Page 3456 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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MR KAINE: I understand that Mr Rodney Falconer of the Conservation Council of the South-East Region and Canberra has expressed some concern about a report of pollution and a threat to safety arising from a release of water which occurred yesterday morning. The matter is one which primarily involves New South Wales authorities and is of concern to us only in terms of the possible ramifications of a flow of water into the Molonglo and into our system.
My advice, Mr Speaker, is that the dam from which the water was released is a small dam supplying water to Captains Flat at the head of the Molonglo River. The New South Wales Public Works Department is carrying out works to upgrade the capacity of the spillway, for dam safety reasons, to protect the residents of Captains Flat, so it is actually drinking water that was released. It was released by the Yarrowlumla Shire Council on the request of the New South Wales Public Works Department to allow a survey of the upstream face of the dam to be undertaken.
The quantity of water released was significant in Captains Flat and caused the river to rise about one metre at that point, but still within the river banks. The quantity of water was monitored by the flood warning station maintained by ACT Electricity and Water. The monitoring station detected about 60 megalitres of flow but the next station at Carwoola detected only a slight rise in the level as a result of the release. In other words, it presented no danger to the ACT whatsoever and since it was drinking water there is no question of pollution. There seems to have been some implication that this was contaminated water - - -
Ms Follett: It was from Captains Flat.
MR KAINE: It came out of their drinking water supply. It is not polluted. It came out of their drinking water dam.
Any implication that the water was polluted in some fashion is totally incorrect and I would think that the members opposite might want to damp down public concern rather than increase it by sheer speculation. The water came out of the dam that provides Captains Flat's drinking water. It was a very small quantity in terms of the effect that it had on the level of the Molonglo River by the time it reached Canberra.
Kingston Foreshore Area
MR STEVENSON: My question is to the Chief Minister. Last year, on 27 July, the then Chief Minister, Ms Follett, moved a motion for the Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Infrastructure to review potential development options for the Kingston foreshore area and to give special attention to "(a) the opportunity of creating a distinctive tourist focal point based on the historic
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