More than 500 Blue Mountains residents made individual submissions protesting against plans to raise the wall of Warragamba Dam.
And nine organisations also weighed in, representing everyone from the Gundungurra people to environmental groups and bird watchers.
Residents from Lapstone to Mount Tomah overwhelmingly opposed the state government plans to raise the wall by 14 metres. Central to most concerns were the destruction of Aboriginal sites and damage to the World Heritage Area.
Aunty Sharyn Halls wrote on behalf of the Gundungurra Aboriginal Heritage Association, which does not support the plan.
"We believe all Aboriginal sites and our cultural lands are part of who we are and are HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT. If this goes ahead the government is destroying our birth right as an Australian Aboriginal history."
The World Heritage Institute, World Heritage advisory committee, Conservation Society, People for Reconciliation, National Parks' regional advisory committee and Mountains Community Resource Network all made submissions.
There were many criticisms of the EIS process and why alternatives - such a prohibiting more development on the Hawkesbury-Nepean flood plain - had not been properly investigated.
The Blue Mountains Bird Observers said the proposal risked the breeding habitat of the Regent Honeyeater, a critically endangered species.
The Colong Foundation for Wilderness's substantial, 147-page submission, also considered impacts on not only World Heritage but also Wilderness, National Park, Wild River and State Conservation Areas, as well as on flora and fauna, cultural heritage and geomorphological impacts.
The Colong's chairman, former environment minister and Blue Mountains MP, Bob Debus, letter-boxed every Mountains household in November about making a submission. He was delighted at the reaction.
"The response shows two things about Mountains people about which I'm very familiar - they care a great deal about the environment and they are not backward about saying so."
