Re: Warragamba Dam regeneration

[Rebecca Bishop]

Dear friends,

I thought you may be interested in a new campaign  a friend of mine has launched.  He's put two years of his life into it, and even though it's an Australian project, international support is welcome via signing the petition.

Adam Long began researching this project by interviewing Jan Pokorny in the Czech Republic, along with Stephen Salter and other.

The section below can be shared or adapted, if you wish to share further.  

With my very best wishes,

Rebecca Bishop.

****************************************************

A $500 Million Alternative to a $32 Billion Mistake — Please Watch This

Sydney Water is planning to spend $32 billion on wastewater treatment plants. There is a better, cheaper alternative — and we need your help to make it impossible to ignore.
 
The Dam Plan is a catchment-wide regenerative farming approach that could deliver more clean water than Sydney will ever need, for around $500 million — cents in the dollar, compared to the wastewater plants. 
 
It runs on sun, rain, and gravity. It captures carbon, restores farmland and wetlands, reduces flooding, and it’ll save every Sydney ratepayer roughly $700 a year in avoided water charges.
 
The NSW election is in March 2027. The window to make this a political issue is open right now — but not for long.
 
Watch the 5-minute Dam Plan video: https://www.youtube.com/@CoolTheCountry
 
This is a genuinely rare idea: good politics for farmers, climate advocates, and Sydney ratepayers alike. 
 
Lobbyists and construction companies have already started lobbying hard for the wastewater plants. But the NSW Government hasn’t committed yet. We have a chance.
 
Here’s what I’m asking:
 
• Watch the video — it’s five minutes
• Like, subscribe, and leave a comment (it helps the algorithm reach more people)
• Share it with anyone you think will care — city, country, anywhere 
• Sign and share our petition at: https://www.change.org/WarragambaDamPlan
 
If you know someone with a platform — a journalist, a politician, a leader with credibility in their community, someone with a big social following — this is exactly the kind of story that needs a champion.
 
You’re getting this because I think you’ll be interested in this great example of regenerative farming, water policy and the economics of environmental restoration. I hope the Dam Plan excites you the way it excites me. Thanks for watching, and for sharing!
 
P.S. Watch Rehydrate Australia — https://www.youtube.com/@tarwynparktraining
— to see the underlying principles in action on working farms all over the country.

[Ron Baiman]

Thanks Rebs. Done!  I believe New York City/State did something like this and it was a great success.

Best,

Ron

Sent from my iPhone

On May 24, 2026, at 1:46 AM, Rebecca Bishop <rebe...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Ron Baiman]

Sorry John. Not really my expertise!  But as I recall they are purifying NYC water (some of the best in the US) with natural

methods upstate (that is north in NY state) instead of building a large water purification plant that had been proposed. Which I think is like what I gathered from Rebs post?  It should be easy to find. It wasn’t that long ago - well decades maybe! 

Best,

Ron

Sent from my iPhone

On May 24, 2026, at 9:17 PM, John Dixon <john....@uq.edu.au> wrote:



Hi Ron

 

Can you point me to any review or impact assessment of the New York City/State initiative?  If not I will ask AI.

 

Thanks

John

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[Paul Klinkman]

Dear Action Coalition,

The further up the watershed that you increase groundwater capture, the better off you are.  Hillsides would benefit from tiny swales of a size that could water one tree.  Also useful, sculpting hillsides so that massive 10,000 year flooding runs off the hill in a spiral, around and around the hill and down.

Stream and wetland catchments need to be built so that they can take a 10000 year flood event (which these days might come by every 100 years and that's the problem) without washing out.  Algeria recently had thousands of people washed away by a totally unexpected rain event.  I recommend and have sketched out sort of a sinusoidal lip over which the stream flows in a big flood.

Yours in Hope,

Paul Klinkman

[Manna Jo Greene]

https://share.google/aimode/R2nHriydfNMbbZxpt

I live near the New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection Reservoirs, which indeed supply 9 million people with high quality drinking water.   Homes and farms and other lands in the watershed were taken by eminent domain to create this chain of reservoirs, leading to a very conflicted relationship between local communities 100 miles north of NYC and the NYC DEP.  

https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/history/article/catskills-aqueducts-reservoirs-water-new-york-city-19988702.php 

(Sorry about rhe paywall)

In 1995 a wonderful consensus building process was convened with skilled facilitators to help create collaborative solutions to ensure ongoing watershed protection.  A water treatment facility was built, dairy farmers were instructed and provided funding to prevent manure runoff, etc.  

