FUTURE Hunter populations are highly unlikely to need the capacity of the proposed 450-megalitre Tillegra Dam, an independent study of the project has said.
The Wilderness Society-commissioned study produced by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, will be issued in Newcastle today.
Study author and sustainability expert Stuart White found the region's present water supply had been shown to already have high levels of drought security.
"Hunter Water estimates that there is only a one in a million chance of supplies falling to critical levels in any given year," Professor White said.
"This means that if the Tillegra Dam is being built for drought security, it is being built for an event that is predicted to occur only once in a million years."
The finding is at odds with Hunter Water, which has argued the dam is needed to droughtproof the region from the effects of climate change over coming decades.
The study said Hunter residents should have been asked whether they wanted the dam.
Hunter Water managing director Kevin Young said the one in a million figure had been taken out of context of board papers.
Mr Young said the community was given the opportunity to comment on the independent pricing regulator's review of water prices and the H250 plan but only 20 submission were received on the latter.
Email a friend