Starting on 26 August Michael Smith has a series of articles relating interesting history of Labor personalities over a decade or more associated with the water industry and the introduction of large scale seawater desalination to major Australian cities.
Newest on top. This is a long term interest of mine and I just wanted the links recorded in case readers know of new material to add.
That Candy Broad from Emily’s List – 28 Aug 2013
Bob Kernohan – most impressive witnesses – Robyn McLeod has a bit of explaining to do – 28 Aug 2013
Robyn McLeod’s missing years discovered! Every touch leaves its trace. -27 Aug 2013
School teacher to union rep to $300,000 PA Water Commissioner – 27 Aug 2013
The best friends met when Robyn McLeod worked in the water industry and Ms Gillard was an industrial lawyer – 27 Aug 2013
Robyn McLeod worked at Thiess, the AWU, the Labor Party, MEL and ADL Water – maybe she knows what workplace reform got done? – 26 Aug 2013

My attention has been drawn to this new research led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and I have had a quick check of some of the facts.
Australia is 1.5% of global area – so 98.5% of the globe is also available to cause fluctuations in sea level.
Australia contributes 1% of global runoff according to this Wikipedia page – Water distribution on Earth. So I would ask – what happened in the other 99% during 2010-2011?
A quick read of their online article “Global sea level rise dampened by Australia floods – August 19, 2013” revealed two statements that are at odds with facts as I know them.

The article states – “Now that the atmospheric patterns have snapped back and more rain is falling over tropical oceans, the seas are rising again. In fact, with Australia in a major drought, they are rising faster than before.”
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The NCAR authors also say the continent, on average, received almost one foot (300 millimeters) of rain more than average. The actual number according to the BoM page – “Australian climate variability & change – Time series graphs” is 240.3mm averaged over the two years 2010-2011. You expect more attention to accuracy from top scientists.

I hope readers can contribute other insights and observations.
I have been hunting for Australian and global runoff annual time series.

The Fairfax online news site “WA Today” has this article commenting on plentiful rain for Perth and SW WA
Rainfall average under despite deluge – August 8, 2013 – 2:09PM – Leanne Nicholson
Adding to the dippy headline – Included is this sentence continuing the rich tradition in official Perth Govt/water circles of downplaying rain – “Despite the recent deluge, Perth has recorded an average 65.8mm this August, well under The medicine is taken orally (an hour before the intimacy session because it takes minimum one hour to a man to become sexually aroused. buy brand viagra Try getting up and moving away to cheapest viagra canada gets your blood flowing, which helps in having a better erection. With such diverse use of vardenafil 20mg tab it is confirmed that premature ejaculation constantly eating their happy moments, they should proceed to herbal treatment to manage premature ejaculation. About canadian viagra for sale 18 million men across the United States, the Rolling Stones gave a free December concert at Altamont Speedway in California with the Grateful Dead (not seen performing), Ike and Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, and the Flying Burrito Brothers (all seen performing one song each). its average rainfall of 133mm for the month.”
In view that when the article was written we had only had 8 days of August which = 25.8% of August – yet Perth had enjoyed 65.8mm of rain which is 54% of the August average – it must take a particular mindset to compose the above sentence and headline. How dare Perth skies not open up for the full August average in the first 8 days.

The comment by CP on my 2007 article –There never was a rain shortage to justify seawater desalination for Perth’s water supply – has prompted me to post the May 2012 reply from WA Minister The Hon Bill Marmion.
First – here are some relevant links – 2002 article in The West Australian Water bosses snubbed plan
This page has a graphic showing the effect of thinning – third graphic down.
“Effects of catchment thinning at Higgins near Dwellingup from WC online report”
Reply from the WA Govt Water Corporation to an article in the Rockingham local paper June 2005 The Sound Telegraph – thats Cockburn Sound.

On 14 March 2012 I emailed the WA Minister –
Dear The Honourable Bill Marmion,
You should know that Perth dam catchments are blessed with rainfall averaging over 900mm per year – and that is just in the May to October runnoff season.
Yet by decades of not managing catchment vegetation efficiently your water supply authorities are progressively decommissioning your network of dams – great facilities mostly put in place by the sweat, foresight and prudence of earlier generations.
This graphic demonstrates the relentless loss in catchment efficiency.

