21 May 2008

How to Secure Water

| Jazz
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The ABC have this story on the ACT govt deciding that they will finally do something to look after Canberra’s future water supply. For $300mil we’ll get a bigger Cotter dam, steal water from the Murrumbidgee for Googong (Goulburn will then steal it again), buy water from Snowy Hydro and build a water recycling plant. I gotta say thats not a bad deal for $300mil.

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If we build a bigger dam, where is the water going to come from?

Why won’t the act government just do as I have suggested time and time again, and put a tank for free at every household, body corporate etc, block off the molonglo temporarily, drain LBG, harvest the weed and carp for fertiliser & pump the water into each of the tanks.
The arboretum will get its water supply from the lake, why can’t I?

Jon could market the fertiliser as Burley Griffin Garden Food, and inject the proceeds back into recovering costs for the tanks.

as a by product, when the lake eventually fills up again, there won’t be carp, weed, cars, funny tarp wrapped objects etc for the tourists to see, and you can actually use the lake as a swimming spot in summer.

the tanks can be connected to the down pipes and become self sufficient.

Maybe I should ask zed to look at it? He might be in power by then…

“I agree Ruff, I can’t see any reason for wanting the population to explode.”

But don’t forget that everyone must have children or they’re being selfish! 😉

What the plan does not address is the amount of water that flows out of Canberra. These flows must be maintained for any of this Murray Darling Commision stuff to make sence.
Not much benefit buying allocations down stream if there is no water to allocate.
Some water in the snowy scheme must be with held to provide base load shedding of power.
If we are currently using 62 giga litres the usage must be held at or below this level. An inflow of 25 giga litres mean we will be out of water very soon. Even if we get good rain it will take several months before the water flows from the parched earth.

Glad to see some people get it.

Our entire society is founded on a false premise – infinite growth! How about sustainable stability instead??? The world is headed down a dark path because we’ve gone well beyond the carrying capacity of the planet, but do the economists talk about it, or the politicians act on it? No siree! It’s not a popular subject.

/gallows humour

I agree with Ruff too. This mantra of “growth” is modern economics, but every problem we’re facing is caused by growth. Get smarter, not more numerous. We may have reached Peak Oil, we reached Peak People some time back. Water’s basic, and in case no one’s noticed, it hasn’t rained properly for an awful long time.

I was out squirting thistles today, and noticed how something’s been eating them. Roos or rabbits, its’ not good food for them (causes damage). The grass is all cropped down, the only thing growing is soem weeds, and even they are starting to give up. The dirt’s just dry dust, living on the nighty dew/frost. My dam has completely dried up.

Siphoning off some water isn’t going to be enough.

and power for their McMansions?

*cough* gas fired power station *cough*

And where exactly are these 100,000 new people going to WORK, let alone find water and power for their McMansions?

Growth, growth, growth. The urge to grow seems to be an agenda pushed by government who need a larger taxable population, but does it make sense for Canberra to grow to 500,000 people? I’d really like to hear good reasons why it should, because I can’t see any.

As long as the extra $150 we are each going to have to pay from July 1 is then removed onec the $300 mill has been collected…..

“In 2006, we received into our dams just 25 gigalitres, or 14 per cent of the long-term average, yet in that year, we used a gross 62 gigalitres.”
Hello John Stanhope – we have a problem.

Even with the improvements the maths suggests the problem is a much larger deficeit than what we can sustian if Canberra is to grow by another 100,000 people.

This a worry cause these people manage our $ as well.

Is SAM Turnbull related to the rodent? (Malcolm) Is it just a coincidence?

This has all been on the cards for ages, the recommendations of the Future Water Options reports were pretty clear.

By the way we’re not stealing water from the ‘bidgee, that’s the water we’re paying Snowy Hydro for (we pay for it, they release it from Tantangara, it flows down the river, we pump it out at Angle Crossing).

Here’s an artist’s impression of the new Cotter Dam (copyright ACTEW Corporation Ltd – from the Future Water Options report), might add some color to the story…

That about somes it up except for the unwashed peasants down river in Western NSW, Vic and SA who will probably revolt and invade the green gardens of Canberra.

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