Worst drought ever

[BIG BWACULL]

speaking of good money to be made - I notice a job vacant notice for a new "water recycling" facility down the road..
"300 bucks a week and all the piss you can drink"

As long as its not your own piss After all it is a recycling plant

 

[2020hindsight]

After all it is a recycling plant

maybe they'll have to revise that old quote to read ..
"couldn't organise a pissup in a recycling plant"

as for the wine-colour or any other colouration, lol, did anyone see the chaser (incidentally 9.00 pm tonight) - getting people to taste two clear beakers full, one clean and one recycled water - to see if they could identify them correctly , and ...

when they took the blindfolds off , one was the colour of dirt lol.

(then they did it with desalinated water, and only had a bludy gr8 fish in the glass lol) funny bugas

 

[Aussiejeff]

Yeah... hehe... saw that too.

*Almost* as funny as the clowns running this state...

 

[2020hindsight]

AJ and Smurf - brilliant article on ABC news - old drays etc emerging out of the low water at Eucumbene (never before so low) - real treasures
moral ?

"every bog has it's dray "

PS (I think I blamed that article about Yarra bottled water on BAC - as they say DNA = national dyslexic assocn)

 

[Happy]

From ABC, April 12, 2007


SCIENTISTS FIND WATER IN SPACE



Scientists have discovered evidence of water in the atmosphere of a planet outside our own solar system, suggesting a key building block of life may be found around the universe.

Travis Barman, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and Heather Knutson, a student at Harvard University, drew on data and measurements taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and applied new theoretical models to demonstrate the likelihood of water absorption in the atmosphere of 'extrasolar' planet HD209458b.

Water is considered a prerequisite for life and learning about how water is distributed on other planets may help scientists better understand whether conditions for life are possible.

For years scientists have anticipated that 'exoplanets' would show signs of water in the atmosphere, even those that orbit much closer to central stars than our solar system's Mercury sits from the sun.
But that proximity has made detecting water difficult, according to astronomers.

HD209458b, which sits 150 light years from earth in the constellation Pegasus, was the first transiting exoplanet ever found - that is the first discovered that passes in front of a much larger body, from the vantage point of earth. It is also the first exoplanet known to have an atmosphere.
The small planet orbits its star every three-and-a-half days, and each time it goes by, scientists can assess what is in its atmosphere by how it absorbs light from the star.

According to a summary of the research, atmospheric water absorption in such an exoplanet renders it larger in appearance across one part of the infra-red spectrum, compared to wavelengths in the visible spectrum.
Ms Knutson took the Hubble data on HD209458b, applied to it Mr Barman's new theoretical model and subsequently identified water absorption in the planet's atmosphere.

"It is encouraging that theoretical predictions of water in extrasolar planets seem to agree reasonably well with observations," he said.
"We now know that water vapour exists in the atmosphere of one extrasolar planet and there is good reason to believe that other extrasolar planets contain water vapour."

The research was supported by the Origins of the Solar System program of NASA and is expected to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
- AFP

In worst case scenario, when we run out ideas where get the water from, it is comforting that we can import it from space.

Might be expensive, maybe more than $2 per bottle, but at least it is there.

 

[2020hindsight]

.. it is comforting that we can import it from space.
Might be expensive, maybe more than $2 per bottle, but at least it is there.

lol, gotta feeling the desalinator proposals might get the nod before this one

reminds me of the question that some science students ask themselves along the way ... "surely there's a way to "export heat" into space - like a "heat gun" or similar ?? - turns out that it just can't be done - something to do with the laws of thermodynamics etc.

Here's that article about "every bog has its dray" - shame they don't have a photo.
I notice they say "links to the past have "disappeared" - but lol they forget to mention it's the first time they've appeared since the dam filled in the first place .
Which is no laughing matter I guess - when you think about it Like - things are serious (as if anyone needed reminding) .

http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1894105.htm

Scavengers scour the Snowy Mountains
Unscrupulous souvenir hunters are moving in on some of the farming history in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

After years of drought, some of the historic farming properties which were flooded are dry again, and it's not taken long for scavengers to spot an opportunity.

Stephen Brayshaw from the Lake Eucumbene chamber of commerce says some links to the past have already disappeared.

"An old dray came out of the water near Anglers' Reach. They towed it up on the bank with their boat and put it on the back of a truck and choofed away with it," he said. "It was in quite reasonable nick considering it had been under the water for 50 years."

The area's biggest dam, Lake Eucumbene, has fallen to the lowest level since the Snowy River scheme was built 50 years ago. The NSW Police are now investigating

Apparently the drays etc are no longer anyone's property - so up for grabs.
It's getting seriuos when the vultures and other scavengers start circling

 

[Happy]

After years of drought, some of the historic farming properties which were flooded are dry again, and it's not taken long for scavengers to spot an opportunity.

One of the problems that reservoirs are faced with is constant shrinking of capacity volume due to sediment, so in a sad way this scavenging has one positive, namely partially restores capacity of the reservoir.

Pity that they cannot be forced to take few cubic metres of unwanted sediment with their souvenir.

 

[2020hindsight]

Pity that they cannot be forced to take few cubic metres of unwanted sediment with their souvenir.

That's what we need all right - for everyone to get sedimental about this

 

[Aussiejeff]

From the article...

"The area's biggest dam, Lake Eucumbene, has fallen to the lowest level since the Snowy River scheme was built 50 years ago.

The NSW Police are now investigating."

HAHAHA!

Those silly Cold Case Coppers are wasting their time.... half the geezers who built that mud pit are probably pushing up weeds!

