Doubts over Mt Lofty Ranges strategy
ADELAIDE — The Mt Lofty Ranges, the hills face zone surrounding Adelaide and providing its water catchment, was the subject of a multimillion-dollar review begun in 1987 and completed in October. Attempts had been made to maintain this valuable hills area through preventing further development in regions adjoining existing titleholder land. These constraints were gradually becoming eroded through loopholes and cash incentives.
The Regional Strategy Plan for the ranges will now mean that each and every land title in the region will be assessed according to the specific development proposal and its ability to measure up to strict performance criteria. However, this will not prevent most of the existing vacant allotments (there are an estimated 23,611) being developed.
The new strategy will encourage more thought being given to site planning and house design. Septic tanks will be better and situated further from watercourses, houses will have to be at least 50 metres from third-order streams, and there will be stricter limits on the degree of slope on building sites.
The conflict between the Native Vegetation Council, which prohibits the clearance of land in the area, and the Country Fire Service, which demands clearance for fire safety and access around housing, has not been resolved.
If the new development regulations lead to an increase of 20,000 people, as predicted by the planners, they will have a significant impact.
Twenty thousand additional people and their associated roads, asphalt, hospitals, schools, supermarkets, pets and rubbish will add to stormwater. Stormwater is the main transporter of pollution in high rainfall areas; no amount of sewerage collection or septic tank cleaning can cure this. The South Australian Conservation Council thinks that this is unacceptable.
As far back as 1984, the Engineering and Water Supply Department stated in a confidential report that the number of allotments for development (both existing and potential) in the ranges was unacceptable. They demonstrated at that time that the Onkaparinga catchment, with a population around 23,000 in 1982, had an excessively high population density.
Public health risks associated with the consumption of chlorinated water and the implication of increasing dosages of copper sulfate are part of the bargain we strike with these increased levels of development in our catchments.
"I don't think anyone, seriously, can predict what the outcomes will be. Proof of the pudding will be drinking the water and paying for its purification treatment 10 years down the track", said Margaret Bolster, of the South Australian Conservation Council.
For further information, contact Margaret Bolster on (08) 390 1481, Rob Tanner (08) 339 2835 or Peter Dormer (08) 370 9151.