The proposal by the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) to raise the height of the Tallowa dam, in the state of New South Wales, Austrailia, by 7m has met with strong opposition from people living in the Shoalhaven area.
Opponents to the plan say the proposed higher reservoir will threaten fishing and tourism interests as well as worsen flooding in the Kangaroo valley and further downstream at Nowra.
The raised dam will flood 440ha of land, including 110ha of Morton National Park and Ettrema Wilderness. To compensate for this, SCA proposes the transfer of 110ha of land to the National Parks and Wildlife service to be added to Morton National Park, and would also transfer 30,000ha of land in the Upper Nepean catchment.
SCA says the raising will result in increasing the capacity of the reservoir by about 70B litres. The dam stores water to supply Sydney and Illawarra during drought.