*chuckle*

AJ

 

[2020hindsight]

lol, "a big hole has appeared where the dam used to be ... the police are looking into it"

PS shame they're not looking into Southern Rural Water

 

[Smurf1976]

Interesting to see that Labor has shown at least some support for the proposal for a new major dam in northern NSW with the water piped to Brisbane.

The No Dams brigade will be out in force (as you'd expect) and are already saying it won't work. But interesting to see that Labor isn't immediately siding with them and neither (of course) are the Liberals. So it might actually get built...

Regarding siltation, it depends on what happens upstream in the catchment. If it's left alone then siltation isn't really a problem. For example, the Gordon storages (Tas) basically don't have silt. Perhaps 2mm after 3 decades of use and quite a bit of that was likely to have been foreshore erosion during the initial filling. And at least some of the rest would be organic matter which eventually rots.

In contrast there's a dam somewhere in NSW (can't remember exactly where) that filled right to the top with silt and thus became totally useless and that's happened in other places too. Indeed intentional siltation of dams is the very process mining companies use to separate the nasties out of their waste water. It all depends on what's going on upstream...

As for the situation in the Snowy, I'll put it this way. Either we get more thermal power generation going without running out of cooling water or fuel as we are at the moment, we get lots of rain, or the present 8% or so in Lake Eucumbene is going to look rather full compared to what it will be at soon.

 

[macca]

I find the fact that they want to build a dam in NSW to supply water to SE QLD rather weird.

QLD gets a LOT more rain than NSW, if they were to build a dam in NSW why wouldn't they use it here ?

If QLD needs another dam why don't they just build one where it actually rains the most, instead of up in the hills.

 

[Aussiejeff]

I find the fact that they want to build a dam in NSW to supply water to SE QLD rather weird.

QLD gets a LOT more rain than NSW, if they were to build a dam in NSW why wouldn't they use it here ?

If QLD needs another dam why don't they just build one where it actually rains the most, instead of up in the hills.

Ya know Macca, as far as many pollies and other so called ex-spurts are concerned, *simple logic* can be so complicated as to defy all their collective reasoning!



AJ

 

[Happy]

If QLD needs another dam why don't they just build one where it actually rains the most, instead of up in the hills.

I might be wrong, but they probably thought about free water pressure, so they have more money for their extra super super and stationery expenses and travel expenses.

 

[Julia]

I might be wrong, but they probably thought about free water pressure, so they have more money for their extra super super and stationery expenses and travel expenses.

Not to mention the new government jet.

 

[Smurf1976]

I find the fact that they want to build a dam in NSW to supply water to SE QLD rather weird.

QLD gets a LOT more rain than NSW, if they were to build a dam in NSW why wouldn't they use it here ?

If QLD needs another dam why don't they just build one where it actually rains the most, instead of up in the hills.

It comes down to cost and politics.

Logically, if Brisbane needs more water then you develop whatever is the cheapest option to supply it with the location being irrelevant.

A dam in NSW would only make sense if it's the cheapest option per megalitre supplied to Brisbane. Whether or not it is the best option I just don't know since dams are highly site specific in terms of cost.

But at least someone's looking at actually building something even if it may not be the ideal solution.

 

[macca]

Hi ya Smurf,

I can understand that but lets say it is built in NSW who pays for it ? NSW or QLD.

If NSW pays for it, then the water would have to be SOLD to QLD, NSW voters won't pay for a dam and then give water to QLD.

Why would QLD buy water long term, when it could build a dam in QLD and never pay for the water.

Strange world

 

[2020hindsight]

hell, If NSW is selling to Qld, mix in some semi-recycled stuff and tell em it's XXXX, - bit of profit there surely - they wouldn't know the bludy difference , probably an improvement, lol!
Better still tell em it's XXXXX, - with the extra X being "miscellaneous"

 

[Smurf1976]

Why would QLD buy water long term, when it could build a dam in QLD and never pay for the water.

For the exact same reason that Tasmania and South Australia started buying baseload electricity and also gas from Victoria despite having very substantial untapped resources closer to home.

Cost and politics.

With Victoria offering cheap gas and even cheaper electricity, it just wasn't worth Tasmania or SA (1) spending more to expand production than it would cost to buy from someone else and (2) in Tasmania's case going through the massive national political row that would inevitably erupt over any plan for a major new hydro-electric dam or coal-fired station.

Much the same for Queensland with water. If NSW can supply it cheaper and without Qld having to go through all the No Dams / Go Dams arguments, protests and so on then it's a pretty attractive option from Queensland's perspective.

The only real downside is risk. SA and Tas have both seen their cheap power from Victoria all but disappear (physically it's still available but it's several times the price of not that long ago) and now the gas supply has been reduced too. There are to some extent genuine reasons why it's happened, it's not a case of a dispute between Vic/Tas/SA, but the end result is that SA and Tas don't have anywhere near the same supply reliability from Victoria that they would get from local production.

Qld could end up being likewise backed into a corner over water supply if NSW finds some reason to cut supply or raise the price. That said, intermittent or expensive water is better than no additional water at all.

My overall point on this project isn't about sending NSW water into Qld. It's about the reality that we've come to the point where both Liberal and Labor are willing to at least consider a major new dam being built. Presumably that change of heart from Labor isn't limited to this dam but opens the way for an expansion of water supply in general - which could well mean a new dam being built in Qld rather than getting water from NSW.

 

[macca]

Over all I think it is rather a sad commentary on the quality of state politicians of late.

Nobody is capable of or is prepared to make, an informed decision.

They don't actually want to govern, they just want the easy benefits, they really are just bludgers most of them aren't they.