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Council urges DSE action over Basslink concernsWellington Shire Council’s Basslink Taskforce is urging the Department of Sustainability & Environment to actively pursue environmental concerns raised in relation to the Basslink project to ensure that they are satisfactorily addressed. By Wellington Shire Council - 6th February 2004 - Back to News The council is concerned to see that the conditions laid down by the State Government in approving the Basslink project are carried out and it established the taskforce last year to advise it in that process.
This taskforce comprises key, informed local people. It has sought reassurances over the economics of the initiative, the affect on tourism along the Wellington coast and the environmental impact of the scheme (including how underwater cabling might affect the behaviour of sea creatures such as sharks). Now it is expressing serious environmental concerns to the DSE regarding:
- the future widening of easements on stretches of public land where there is rare and endangered vegetation;
- a draft environmental monitoring program produced in July 2003 which has yet to be made available to the public;
- the lack of a species list for the Bass Strait corridor, which would make pre and post construction monitoring of the effects of cabling installation and operation possible.
Said taskforce chairman and Wellington Councillor Peter Garlick: "It’s a matter of record that the council and taskforce have had environmental worries about Basslink for some time. We are now asking that the DSE chase up on these latest issues as a matter of urgency and return with some comprehensive answers that we can pass on to a concerned local community."
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: news@gippsland.com
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