At the Ashokan Reservoir, sediment settles out in one basin and cleaner water is sent from an adjacent basin via an aqueduct to the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County and then to New York City.

There is still ongoing planning to reduce or prevent sediment from running into downstream waterways during more turbulent conditions.

 The aerators are still functioning separately from the DEP's more recently installed hydroelectric system, which captures the energy of water moving by gravity to turn turbines and generate electricity.  

Bear in mind that when creating new reservoirs for water or hydropower, many acres of vegetation are flooded and this 

 releases methane as the organic matter decomposes.  Our recommendation is to capture hydro where an empoundment already exists, but to avoid flooding new lands.

 Many thanks, 

Manna

Manna Jo Greene 

845 807-1270 

On Mon, May 25, 2026, 6:41 AM Tom Goreau <gor...@globalcoral.org> wrote:

New York City is famous for it’s large reservoir system, that is well protected from pollution, so they don’t need to treat the water like other big cities do.

 

From: 'John Dixon' via Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC) <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 22:17
To: Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com>, Rebecca Bishop <rebe...@gmail.com>
Cc: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>, Rebrighten <rebri...@googlegroups.com>, Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [HPAC] Re: [prag] Re: Warragamba Dam regeneration

Hi Ron

 

Can you point me to any review or impact assessment of the New York City/State initiative?  If not I will ask AI.

 

Thanks

John

 

From: healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Ron Baiman
Sent: Monday, 25 May 2026 11:18 AM
To: Rebecca Bishop <rebe...@gmail.com>
Cc: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>; Rebrighten <rebri...@googlegroups.com>; Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HPAC] Re: [prag] Re: Warragamba Dam regeneration

 

Thanks Rebs. Done!  I believe New York City/State did something like this and it was a great success.

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[Rebecca personal em]

Thanks Manna and Paul, I’ve given this information to Adam Long. 🙏🙏

On 26 May 2026, at 12:54 am, Manna Jo Greene <man...@gmail.com> wrote:



[Michael MacCracken]

Hi Rebs--At our summer home here in NW Connecticut we have bound copies of Harper's Magazine and another magazine or two for the second half of the 19th century. A few go back to the early 1860s and one can read contemporaneous reporting on the Civil War (not that it was really very civil). Over times here since a kid and paging through various of the 150 bound volumes or so that we have, I recall happening upon, among many other things, articles describing how NYC was building its water system and reservoirs. Fascinating and very foresightful---and if you don't like that word, a recollection of a tour book back in days when I had visits to Leningrad, etc., I recall walking the streets admiring the architecture and once came to a building where the tour book said the building of an ugly building in the courtyard of beautiful building was a case of  "criminal unforesightfulness"--what a wonderful phrase and description of the present US Administration's actions in the climate arena (and beyond).

Best, Mike

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[John Dixon]

Hi Ron

 

Can you point me to any review or impact assessment of the New York City/State initiative?  If not I will ask AI.

 

Thanks

John

 

From: healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Ron Baiman
Sent: Monday, 25 May 2026 11:18 AM
To: Rebecca Bishop <rebe...@gmail.com>
Cc: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>; Rebrighten <rebri...@googlegroups.com>; Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HPAC] Re: [prag] Re: Warragamba Dam regeneration

 

Thanks Rebs. Done!  I believe New York City/State did something like this and it was a great success.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC)" group.
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[Tom Goreau]

New York City is famous for it’s large reservoir system, that is well protected from pollution, so they don’t need to treat the water like other big cities do.

 

From: 'John Dixon' via Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC) <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>

Date: Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 22:17
To: Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com>, Rebecca Bishop <rebe...@gmail.com>
Cc: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>, Rebrighten <rebri...@googlegroups.com>, Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/healthy-planet-action-coalition/SY6P282MB40859E31AE8565A2AAA0DEE6C70A2%40SY6P282MB4085.AUSP282.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.