The Australian Rail Track Rail Corporation (ARTC) could not have picked a worse time to put the longest section of the enormous 1706 kilometre Inland Rail project up for consultation.
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That's the view of NSW Farmers inland rail taskforce chair, Adrian Lyons.
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 306-kilometre Narromine to Narrabri leg of the Brisbane-to-Melbourne rail line was put on public display this week.
The project will be open to public consultation until February 7, 62 days.
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That's not long enough for Mr Lyons, who is also a Coonamble farmer.
"It's just made time tight; Christmas time is Christmas time. Every consultation process the ARTC has conducted has been in the middle of planting, middle of harvest and now they're going to push this process at a time when we've just finishing harvest," he said.
NSW Farmers and the Country Women's Association of NSW have repeatedly threatened legal action over hydrology mapping for the large section of rail line.
They have also complained of inadequate consultation over land use concerns with regards to the section of the project.
"They tried to put something on at a time when Christmas is coming. We will have difficulty providing specialists - our legal team - to oversee this," Mr Lyons said.
"We've written to the Deputy Premier and also the Minister for Planning that we would like to have seen this exhibited in February, to give us the time into March, to give us the time to do it.
"We haven't had a response."
The EIS forecasts that the new rail line will indeed affect the course of floodwaters, though not very much. The assessment estimates a total of 22 sensitive buildings in Narrabri and Narromine - homes, educational, health or community facilities or businesses - would flood an additional 10 to 100mm during a flood. All but one of them already flood.
The project's EIS, released on Tuesday, shows the project will largely run on land cleared for agriculture.
It would travel through about 274 properties, plus the Pilliga East, Euligal, Cumbil, Baradine and Merriwindi State forests.
The environmental statement says the project has the potential to sever some properties in two.
"The access arrangements for affected properties would be developed in consultation with landholders during detailed design," the EIS says.
The project would also "result in direct impacts on 25 Aboriginal heritage items/sites located within the proposal site," it says.
"Eighteen of these sites were assessed to have a significance of moderate, or lower. Five sites were assessed as having moderate to high overall significance."
The project will tap about 4,625 megalitres of underground water, which could effect water levels in the Great Artesian Basin. Modelling indicates it would cause groundwater drawdown of less than one metre.
The project is forecast to accommodate trains over 1.8 kilometres long and 6.5 metres high - and could be expanded to accommodate trains 3.6 kilometres long. About 14 trains per day would run the route.
Construction is anticipated to start in late 2021, and be operational in 2025.
Works began on the Narrabri to North Star section of the railway line in November.
NSW Farmers has repeatedly stated that they broadly support the project, but have concerns about elements of it.
Andrew Messenger
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Politics, environment and energy journalist at the Northern Daily Leader. I also write about health, bushfires and occasionally music. I'm a Brisbane boy by way of Charleville and Hobart who now lives in in beautiful New England. Get me at andrew.messenger@austcommunitymedia.com.au
