Sportsground Closures due to Drought

Growling – I am very surprised that you have not been drawn and quartered, which appears to be the usual response to that type of suggestion. Maybe its a sign that we are finaly coming to grips with reality (ie you can’t spend spend spend without stopping other expenditure, stealing more money from others or stealing more money from future generations (borrowing).

“Time for new thinking (and not the spend spend spend buy everything stuff that some people say)”

There has been a suggestion about building centralised playing fields near a recycled water plant – perhaps pumping water from the Fyshwick treatment plant to a heap of newly developed ovals somewhere in the Majura Valley or resume some of the land on Dairy Flat that is currently used for dairy into a ‘grass roots’ sporting park.

It could be funded by the sell off of some of the ovals that are already closed – the prime land in Weston Creek (stirling 3, Weston Oval), Belconnen (Melba and one or two others I can’t remember) etc would be worth a small mint, and the cost to build a facility with 20 sporting fields etc would be recouped by the sale of two suburban areas. Its next to the airport flight path so its not viable for residential resale anyway…

oops rest of the response…. 20 million odd litres (my semi-educated guess) per week required to keep all grounds playable. Especially given that other users will also be making a call on that resource.

I don’t want to see kids not being able to play sport etc – but perhaps the realistic impact of climate change is that it can not be achieved in the same resource hungary way of the past. Time for new thinking (and not the spend spend spend buy everything stuff that some people say)

I can’t verify jemmy’s sums, but assume that’s right – then there is the cost of transporting the recycled water and the time applying it. I don’t know the capacity of ACTEW to deliver the

If thetruth’s numbers are correct, it’s nothing. Base water is supplied retail at $0.66/klitre, and rises after 100kl. One would assume that supply cost is the same and that the price increase is to curb demand and not for increased cost of supply. Therefore, at retail base costs, it would be $140 per week to water an oval. Chickenfeed if you think of the number of people who benefit from an oval.

I’m sure if water was supplied at cost, it would be much less. I’ve used base prices instead of the next higher band because one could argue the oval supplies a health and fitness benefit and therefore is a community resource.

I think playing fields should be a really high priority.
It doesn’t make any sense to close them in a time of worrying obesity in children.
Surely they would be still playable if watered twice a week, not three times. Slightly scruffy grass is far preferable to a dustbowl.

Affordability at all cost hmmmm

just heard that the ACT sports fields are closed due to too much water – would recycling help that?

In terms of ‘affordability’ i would like to think that all govt’s consider the upkeep of ovals as an ‘affordable’ excercise regardless of the cost.

The amount of water to keep an oval playable is 50,000 to 70,000 litres per watering three times a week (ot 150,000 to 210,000 litres per week). with about 350 hect of playing fields of which about 25 hect can be watered with recycled water, its a big investment – like most government spending the money comes out of something else. Time for new thinking about what we can afford as a community

cricket played on concrete pitches why not?

I was raised playing cricket/soccer/tennis on bitumen playing surface, and boy did it make a man out of me.

80 000 litres or 140 000 litres – doesn’t matter really, it’s still a shitload of water.

Actually, i update my information and add around another 3M to the bill.
I’ve also received information that suggests that a standard AFL/Cricket oval takes around 80-90,000 litres for a single watering effort…
Not saying Al is wrong, just that my information comes from someone placed within the local sporting administration bodies..

In a year’s time, when the drought is still with us and washing your clothes is an issue, and washing/drinking water starts to worry people, the concept of putting pristine drinking water on ovals will seem ludicrous to us.

It is time to canvass permanent ways of collecting and re-using grey water NOW.

Have they tried watering them half as much and seeing what happens?

Can someone tell me how Glebe Park is being watered. It still looks in very good shape? Are they using recycled water?

That’s what I’m told by the person what manages it…
Puts things into perspective doesn’t it.
Certainly be on my mind as I plug in the hose that runs from my washing machine out into the garden tonight…
Needless to say they are giving the whole ‘use recycled water and a truck’ thing a BIG miss.

140,000 litres is ONE waterng ?

Estimate from a local school for watering 2 ovals from the recycled water available at the Molonglo plant is 10,000 litre truck x 14 loads = one watering.

As a Chisolm resident who had both their local primary school and high schools ovals “closed” three years ago can I say that it sucks the big one. As soon as the local yobs realise that no one cares about that piece of ground it becomes donut central. Amazingly neither school has a decent playing surface available to them.

The easy and simple solution for our leaders is to just say “no watering” and close the grounds. The harder option is of course to spend some money on using grey water to at least get us through the winter.

