Worst drought ever

[Prospector]

We certainly do in Victoria, and have for the last 12 years.



He is here too

Ah, well there is some hope then? Seriously though, if Victoria captured the rain that fell through wetland management and used recycled water, would Victoria really still have a problem?

In SA, we have the highest uptake of rainwater tanks in Australia. Maybe we are doing it better than the rest of Australia then? Crikeys, if that is the case then heaven help Australia, SA is hardly a great benchmark. The tanks wont help the Murray though. Today, we have our water Minister Maywald saying that in 5 years time she hopes the Murray mouth will be clean and pristine whilst Ms Wong has stated that she cannot save the Mouth. Great, our 'experts' are at polar opposites. Thanks Labor!

 

[2020hindsight]

At the moment, as soon as there is 600 gigalitres confused reaching Lake Meningee, (in the eastern states somewhere) then water is released to go down the lower Murray. Except, the irrigators are channeling the water before it gets there, so it never reaches that magical mark. ....

Xenophon has his heart in the right place, .... the Victorian Premier is hated here.

Just thinking aloud
Seems safe to assume that Menindee (110 km from Broken Hill) is currently enjoying birdlife revival (at the expense of Alexandrina)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/New-South-Wales/Menindee/2005/02/17/1108500197639.html

Menindee is a tiny settlement of 980 people. The countryside is flat and arid and barely supports grazing, although Menindee itself is surrounded by citrus orchards and vegetable cultivation. If desert and fruit-growing sound incompatible, then one has to remember that Menindee is also surrounded by some 20 lakes fed by the Darling River. It is a weird experience to drive through land which is so marginal that you wonder whether it ever rains and to suddenly come across vast freshwater lakes full of dead trees and surrounded by sand, saltbush and inhospitable red soils

1GL = I think of it as the volume under the deck of the Sydney Harbour Bridge - 50m high x 50m wide x 500m span between springing points of the arch - minus the bits of the arch under the deck - is approx 1GL.

600GL? - well if you extrude that shape from South Head to Parramatta (approx 23km)..
you get about 560GL which = 1 sydharb. (I believe that's right). So 600GL is a bit more than one Sydney Harbour.

If Xenophon can't do it (with the power he will hold for the next year or two) then no one can

And I must research more about options for dams to supply Melbourne with water ( other than the Murray ) - (( no doubt Smurf has some ideas. - hint, lol I continue to pick his incredibly knowledgeable brain ))

 

[2020hindsight]

Interesting article:-

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080619-Political-courage-runs-dry-over-water.html
Alan Kohler writes: Thursday, 19 June 2008

Kohler: Political courage runs dry over water
Australia’s water problem seems to be quite beyond the nation’s politicians.

They’re usually fine with schemes that involve picking a winner from competing interest groups and distributing abundant cash, but when it comes to dealing with a chronic scarcity and saying NO, paralysis sets in.

It seems to me there are two issues that flow from the end of Australia’s 50-year wet:
1. the impending collapse of the Murray-Darling basin due to over-allocation for irrigation, and
2. urban water rationing due to the fact that it is woefully under-priced.

Yesterday I moderated a panel discussion on water at the Australian Institute of Company Directors that included Professor Mike Young from Adelaide University’s school of earth and environmental sciences, Alan Cornell, the chairman of Yarra Valley Water, and David Karpin, chairman of Warrnambool Cheese & Butter and deputy chairman of Racing Victoria.
The consensus was that the price of water in the cities needs to at least double, probably triple.

Currently, according to Alan Cornell, businesses pay $1.10 per kilolitre and individuals pay $1.76. He says the price should be at least $3, which he gets by adding a profit margin to the $2.50 per kL cost (capital plus running costs) of desalinated water from the proposed plant at Warragul.

$2.50 per kL cost = $ 2500 per GL (volume under the deck of Sydney Harbour Bridge) = the cost of desal water, (call it $3.00 to add a profit margin) - which Alan Cornell argues should be the basis of water pricing

But he would say that, I suppose, since Yarra Valley Water might be the beneficiary of a big increase in the water price, unless it was all done through taxes. But price is always a better way to deal with shortage than rationing.

Bringing the flexibility of a decent price mechanism to water would allow a higher price to be placed on water guarantees for those who really need it.

And why does industry pay so much less for water than I do? The result of that, surely, is that businesses have little or no incentive to conserve it, while billions of dollars are wiped off the value of residential real estate by the dying of gardens.

As for the distress of the Murray-Darling, Mike Young showed a graph (see p6 of his presentation, available on his web site) that clearly shows why there is a problem. It is the annual inflows into the Murray River system back to 1892.

