THE Wingecarribee Mayor has referred to Goulburn-Mulwaree Council as "arrogant" after it was revealed that water from the Highlands Source Project would be sold to third parties.
Cr Ken Halstead said the council agreed to the project on the basis that it would drought-proof the City of Goulburn and enable them to lift Level 5 water restrictions.
"At no point did we agree that the water taken from our Shire be used for anything but emergency relief. It was intended to be used by the residents of Goulburn only," he said.
"It appears to me that supplying non-potable water to third parties on a regular basis would diminish the drought security of Goulburn which is in total contrast to what the scheme was initially designed to secure."
He also wanted to make it clear that the raw water being piped to Goulburn was managed by the Sydney Catchment Authority and that neither the council nor ratepayers had contributed financially to this project.
"For detractors to suggest otherwise is not only misleading but cheap political point scoring," he said.
"In any event, I wonder what the attitude of the Federal Government would be to this proposal, having regard to the fact that it provided $20 million in funding for the purpose of securing the water supply for the residents of the City of Goulburn."
The $50 million Highlands Source Project was funded in part by the NSW Office of Water ($20 million), the Federal Government ($20 milllion) and Goulburn Mulwaree Council ($10 million).
All decisions on the operation of the scheme, including the amount of water drawn from the Wingecarribee Dam, were controlled by the NSW State Government.
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