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Pumping Ord River Water

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todster said:
I thought he was suggesting canal to Perth
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Initially they were talking a pipeline, then when the public(Labor) backlash cranked up on costs. People started saying a canal would be cheaper.
I for one, agree the canal is a crazy idea, evaporation losses, silting/damage problems if it gets caught up in flooding, make a pipe the best option IMO
The idea of reticulating for agriculture in the north just has to be one of the best ideas I've heard.
Think of the spin off jobs, sustainable cashflow from food sales, has to be better in the longer term, than digging holes.
 

"Mr Rayner said it would take between 18 months and two-and-a-half years for the full pipeline to be constructed."

Dreaming. Mining companies can't get pipelines like this studied, designed, approved and built in that sort of timeframe, let alone Government with all of the additional red tape, budget constraints and stakeholder issues.

I like the fact that people are starting to think outside the box when it comes to water and sustainability of supply, but there is a huge amount of engineering and $$$ needed for a project like this. I'm not convinced it's the best option.

Why do we persist with farming an area that clearly can't sustain it? But that's a much bigger social and political issue I guess.

Having said all that, if you ever find yourself in North WA, you'll realise just how much water is there during the wet. Seems a shame not to use it somehow.
 
Would it not be easier to take some of the over flow from Queensland and direct it into the lake eyer system which flows from Queensland as it is, no need for building a long pipeline
 
finnsk said:
Would it not be easier to take some of the over flow from Queensland and direct it into the lake eyer system which flows from Queensland as it is, no need for building a long pipeline
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Lake Eyre is salt, otherwise it would be a good plan.
The soil up north will grow anything if you can keep the water up to it. It is much more furtile than the bottomless sand around Perth.
 
Take our GST and don't give it back...take any big profits the miners here make and now you want our water!

Bugger off!

The sooner we secede the better

cheers
Surly
 
sptrawler said:
Looks like some others agree with pumping water from the North.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/12227228/ord-to-sa-water-pipe-plan/

Oh, sorry Ifocus, Barnett was a crackpott for suggesting this.LOL LOL
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Crazy thing is that there is plenty of water to irrigate the Murray Darling Basin already flowing out to see from QLD and Northern NSW.

All they need do is a mini Snowy Mountains scheme and it will work forever. With all the modern equipment it would take longer talking about it than to actually do it.

A few smaller dams with a pipe through a mountain and just let it flow down the existing river system. It was all planned/ designed back in 1920-30 and was never built.

So easy today, free electricity, plenty of water for the irrigators and Adelaide, too sensible, never happen.
 

So true.
 
sptrawler said:
Looks like some others agree with pumping water from the North.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/12227228/ord-to-sa-water-pipe-plan/

Oh, sorry Ifocus, Barnett was a crackpott for suggesting this.LOL LOL
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Barnett was and still is a crack pot on the issue it just comes back to unit cost and I notice the pipe line "experts" didn't canvas that.

Haven't seen any recent studies but would think decel is still cheaper.


Engineering wise its relatively simple to do.
 
The canal was to be covered so evaporation losses would not have been a problem.

A coastal route with potential damage from tropical cyclones and associated storm surge and flooding however would have been a problem. The northwest coastal highway was moved inland from the vicinity in the vicinity of Onslow for this reason. There are also recent examples of this route being cut due to damage from tropical cyclones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_West_Coastal_Highway

A more direct inland route would involve pumping water to about 2000ft above sea level to get over the Western Plateau, a large area of elevated land covering much of inland Western Australia. This also lacked the advantage of servicing coastal communities along the route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Plateau

In the end, desalination has proved to be more cost effective although estimates vary for the original cost of the canal. The current WA premier, Colin Bernett, lost an election over his canal proposal. He won't be revisting the idea again anytime soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley-Perth_Canal
 
finnsk said:
Would it not be easier to take some of the over flow from Queensland and direct it into the lake eyer system which flows from Queensland as it is, no need for building a long pipeline
Click to expand...
Perhaps we could make the Lake Eyre basin the world largest carbon sink.

The Greens wouldn't have a bar of it though.
 
This is all a pipe dream.

Environmental impact assessments prevent the building of any large scale water storage or water management projects in the dry continent of Australia. Projects are abandoned if they threaten some obscure critter or a sacred burial site, and there is no shortage of these.
 

Desal is always going to be cheaper as long as you have power readily available(Kwinana desal 30MW, Binningup 60MW) and it is located where you require the water.
As the price of electricity climbs desal gets expensive also as the quantity of water required increases, the desal plants have to get bigger.
Then when you take into consideration the agricultural requirements, desal becomes less viable.
If L.N.G can be piped to the Ord, the cost of pumping drops immensely, then the only major cost is the capital cost of installing the pipe and pumping equipment. Ongoing running cost would be minimal when compared to desal and the major benefit is you can get water to areas that can be made extremely productive.
Might not happen in my lifetime but I think it will happen.
 
The primary objective of the Snowy Mountains Scheme was to provide water for agriculture in the Riverina by diverting water across the mountains. The hydro-electric stations built there were a secondary, but worthwhile consideration. Fact is, the Murray/Murrumbidgee/Lower Darling basins have already benefited over the years. Do they deserve more water from the north?

Perhaps, if the water-thirsty cotton growing areas from the Upper Darling basin which starve water from the lower reaches, and the extravagant rice growing areas from the Riverina (that potentially use 2500l per kg of rice) were relocated to the Kimberley or Top End instead of 'moving the mountain to Mohammed,' everybody would benefit.

Many people are making their fortunes by moving to (or at least working in) the resource rich areas of the country. Why can't it be the same for agriculture? Why pipe water to southern farms? Why not establish more farms in closer proximity to where the water already is by creating more irrigation schemes in the northern regions?
 

My sentiments exactly, open up the N/W of W.A and Central Australia. The perfect growing climate just add water.
Also doesn't have the monsoons of North Queensland and N.T
 
Eager got it right develop areas where there is water way things are going that means the NW and beyond for water intensive farming.

Why the Murray Darling wont deal with reality is beyond me.
 

What perfect sense, Eager. That in itself is probably enough to ensure no politician will ever adopt your sensible proposal.
 
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