The period between 1896 and 1950 was basically a long dry period, with four extended droughts, including a 12-year horror from 1938 to 1950. Most of the years during the first half of the century saw inflows below the long-term median of 9,000 gigalitres a year.

From 1950 to 2002 was a long wet period. According to Mike Young’s graph, there were only four drought years – the rest of the time the inflow was above the median.

The past six years have been drought years, the longest since 1938-1950. Young rhetorically asked whether we were prepared for this one to extend to 2014 – that is, what if we are only halfway through the current drought?

That question is answered by yesterday’s leaked report from scientists commissioned by the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board, which was delivered to ministers a month ago.

It said, in effect, that the Murray-Darling has only six months to live.

Maybe they’re exaggerating for effect – who knows? But the statement that the Murray River is on the brink of ecological collapse should surely have set alarm bells publicly ringing immediately. Instead, we only hear about it through a leak a month later – one-sixth of the way, apparently, through the remaining life of Australia’s largest river system. What a disgrace. etc

"We only find out about the true state of the water emergency through a leak"

 

[Smurf1976]

And I must research more about options for dams to supply Melbourne with water ( other than the Murray ) - (( no doubt Smurf has some ideas. - hint, lol I continue to pick his incredibly knowledgeable brain ))

Two easy options that I'm aware of are:

Reconnect Tarago reservoir to the system (with a new treatment plant). about 21 GL per year additional supply to Melbourne.

Also some work could be done with a new pipeline at O'Shannassy reservoir to get about 22 GL extra from that source.

So 43 GL is available pretty easily and no new dams needed. That takes the total supply from 566 GL to 609 GL, a 7.6% increase.

 

[Prospector]

It has been raining heavily in Adelaide; the worst thing is that because we dont do a good job of harvesting rainwater here, it is all going out to sea. They reckon about 70 days of water needs for the whole of Adelaide have just been lost! We dont have a rainfall problem we have a rain management problem.

 

[2020hindsight]

Two easy options that I'm aware of are:
Tarago reservoir ,
O'Shannassy reservoir..

thanks Smurf (more reading required )

It has been raining heavily in Adelaide; the worst thing is that because we dont do a good job of harvesting rainwater here, it is all going out to sea. They reckon about 70 days of water needs for the whole of Adelaide have just been lost! We dont have a rainfall problem we have a rain management problem.

Prospector, on a similar topic , my wife keeps insisting that stormwater runoff should be collected - but the experts keep saying that stormwater is more expensive than salt water to purify, due to chance of oil, and variability of impurities etc -

can't say it makes sense to me, but that's what they say

 

[Smurf1976]

Prospector, on a similar topic , my wife keeps insisting that stormwater runoff should be collected - but the experts keep saying that stormwater is more expensive than salt water to purify, due to chance of oil, and variability of impurities etc -

can't say it makes sense to me, but that's what they say

Either way you're starting with polluted water (salt, oil, chemicals, even a bit of asbestos) and having to remove those nasties to make it OK to drink. I'm no expert on these processes but I'd expect that if you don't have to deal with oil then that would make things easier, hence the apparent preference for salt water.

Regarding the two Melbourne dams I posted about before, I'm not sure what the present status of those is but their redevelopment was an option a few years ago - not sure if it's being done now?

 

[chops_a_must]

Prospector, on a similar topic , my wife keeps insisting that stormwater runoff should be collected - but the experts keep saying that stormwater is more expensive than salt water to purify, due to chance of oil, and variability of impurities etc -

can't say it makes sense to me, but that's what they say

Easy.

You put a lot of it into designated treatment wetlands.

It then gets filtered there, if it is done correctly, and can be used to improve the refresh rates of the underground water systems.

 

[Smurf1976]

Easy.

You put a lot of it into designated treatment wetlands.

It then gets filtered there, if it is done correctly, and can be used to improve the refresh rates of the underground water systems.

There's a smelter (ferro alloys) in Tas that's been putting its industrial waste water into a man-made wetlands (very rectangular shape but they did try to make it as "natural" as possible) for 15 - 20 years. It's working fine so far and to my understanding the water that flows out (into the sea) is very high quality.

 

[Prospector]

Easy.

You put a lot of it into designated treatment wetlands.

It then gets filtered there, if it is done correctly, and can be used to improve the refresh rates of the underground water systems.

That is exactly what I am saying we should do. All of this can be done by building up the wetlands and replenishing the aquifers and is what many Councils are doing already.

Chops, what on earth has SA done to make you hate it so much. I can understand you dont like the state, but seriously I think your avatar sucks to be honest, almost like you have a personal vendetta.