I have more online with my article “2011 update 37 year Perth dams catchment rainfall trend – nearly a Thousand GL of water wasted over 15 years by not managing catchments”
Please make sure you checkout my 3 page word doc linked at my online article;
“There never was a rain shortage to justify seawater desalination for Perth’s water supply”
December 4th, 2007
To improve the resilience of the Perth water supply using the most environmentally friendly and low cost methods – here is what you could do Minister.
[1] Order that dam catchment vegetation be managed so as to aim for a catchment efficiency figure of near 6%.
[2] Order that the Gnangara pines be cut forthwith in favour of native bush – the pines value as saw logs is probably less than the value of the Gnangara Mound water that they are wasting, taking water values as per the average of your desalination plants.
I would suggest that after those measures take full effect – dam levels should recover to where you might be able to close down some of your very expensive seawater desalination capacity. That would save many millions of taxpayer dollars.
You should also be able to postpone the expensive venture to tap deeper groundwater. More savings.
Please let me know if you have any questions Minister.
Yours sincerely,

Here is the reply from Minister Marmion.
Dear Mr Hughes
Thank you for your email dated 14 March 2012 regarding the management of
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I recognise that vegetation has been contributing to a reduction of inflow into surface water reservoirs of Perth’s forested surface water catchments.
A trend in reducing rainfall since the 1970s is also a considerable factor in this reduced catchment recharge . The assertion that rainfall to our dam catchments is over 900mm per year is generally true . However, this rainfall is declining markedly through the south west and is below 900mm in the significant Mundaring Weir catchment.
It should also be noted that rainfall reduction and streamflow to dams is not a linear relationship.
Once groundwater disconnects from the streams there is a significantly greater reduction in streamflow.

A recent study by the CSIRO (currently in review , pending publication) has found that the denser vegetation in Perth ‘s forested catchments is responsible for approximately one-third of the run off decline to our reservoirs. The remainder is mainly attributable to rainfall decline.

The Department of Water (DoW) has been researching this issue for some time and has also been working with other agencies and researchers on options to address
vegetation management issues . A prime example is the DoW and Water Corporation’s Wungong Catchment Thinning Trial, which is investigating the impacts of increased forest thinning on improving surface water catchment recharge in Perth’s forested water catchments.

The DoW has also contributed to the development of the Department of Environment
and Conservation ‘s (DEC) next Forest Management Plan regarding the issue of forest vegetation management and its impact on forested surface water catchments. I understand the draft plan is expected to be available for public comment by late 2012.

The DoW is also coordinating a scientific review of the rehabilitation option for mine bauxite rehabilitation in the northern jarrah forest to inform future practice.
You may also be interested in the following CSIRO report which provides information on current and future water yields of both aquifers and surface’water catchments,
www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Water-for-a-Healthy-Country-Flagship/Sustainable-Yields-Projects/SWSY.aspx.
I appreciate your interest and demonstrated concern for the future of Perth’s water supply.
Yours sincerely
HON BILL MARMION MLA
MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT; WATER
11 May 2012

My eye was caught by this ABC article – Eyes skyward for farmers waiting on rain – and the quote from the WA Premier “The Premier Colin Barnett has ruled out a bailout, saying some producers should consider walking away from their farms if they are no longer viable.”
I was curious to see long term rain trends for Merredin –
Annual rain –

and Winter rain

Recent numbers are similar to those from 1900 to before WWI – same pattern we see in Perth rain history – see chart in comments here.
Note Merredin data is only from 1903 – I added Burracoppin data to get back to 1900.
Here is another article – from The Australian 5 March – Farm exodus as drought sows seeds of despair – they choose to show a 36 mon rain decile map.
Map contrasting 36 and 24 month rain abundance.

