I saw this enigmatic headline on the ABC – Adelaide’s desalination plant considered a ‘tool’ to boost irrigation allocations during drought – I realize that desalination proponents have taken Australian water policy into the paranormal – but producing expensive desal water to be able to boost irrigation allocations at a time when few areas of SA would be in drought – takes the cake.
March rain to date
Category Archives: Water
Victorian Labor Govt moves to turn on the Wonthaggi seawater desalination plant
Victoria to switch desalination plant on next summer, following decline in water storages – This 3 year rain decile map shows the Thomson catchment is near the border between the dry western part of Victoria and the east Online driver ed classes offer top quality information to tadalafil uk buy anybody regardless of their location. Use Kamagra with caution in the elderly; they may be suffering from generic levitra pill erectile dysfunction. We need real details that comes from experts. soft viagra tabs Few essential check points would help in ascertaining canadian pharmacy viagra the type of working atmosphere prevailing at Kaar Technologies. which had better rain. The Vic Govt says it is ordering 50GL of desal water for next summer – ironically that is about the exact amount wasted each year from the Thomson Dam in environmental flows through the drought 2002-2009.
Rain ten times Perth annual water consumption falls over south west WA in three days last month – not news to Dept of Water
I was recently in touch with the WA Dept of Water and asked – With respect to the rain event and associated floods over SW WA on 19, 20, 21 of January 2016 – “do you have a figure for the extra GL that ran to the sea because of that rainfall?” The reply – [The department does not have information directly on the additional flow as no stream gauges are that close to Augusta. If you analyse the flow from the sites feeding in the Blackwood it will give you some idea of the output 609002, 609019, 609022, 609060, 609065 These five gauges are in that area.]
Assuming rain of say 100mm over a 200 x 200km square (40,000 sq km) that would tally 4,000GL falling free from the sky. Full map.
When I have time I will do some checking of stream gauge data. I find it amazing that in the days after a significant rain event that basic parameters would not be extracted and maybe a memo sent around.
Perth water policy disaster rolls on ignoring one obvious cheap solution
I saw this news today – The West and Our ABC – so I dropped the Minister for Water a line. Continue reading Perth water policy disaster rolls on ignoring one obvious cheap solution
Merredin district rain history shoots hole in widely supported theory that clearing the wheatbelt caused reduction in SW WA rain post ~1975
Rainfall was lower pre WWI when the wheatbelt was mostly mallee scrub.
A few years ago I wrote – 113 years of rainfall at Merredin in the heart of the Western Australian wheat belt 21 April 2013
University of Western Australia shuts down Centre for Water Research – on our fairly dry continent
I missed this last year – maybe WA people can help interpret in plain english. Top academic sacked and another demoted 5 April 2015
Professor Jorg Imberger on hiding to nothing – Opinion | Paul Murray
25 March 2015
Uni shuts water study centre – Daniel Mercer 23 March 2015
Professor in uni probe – Amanda Banks Legal Affairs Editor – 23 December 2014
I find it a curious juxtaposition that the Uni in Perth had a
Centre for Water Research for decades – yet Perth will be famous for decommissioning water supply dam catchments which are blessed with an average of ~850mm per year May to Oct runoff season rainfall. Go figure.
Classic BoM assisted misleading media article on SW West Australian rainfall
The Albany Advertiser says – Albany breaks 137-year rainfall record – reading on we find that 2015 was the driest year in 137 years of records. The article says this is “…according to the bureau’s annual climate statement…” that is for WA. The Albany Advertiser does not tell you that Albany is the sole and lonely place listed as having “Record lowest annual total rainfall”.
So in all the huge area of WA only one BoM rainfall station out of about 2,200 odd in WA recorded the “Record lowest annual total rainfall”. And this of course was worthy of a media article because beating up bad news about rain has been an industry in Perth & SW WA for near a decade and a half. It is true of course that SW WA has seen declining rain over several decades – and WA Govt water authorities have lead the charge claiming that “climate change has taken our rain”. Yet this conveniently forgets the point that other areas – for example Northern Australia have experienced increased rain. So it is just as logical to say rain varies all the time at varying timescales in various regions and places and the reasons are likely as yet not fully understood by mankind
Perth water utility pleads for more water – the solutions to Perth water problems are not hard to grasp
Perth media runs this story – Utility pleads for more water
I have written on this subject for more than a decade – here are just two landmark examples.