 

[2020hindsight]

... but seriously I think your avatar sucks to be honest, almost like you have a personal vendetta.

he's just envious that SA has all the good looking girls prospector

 

[Prospector]

I think maybe I have some hope - our Mr X(Xenophon) has pledged to save the Lower Murray, and Mr Rudd needs his vote to pass reforms like the Alcopop tax and Petrol Watch. Mr X has said 'No water No Vote' and he WILL stick to it, unlike other Pollies. Go Mr X!

Today I was walking to an appointment to a Government Building and was almost run over by a Government vehicle. I was walking on the green of course. Then I noticed a stream of black suits, and men with curly things hanging out of their ears. Yep, you guessed, Mr Rudd was walking from his hotel to the Adelaide Town Hall for a Cabinet meeting. I was heading to the same place, so continued to follow him. I got to within three feet of him as he decided to stop for a piccy shoot with the lovely Ms G; and with my Iphone at the ready, took the attached picture. Made me realise that security is a myth - they had the Town Hall in lock down for three days prior, yet I could take this picture and no-one even question me. I think Rudd is looking in my direction though, and not where everyone else is. Oops, is that a knock on my front door.........

(PS, I dont know who the ring-ins are!)

 

[Smurf1976]

The drought is still going strong down here in Tassie...

All of the past 10 months have been below average run-off, continuing the drought that began nearly 11 years ago.

Hydro storages are now at the lowest ever level for this time of year, winter being the wet season in Tas. Present storage level is 22.4%.

If we get a repeat of last year's conditions from now on then that will drop to about 12% next Autumn, a rather drastic situation (to put it mildly). That would be the lowest level on record for any time of year - and the Hydro's records go back to 1916.

 

[Julia]

Thanks for telling us about this Smurf. I don't think it ever occurs to anyone on the mainland that parts of Tassie can be so dry. Hope the summer brings you a heap of rain.

 

[Aussiejeff]

Ho-hum. Back here again, am I?

With the snow season kaput and very little runoff left from the melt, Hume Dam will be lucky to start summer with 35% capacity and Dartmouth would do well to get 25%.

Here we go again with the Big Water Squeeeeeze.

 

[Smurf1976]

It's been raining! No floods, but anything is better than nothing. The Hydro's total storage is now up to 29.9% which isn't good but with a bit of luck from this point on it's enough.

That said, farms and non-Hydro water storages in the eastern part of Tas are essentially stuffed apart from the Hobart urban area.

The general expectation seems to be that we're in for a horror year in terms of fire given how dry it is. That's the bit that really worries me.

 

[Prospector]

The general expectation seems to be that we're in for a horror year in terms of fire given how dry it is. That's the bit that really worries me.

Hey Smurf, that's the thing with this bushfire risk. In South Australia, when we have had a good winter rain, (ummm, maybe 10 years ago!) the CFS tell us that we are at risk of more bushfires in summer because their has been a lot of growth and so lots of fuel to burn.

When we have had a poor winter rain (as has been the case for so long now!) they say we are at increased fire risk because everything is so dry.

So really, whatever happens, we are always at risk.

We are due for the mother of all bush fires here in Adelaide; we haven't had a big one for some time, and each April we think, well, we missed it again this year. And can't think why we escaped! Especially this year when we had two weeks straight of temperatures on 40c in March. That killed us.

 

[Smurf1976]

Hey Smurf, that's the thing with this bushfire risk. In South Australia, when we have had a good winter rain, (ummm, maybe 10 years ago!) the CFS tell us that we are at risk of more bushfires in summer because their has been a lot of growth and so lots of fuel to burn.

In Tassie it's very dry overall (in the eastern parts) but we did get a bit of rain in September. So, very dry soils etc but the September rain will have given the grasses etc an opportunity to grow. Overall that's the worst possible combination - maximum fuel and it's dry.

Some good news elsewhere though. Cloud seeding in the Snowy seems to be working. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/14/2390294.htm?section=australia

 

[Boggo]

I overheard part of an item on the radio in the car today, something about someone either ringing a radio station or writing to a newspaper.

Basically from what I could gather the complaint was that with daylight saving we now have an extra hour of daylight and this cannot be good for the drought as it is drying everything out even more, suggestion apparently was that we should have an hour less of daylight !!!!!

Amazing !

(Person involved was probably related to the one in the US who rang a radio station in Georgia (USA) and said that she saw on TV where the Russians were invading Georgia and she was annoyed that Bush was not doing anything about it)

 

[Boggo]

Found it.
They are out there