Note that if you make the same map of rain deciles as in the article – but change the setting to 24 months not 36, the areas of average and above average rain are larger in the WA wheat belt. Remember “white” on the map is average rain. I note the farmers comments that they do not get rain when they need it and that summer rain has increased. Here are monthly rain totals from 2000

And the WA annual wheat crop from 1993

April to October rain –

I see it has been operating for 18 months and “…SA Water admitted the plant is likely to be mothballed in 2015 after its warranty period expires.”
Opposition Leader, Steven Marshall, says the Government should not have doubled the plant’s capacity from 50 to 100 gigalitres. “The original cost estimate for the 50 gigalitre site or infrastructure was going to be $500 million. We now find out the Government’s spent $2.2 billion,” he said.
“That of course is not money that the Government has paid. That’s money that every single water consumer in South Australia is going to be paying from now on.”
Sounds like another episode in the string of Australian desalination disasters and White Elephants.
I was looking for information summarizing the Adelaide water supply. This metro area map shows a lot of reservoirs and pipelines from the Murray River. However I can not find figures showing how much scheme water is sourced from rainfall around Adelaide and how much is from the river.

This story broke here in fanatasy-land a day or so ago but the roots go back two and a half years to October 2010 and earlier.
I have just faxed the ACT Chief Minister an open letter with ideas on reforming ACTEW. Here is the essential text.

Dear Chief Minister,
Re this ~$234K understating of one of the top ACTEW salaries.
Let us be clear here – this issue has been running for at least two and a half years.
I understood that the original +$600K figure (which was excessive enough) – came from a Canberra Times FOI request in 2010; if not under FOI then at least a persistent request for information that took months to be answered. Now we know the 2010 answer from ACTEW was wildly wrong and has stood until now.
Here is the 2010 story saved on RiotACT from two and a half years ago.
Mark Sullivan worth half a mil per year? – 8 Oct 2010

Clearly ACTEW needs major surgery and the following points might be just a start.
[1] Obviously they could source a replacement for less than half of what they are paying the current CEO. Review all salary scales and re-align with utilities from similar sized cities.
[2] ACTEW needs to be divorced from AGL in all areas.
[3] ACTEW should be pruned back to being an agency tasked to deliver the cheapest electricity and water to Canberra – prune back the top heavy ACTEW board and top management structure – sever non-core functions.
[4] Shut down their Civic offices and relocate to cheaper premises at depots in Fyshwick.
[5] ACTEW needs telling by Govt to cease all their “community sponsoring”. To the extent that worthy “community organisations” need financial help – a Minister should handle that task and make decisions to pay out taxpayers money through a Dept in an open and transparent process.
[6] ACTEW has wasted hundreds of $millions on gold plating our water supply while in the thrall of doomster climate change dogmas. A big contributor to blowing out the ACT debt.
[7] By “gold plating” I mean the unnecessary Murrumbidgee to Googong Water Transfer which should be put on “care & maintenance” at least cost to taxpayers.
[8] Your predecessor Chief Minister and Labor Governments contributed to ACTEW cost and debt blow-out by delaying construction of the no-brainer enlarged Cotter Dam.

And I have not started on wasteful Green power schemes – electric car scheme.

It will be more interesting when the plan sees the light of day. When the Coalition makes it into Govt they will find entrenched water bureaucrats wedded too much to “Wentworth Group” ideas that would naturally oppose the vast majority of projects in this report. There has grown in Australia an influential group of interests in favour of more expensive water.
We are certainly paying in our water bills for the last 25 years or so when Green Anti-Dam dogmas have had too much influence. Anti-Dam sentiment allied with arm-waving arguments exaggerating the 2002-2009 drought have contributed to several uneconomic seawater desalination plants being constructed. Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane desal projects are costing us multi-tens of $Billions and stand as huge “white elephants”.
Some things the Coalition could do without building a single dam.
First review all environmental flow specifications with a view to cutting them back. How crazy that the Thomson Dam for example has 35% of inflows wasted to the sea. Should add that on 5 Feb 2012 I posted – Possible Kimberley region nation building dam projects
Never used plans going back half a century.