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I was quite heartened to see Mr Von Drehnen’s letter in the Champion on the 27th launching an attack on myself and Greg Smith as he most ably demonstrated the type of person that we are dealing with much more effectively than we ever could.
As Mr Von Drehnen is so fully informed and up to date with the ski park I am sure he would be more than willing to answer a few questions for the peasantry such as me, in very short layman’s terms, so that the uninitiated can understand the answers.
Many of the issues around the so called ‘ski park” were very ably covered by Greg Smith last week but there are still a couple of points that need addressing.
Firstly, as this is essentially an evaporation pond, what is going to happen to all the salts that do not evaporate?
Only pure water evaporates.
In the years ahead is this going to end up being a salt water ski park with salinity that would equal the Dead Sea, or is the salt going to be removed by reverse osmosis, and if so, who is going to pay the considerable power bill for that?
The second point is about the evaporation aspect again.
What happens when evaporation exceeds inflow - that being the general idea of an evaporation pond?
Or is this pond going to be such a depth that there is minimal evaporation and will have to overflow into another evaporation pond.
One has to remember the issue of waste water arose because the EPA considered that there were too many salts in the waste water to go back into the Mehi.
It seems to my simple mind that this council has totally lost its way as to what its purpose is.
Things like parks and swimming pools are run and paid for by the whole community.
Ratepayers all have access to them, or they did until the MAAC entrance fees, being amongst the highest in the state have denied that opportunity to a large section of the community.
Ski parks and the like, paid for by the same ratepayers, are for a privileged few and as such should not be the domain of the council.
Council seems to be positioning itself as a second rate developer using ratepayers and large amounts of borrowed money that will be a millstone around the necks of ratepayers for a long time to come.
To date their expertise in development leaves a lot to be desired but unfortunately, we, the ratepayers, seem to have to just put up and shut up.
Robert Anderson
Moree