Ed, I am wanting to point out to Griffith councillor Dino Zappacosta, the Build More Dams committee and Bourke Shire Council if you think you can bull doze your way into the Clarence Valley and take 1000 gigalitres of water for the Murray-Darling River system you have definitely got a big fight on your hands. The plan you are resurrecting is over 30 years old however the fact you have had no community consultation with the people of the Clarence and the fact you think you have a right to access our water is down right gob smacking, plain rude and who the hell do you think you are? Our Clarence River is one of the last remaining wild rivers in NSW and hell will freeze over before our community will let you have one single drop. If you divert the Clarence River westward you will not only destroy our regions three greatest economic drivers, fishing, tourism and agriculture you will severely impact the replenishing of the Tweed, Gold Coast and Frazer Coast beaches. You take us on you take them on too. Earlier this year I invited world acclaimed Australian geologist Dr John Jackson up to the Clarence River Gorge to explain to me how if the Clarence River were dammed or diverted, how it would impact on the lower reaches of our region. He said “wetlands and fish habitat needed for the very foundation of our entire professional and recreational fishing industry would be destroyed. It has taken millions of years for the Clarence River to course its way through the mountains and valley’s and then wind its way down to Yamba and then out into the Pacific Ocean. Currents then take all this sand north and in the process has created Fraser and Moreton Bay Islands and the beaches of the Tweed and Gold Coast”. Yes the Clarence River floods almost biannually and thank God it does because during that process it scours out all the chemicals that have built up over time that have from local industrial and agricultural businesses. And finally, do you think the five Aboriginal Nations for which the Clarence River is their life blood would allow you to divert their water west, sorry but you are dreaming. The Murray Darling Basin is broken because of greed, a sense of entitlement and the inability for your community to take responsibility for compromising Mother Nature. We value what we have here in the Clarence River and Valley and I guarantee the 53,000 of us who call this place home would stand shoulder to shoulder to protect her. Debrah Novak, Yamba