HUNTER Water has been accused of bullying and using compulsory acquisition laws as a "big stick" to force people off their land to make way for the $477 million Tillegra Dam.
Three residents lodged a complaint with the NSW Ombudsman this week claiming Hunter Water pressured, and was still pressuring, residents to sell despite the fact that the dam had not been approved.
Philippa Smith, Nikki Coleman and Jim Moore claim Hunter Water acted outside the code of conduct befitting a state-owned corporation.
A Hunter Water spokesman described the company's acquisition policy as "fair and just".
"Hunter Water has always maintained and clearly stated that a negotiated outcome is favoured ahead of compulsory acquisition," the spokesman said.
The three complainants belong to families that have farmed the Williams Valley, north-west of Dungog, on the Williams River for generations.
Ms Coleman and Mr Moore own two of the remaining five of 42 properties Hunter Water needs for the 450,000-megalitre dam.
Ms Smith sold her property in 2007, but described yesterday her treatment by Hunter Water employees as "disgusting".
The 61-year-old, a descendant of Edwin Smith who settled in the Williams Valley in 1868, said there was "not a day that goes by that it [the land sale] doesn't trouble me".
Ms Smith said she was pressured into the sale of her property, partially due to the fear of being denied solatium, or compensation for the non-financial disadvantage of having to move.
"Everything was approached in such a rush, they told us we would have no negotiation powers unless we moved quickly and kept threatening compulsory acquisition," she said.
"It was horrendous and extremely stressful for everyone involved."
The three complainants claim many residents sold because they thought they had "no choice" and did not properly understand their legal rights.
Hunter Water's spokesman said this week that compulsory acquisition would take place only after the dam was approved and failing a negotiated settlement.
But in a letter addressed to Ms Coleman in December 2006, Hunter Water's manager of corporate services Peter Leonard-England said that "in the event that Hunter Water is unable to agree to a mutually acceptable outcome over the next 12 months, then the formal compulsory acquisition process may be required in order to ensure the construction phase of the project can proceed".
Ms Coleman, who has so far refused to sell her 10-hectare property that houses a memorial to her mother, described the tactics used to get residents to sell quickly as "underhanded".
"They told us all that we had 12 months to sell or they would invoke compulsory acquisition," she said.
"That was three years ago and still nothing has happened. They wanted people to sell really quickly and many people were scared into it, there is no doubt about that, and it is not right."
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