Dam gates will not be refitted.
The gates were removed in 2015 for safety inspections but the Redlands community – which paid for the dam – was only informed that they would be left off permanently on Wednesday.
It means the dam will remain at the lower level at which it was built in 1968.
Dam neighbour and former deputy premier Jim Elder told told an Seqwater-organised community forum at the Capalaba Sports Club on Wednesday night that the decision not to refit the gates was purely economic.
Mr Elder said he was concerned about environmental conditions, the prospects for koalas and other wildlife and that Seqwater had done no baseline studies on these issues.
Seqwater spokesman Mike Foster said the environmental condition of the dam surrounds and the wildlife corridor that it helped form were of primary interest to the organisation.
Seqwater was also attacked by residents about water condition and that the dam would not be opened to recreational use given it would have little impact on water quality compared with the horses and cattle which were defecating and urinating as they grazed to its edge.
“It’s a stinking, dirty mess,” one resident said.
Mr Foster said the decision was taken on scientific advice that the dam was not suitable for recreational use although it was a concern that residents reported “bunches” of stock grazing in the area.
Another resident challenged the view that there were many domestic animals grazing at the dam and that there was plenty of wildlife.
Cr Paul Gleeson told the meeting it was a disgrace that Seqwater had collected $130 million over five years in bulk water charges yet would not spend $18 million to restore the gates.
Cr Gleeson said he could see this becoming a major political issue in the looming state election.
He said Capalaba MP Don Brown was happy for the gates not to go back on which was a shame.
Bowman MP Andrew Laming, who was not at the meeting, said the Seqwater decision showed there had been an inadequate assessment of the cost benefit of dam upgrades.
He said a former state Labor government compulsorily acquired the dam for a fraction of its value.
“Then Seqwater ate into our household budgets, increasing bulk water charges 60 per cent in the last four years,” he said. “...Now finally they have shot out incomplete data on dam management, quoting costs but not reporting any benefit data.”
Mr Brown, who also was not at the meeting, said it was clear Mr Laming and Cr Gleeson wanted all Redlanders to pay more for their water “just so a couple of millionaire mansions can have slightly better views”.
He said the dam had never been recreational and he looked forward to the jobs that would be generated from its $24 million upgrade.
Seqwater chief executive Jim Pruss said modelling showed the additional water that the $18 million refitting of the gates would supply was not needed and that the lowered dam level would not affect water security.