Then we can look at places like Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast – they’ve had 2 synthetic rugby fields for years. The local council loaned them the money for initial set up and instead of paying for water for normal grass – the money goes to pay the loan off. Not too hard really….

Having played golf at a lot of country courses, many use recycled water for fairways and greens. Is there a relatively inexpensive water treatment that would allow ovals to be watered from stormwater drains? Underground stormwater storage near ovals, with that being pumped onto the ovals perhaps?

Maybe the answer is more sustainable sports that don’t require a nice grassy field – mountain biking perhaps, which is one of the fastest growing sports in the country and huge in Canberra.

I’m onside with the Ferret here. Local sport is vital for kids and adults. The folk (like the Ferret) who give up their time to administer are, IMHO, heroes. I would never thin of them as anything resembling selfish (although I’ve met a couple who should have escaped the world of make-believe internal politics a bit more often).

I recall Actew saying that they would provide free brownish water to anyone from a sports body who went to the delightfully named Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre with a tanker. Renting or buying a tanker for the use of sports bodies would be a Good Thing for any large local business on the make. Or the sports bodies could do as the rural firies (shamefully) have to and jiggle a bucket at the shopping centres. I’d be happy to chip a few bucks in.

Maybe it’s time to consider alternate sports? Ones that don’t require large playing fields? I’d like to see the golfers go first, though. Perhaps we could borrow Daramalan’s trebuchet to deliver some lawn killer to the fairways?

My concern is if they let the ovals die then it’s one step closer to them being able to sell them off to developers as “no one is using them anyway” (because they are unusable).

Lawns are thirsty things. Connect the dots. It’s not about “budgets”, it’s about nature who has changed our climate (with some help from us, maybe) so that there is less water around. bugets, well, the sooner we stop flushing good water down the drain, the better. I am certainly sad to see sport affected like this, and wish it wasn’t so. And now maybe they’ll get serious about using water better.

In ireland, we played hockey on fields made of compressed blue metal! Awful stuff. And in Edinburgh, we played on poligrass with no watering system. I think in another part of scotland we played on a clay-like surface, much like a clay tennis court.

Sliding to get to balls and tackles became less attractive.

Where in the budget was any funding for actually implementing non-town water solutions for our sporting ovals? The bid private schools have already invested money in moving to bore water. When is the government going to do something REAL?

Well I’m not a sport administrator – I don’t even like sport, but I don’t think they should stop watering these ovals.

Or they should be looking very hard for alternatives – I’m sure they could get volunteers to drive water trucks from ACTEW, and parent groups etc to do monthly watering. OR they could use some lake water – take some of the golf course’s allocation.

Exercise for all, not just hte rich!

yes, we need to maintain our sportsovals for the reasons mentioned above however, why are we pouring our drinking water on it and why hadn’t they changed to recycled water years and years ago? i always think of this image – a visiting contingent of people from countries where they too are in a drought but their kids play on dust bowls, and they start laughing and laughing when told “yes, we pour our drinking water on our lush ovals, and yes we’re in a drought.” stupid. in regards to the drought, we only have ourselves to blame (society as a whole, including government)

Information from someone closely involved with sporting ovals informs me that in “normal” circumstances, it’s in the region of $1M+ annually.

I don’t think sporting afficionados are selfish for wanting their ovals, by the by. I just think that drinking water comes first. If you have a suitable grey water, or recycled water scheme to maintain the ovals, then by all means, go ahead.

JC – you early riser you – I was going to say the exact same thing – though I do not think teh water is potable – but it cerainly is not a biohazard… ACTEWAGL link here!!

GF – I shall endeavour to find a rough idea of costs for water for the ovals.

On a different note, personally, I don’t think it’s a sacrifice that should be made. Being able to drink water is more important than being able to run around on a nice lush green oval.
The drought will (eventually) break, and then we can take care of the ovals again then.

Sports grounds are the perfect place for recycled water. Southwell park has had a unit for years, turning sewarage into water for the fields, and apparently good enough to drink… Now if we are serious about protecting our playing fields, for the very reason the Ferret has mentioned then this is the way to go. How much would one cost? Now yes I know we have a shit tin of fields to do this to, but it is well worth it for our health and lifestyle. I wonder how the hockey fields will get on. Without water the astro turff is unplayable, in fact playing on it stuff’s it, the friction is too great, which is why they need to water them.

My 2 cents

The ACT Government spent a quarter of a million dollars resurfacing school ovals last financial year.
Now we are at a point where major sports grounds are to close and those ovals that were resurfaced are faring poorly in the dry.

Seems to me that the money for resurfacing those ovals would have been better spent investigating and installing either more drought resistant grass variates or synthetic substitutes. I’m not mad keen on the idea of plastic grass, but it’s better than nothing!