THE presentation of Eurobodalla Shire Council’s proposed Coastal Zone Management Plan on Thursday at the Narooma Golf Club resulted in a range of views being expressed.
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The Eurobodalla Coastal Zone Management Plan will set out proposed actions to manage risks associated with coastal hazards that affect development, infrastructure, public access and the coastal environment.
When adopted, the plan will replace the Interim Coastal Hazards Adaptation Code that is currently used by council to assess development proposals in areas potentially at risk from coastal hazards.
The developer of the Shearwater Apartments on the Narooma Flat, Harvey Ball was there to listen and give his input.
“The sea rise issue the meeting was an outline of the bureaucratic way forward which will take time and cost the ratepayers of the shire,” Mr Ball said.
“I pressed home the need for council to keep as their focal point both the rates and preservation of value of property, while encouraging goodwill from all sides so as to help the process address the issues if the science proves correct, rather than ratepayers to attack and council to defend.
“I still maintain that Narooma itself is easily fixed by creating ‘Lake Wagonga’ and closing the sea entrance.
“And I confirmed that I would do all the works of achieving that and producing sporting fields, picnic areas, camping areas and other amenities at no cost to the council or ratepayers provided I received in lieu of the cost the substantial amount of land recovered by this vision, which ultimately would be for the towns future growth and prosperity.
“It could be a win-win without cost to ratepayers, but no-one has seemed terribly interested in this to date.”
Climate skeptic questions plan
Dalmeny resident and executive member of the NSW Coastal Alliance, Ian Hitchcock also attended and had a different take on the issue.
He said it was a “bombshell” that estuary dwellers were excluded from the Eurobodalla Coastal Zone Management Plan.
“In the Eurobodalla, every property, or part thereof, within 100 metres of a high tide mark and every property under 5 metres AHD (Australian Height Datum), was categorised “at risk” from sea level rise,” he wrote in his letter to the editor.
“At 5 metres AHD, the Narooma Flat is about three and a half metres under water.
“People buying or selling property within the “investigation zones” soon found out that there was a sea level rise warning on one of the council certificates.
“Our council refused to change its policy and told the people that this was only an “interim” policy. The investigation areas would be narrowed down when the real “at risk” properties were identified in the preparation of the Coastal Zone Management Plan.”
Mr Hitchcock writes that the “bombshell” is council recently reduced the investigation zone to 50 metres inland and 4 metres AHD, but this still puts the Narooma Flat two and a half metres under water.
“Far too many unaffected properties are included in the unrealistic danger zone.”
He concludes that while he supports the need for an all-inclusive plan, “I do not agree with the way the current coastal zone management plan is being prepared.”
“This Council should know that a successful CZMP must be prepared in close consultation with the people most affected by it, and seriously consider the social and economic effects of the policy on these people, and the shire as a whole. There needs to be real community representation on the development team and the advisory bodies.”
Mr Hitchcock’s letter appears on today’s Letters Page here
Tide watcher gets mystery tide explanation
Narooma ‘tide-watcher’ Greg Watts was also at the meeting and had a riddle of an unusual tide event solved.
In early May, he and others were surprised by the exceedingly high tides.
The local tide charts were forecasting high tides of a moderate 1.3 metres, but they observed ‘king’ tides of around 2 metres.
The consultant preparing the council's coastal management plan, Pam Dean-Jones, presented information on a Coastal Trapped Wave event that had recently been observed running up the East Coast.
Greg Watts explained it this way:
“Imagine you are sitting in a bath and you push water away from you. The bath water, constrained by the walls of the bath, forms a wave that travels to the end of the bath before dissipating.
“For the Coastal Trapped Wave, the sides of the ‘bath’ are the coastline and the north-south flowing East Australian Current (EAC), a kilometre or two offshore. The wave is created down in Bass Strait.
“Southerly changes passing through the Strait create surges of ocean water, continuing 2-3 days after the front has passed.
“The surge flow is caught between the EAC and the continent and just like in the bath, is forced up the coast.
“After the forcing ceases the wave continues to travel forward, the surface moving faster than water dragging on the continental shelf below. The wave can reach as far up the coast as Queensland before it finally dissipates.
“The wave created by this surge has a height of only 40 cm but amazingly a wavelength of 2000 kilometres - or 3-6 days between wave ‘peaks’.
“In effect it is a tidal surge of 3-6 days duration. Other phenonema such as tides and cyclonic weather conditions - the East Coast Lows that we have recently been experiencing - can exacerbate the rise in tides caused by the Coastal Trapped Wave.”
Read the consultant and Greg Watt's entire explanation here
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