[A] There never was a rain shortage to justify seawater desalination for Perth’s water supply – Dec 2007 download my 200KB 3 page pdf “Perth water supply catchments rain report Nov 07” Still covers main issues.
[B] Ongoing decline in efficiency of Perth Dam catchments – reply from WA Minister – May 2013 – Read what I wrote to Minister Marmion and his reply – he could not contradict my point that catchment management would increase runoff to dams.
Updating to 2015 rainfall the 5 year average rain 2011-2014 is about 850mm. Below is the latest chart of Perth catchments rainfall May-Oct rainfall 1980-2015 which shows CE (Catchment Efficiency) plunging to under 2%.
What the West Australian Government (and Labor Opposition) should be doing in respect of Perth water supply policy.
1. Over-ride Green objections and manage catchments as they were in the mid 1990’s thus increasing dam inflows by an amount of water about equal to production from two desalination factories (=90 GL Per year). See graphic of declining catchment yields above. Thinning of catchment bush can be done by experts with negligible adverse effects on wildlife values. Download 1 page pdf with chart showing results of thinning the Higgins catchment near Dwellingup – from 2005 Water Corporation report.
2. Cut the Gnangara pines forthwith – the value of the trees is way less than the value of the water they are suppressing. Sell the lumber and use the land for well planned urban areas – make a huge profit from well planned new suburbs and increase underground water pumping potential by about 100 GL per year, (UWA figures from 2002). Let both mounds recover over the decades ahead. GoogleEarth images show that between 2004 and 2015 significant areas of the pines have been cleared – that will assist recharge of the Gnangara mound underground water.
3. Abandon the risky plans to pump treated waste water into your precious shallow aquifers.
4. Take on board the Agritech proposal to desalinate brackish Wellington dam water but examine augmenting it to 100 GL per year by adding similar brackish water from the Murray or Avon where hundreds of GL flow to the sea every year.
5. After seeing the benefits from 1, 2, 3 & 4 above, progressively mothball both seawater desalination factories and save taxpayers mega $’s’.
6. Engage an expert US group to trial cloud seeding for a few run-off seasons – the cost is low compared to the large value of any incremental water in dams.
7. Stop lying to the public about rainfall – let the slogan “Our drying climate”pass into history where it belongs. Instruct Water Corporation to quote catchments rainfall on their www pages and NOT Perth rainfall which does not run into dams.
8. Instruct Water Corporation to get on with their job of harvesting available falling-from-the-sky-free natural water at the lowest cost possible for the benefit of the Perth and WA public.
9. If CE (Catchment Efficiency) was increased to 5.6% – hypothetically the 19 years 1997 to 2015 would have produced an extra 64GL each year on average – taking out the 4 poor years, 2001-2006-2010-2015.
If you take the last group of good years 2011-2014 incl. the loss is worse and 116GL PA is being lost. Now what is the value of this lost water? Is it near a $Billion PA?
Perth water utility pleads for more water yet our Governments can not reliably collect rain data
Perth media says – Utility pleads for more water – yet as this table of monthly rain data for Collie 9628 shows, there are several years since 2002 with missing months data. The record was perfect from 1901 to 2001 through world wars and depressions.
Then our modern Govts fail in recording such vital data for the nation. Amazing failure – see Mundaring Weir 9031 too – who cares – it is only free water from the sky that could run into dams already paid for – why bother to measure that – so passe. We clever people are in “Our Drying Climate” now.
Collie rain has relevance to the Wellington Dam Water Recovery Project by AgritechSmartwater – saved by the Wayback Machine. Agritech are revitalising their campaign – but the WA Govt has blocked their proposals for a decade now.
Worthwhile New Zealand rain reported as “a drop in bucket”
Another fascinating example of the baleful influence of climate change dogmas and useless Govt forecasting on normal media reporting standards.
By all accounts the rain was useful in many areas to freshen up grass and give feed growth a summer boost. A subtext is that the NIWA three month Outlooks predict dryer than normal conditions due El Nino – so rain sort of goes against that meme. I like the oracle quoted to explain how it rained because air moved from east to west.
I see another article – Urgent need to act on our water supply – Whaleoil is on to it. It seems anti-dam dogmas are rife in NZ and all manner of special interest groups get into the act to make a needed new dam even more impossible. When will water users start voting for an adequate water supply at an affordable price?