The first item on the agenda at yesterday's Lismore City Council meeting was a motion that involved the CSIRO Richmond River Catchment Flood Mitigation modelling.

Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg put forward the motion as a Mayoral Minute when he realised that Lismore City Council did not have an official position on the work being done by the CSIRO. This followed a motion put forward by another councillor at a recent Rous County Council meeting.

The motion stated that Council:

1. supports the Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative (NRRI) project and its findings
2. supports the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and CSIRO, and in particular, Dr Jai Vaze and his team at CSIRO
3. requests CSIRO to investigate and model flood mitigation options 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 as a bundle
4. writes to The Hon Kristy McBain MP, Minister for Regional Development, Territories and Local Government; The Hon Janelle Saffin MP, Minister for Small Business, Recovery and the North Coast; The Hon Kevin Hogan MP, Federal MP for Page; Brendan Moon, CEO NEMA; Dr Jai Vaze, Senior Principal Research Scientist (Hydrologist), Project Leader, NRRI, CSIRO to affirm Council's position and support for this modelling
5. ask the CSIRO if they would consider undertaking the Lismore Flood Risk Management Study and Plan after June 30

For clarification, points 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13 are:

• 6: Water retention in the Wilsons catchment upstream of Lismore (location to be finalised)
• 7: Water retention in the Terania Creek catchments upstream of Lismore (location to be finalised)
• 8: Water retention in the Leycester Creek catchment upstream of Lismore (location to be finalised)
• 12: Tuckean Swamp bypass and drainage and Baggotville barrage upgrade
• 13: Opening of Boundary Creek to the Pacific Ocean

Needless to say, the two Green councillors, Guise and Waters, were not 100% on board as the solutions were all 'hard engineering solutions', and did not involve nature-based solutions.

Councillor (Cr) Waters put forward an amendment to add Richmond Landcare nature-based solutions modelling to be included when the data is available.

Cr Waters said that Richmond Landcare do a lot of work in this area, and it would be a missed opportunity if the data were not used to investigate flood mitigation using nature-based solutions.

"It's also part of the whole package that we need," Cr Waters said.

Cr Guise supported his fellow Green councillor.

"And so for me, a proposal like this, which looks at what I call hard engineering solutions, which is essentially about mega dams and mega excavations and diverting water flow, will have profound impacts on the landscape."

Cr Dalton-Earls asked a question about raising the Lismore Levee, to which the mayor replied that the general consensus is that there is no community appetite to raise the levee.

Speaking against the amendment, Cr Rob said that nature-based solutions were included in the $150 million NRRI flood resilience projects, and had already started.

"Applications were made to get it funded as part of a strategy for river health, to access filtration and helps mitigate such things as black water events, but it also helps with flood mitigation in the sense of the lower end of the range of floods.

"Now, I don't think anyone who understands flood mitigation or nature-based solutions would ever suggest that nature-based solutions will help in massive floods. It just won't do it because the water level is above the trees, and a lot of it gets washed away in the water, especially if not done well."

This point has been made to the Lismore App by Jai Vaze from the CSIRO. Nature-based solutions will have no effect on mitigating a major flood, and the CSIRO remit was to find solutions that can lower the river level during a major flood, which is why they will not be tested in the upcoming flood modelling scenarios.

Cr Battista asked councillors to show a united front when it came to the vote, as he is worried about receiving the funding.

"The last thing we want to do is a divided vote because the government then will be saying they divided 50/50, I'm not going to give you anything. It's happened before. When the community is divided, the pollies tend to sort of retreat and don't fund anything."

That statement fell on deaf ears, with the amendment defeated 9/2 and then the mayor's original motion successful 9/2, with Crs Waters and Guise voting against.

It does appear that those who are anti-engineering solutions will be the part of the community who will not change their stance, not matter what the result.

Jai Vaze will be coming back to Lismore in two weeks' time to present the options to all councils and other stakeholders.