Water waste of resources: Hydrogen is fine but leave our drinking water alone

Soon Taswater will be explaining how to save water again, or maybe still.

e.g. Fill a glass with water to clean your teeth.

My response to that one is bugger off!

Wash your car on the lawn or nature strip; put a bit of water in the sink to wash spuds instead of letting it run. I've always done that.

All the while, the scheming business is working out how to take our water for green hydrogen. This plan takes thousands of litres.

If they want water then build a desalination plant and leave our clean drinking water alone.

I expect they're all driving around in electric vehicles hoping the hydrogen is available before we run out of power.

Ron Baines, Kings Meadows

SHAME on the Victorian State Government for ignoring the advice of its own parliamentary inquiry recommending the banning of duck shooting (The Examiner, 30 January).

Victorian Outdoor Recreation Minister Steve Dimopoulos, in attempting to justify the decision, says duck shooting "...is a legitimate activity that has existed on these lands for thousand of years..." appears to be still living in the dark ages maintaining a 'hunter - gatherer' philosophy.

The senseless slaughter of native waterbirds in the name of recreation is a cruel barbaric practice and I have personally witnessed the cruelty which exists when at Moulting Lagoon some time ago when two shooter's dogs were literally (fighting over ownership) pulling apart a live downed injured duck.

Records show there is no such thing as a clean kill with many ducks injured and flying away to die a lonely death in excruciating agony!

In this modern compassionate animal welfare aware era there is simply no room for continuing blood sports such as duck shooting, more the time for banning it completely throughout Australia!

Jim Collier, Legana

THANKS to Councilor Pentridge for bringing to light the $300,000 that various TASCAT planning appeals have cost Launceston ratepayers (The Examiner, 29 January). The most significant of these costs, $70,000, or 23% of the total, was incurred in defending Council's decision to approve the development of the North East Rail Trail between Wyena and Lilydale. This appeal was brought by an individual who had also brought a failed appeal against the Dorset municipality section from Scottsdale to Wyena. The appeal against the Launceston section was made on similar grounds and was also ultimately dismissed.

The opponents of this community development have now cost ratepayers in two municipalities over $100,000 in appeal costs. While opposing the rail trail, railway enthusiasts, who have had the line from Turners Marsh to Lilydale for four years, are yet to run any form of train. The irony is that all they have introduced is pedal powered carts.

Those who have actively opposed and delayed this project are responsible for the direct costs that have been incurred by ratepayers, as well as the financial and social gains foregone by businesses and community.

I agree with Councillor Pentridge who says that we would be better off putting that money into the community.

Malcolm Cowan, West Launceston

ABSOLUTELY ludicrous to suggest Trevallyn Dam actually helps reduce the problem of sediment build up in the Tamar Estuary (The Sunday Examiner, 28 January).

The article is correct in saying mud flats are the natural state of the Tamar's upper reaches however to state the Dam helps reduce them is simply crazy despite what questionable recent surveys seem to show. Whose surveys are they anyway?

As also correctly indicated in the article, silt comes down from the catchment in suspension and doesn't settle until such times as it encounters saline water when it solidifies and settles to the bottom of the Estuary, a process known as flocculation.

Trevallyn Dam, by reducing the amount of fresh water entering the Estuary's upper reaches, allows saline water to penetrate further permitting this process (flocculation) to occur earlier than it would have done under natural conditions thus contributing to sediment build up in Home Reach and the Yacht Basin. To suggest otherwise is laughable and beyond ridiculous!

Jim Collier, Legana

I REFER to Sussan Ley's bumbling re tax cuts and the Pauline Hanson quote implying the 'low class would squander it' (The Examiner, January 30). Don't forget Hanson is on an enormous salary.

Michael Robinson, Beauty Point