I found this on www – not sure where it was sourced – if anybody knows please pass on. Falling Behind – Water supply vs population growth.
In one simple picture – how Australian politicians and policy makers been so comprehensively dudded by Green anti-dam lies. ANCOLD – The Australian National Committee on Large Dams has an xls file for download with stats & specs for all large Oz dams. Please circulate chart to relevant politicians.
The foreign seawater desalination industry must have had to pinch themselves; at finding Australia was such a tailor made heaven sent market for them.
I want to build a timeline of “Green Anti-damism” and related events – I hope readers can assist – here is a quick start from my dodgy old memory.
[1] 1983 Commonwealth blocked the Gordon on Franklin dam in Tasmania.
[2] post 1995 the NSW Govt of Premier Bob Carr increased National Parks around Sydney sterilising areas where water supply dams additional to Warragamba could sensibly have been built.
[3] pre 2000 WA Govt decides not to manage bush in Perth water supply catchments so not only do they build no more dams – they slowly decommission existing dams.
[4] 2002 “pre 2000” above was laid out in Steve Pennells 3Aug2002 press article.
[5] Oct 2002 Water symposium WA Parl House
[6] 2002 saw a dry winter for Perth and region which hit dam levels and somewhat panicked the new Labor Govt.
[7] 2003 The foreign seawater desal industry might have been touching bases in Perth Govt fer sure.
[8] June 2004 Tim Flannery predicted “Perth will die”.
[9] Aug 2006 Vic Nationals sensible idea to dam the Mitchell River in east Gippsland canned by LibLab naysayers.
[10] Nov 2006 Kwinana desal plant commissioned
[11] May 2007 West Australian Premier talks utter nonsense about rainfall – see Hansard
[12] July 2007 WA Govt full page press advert showing catchment inflows will end.
[13] 2007 Various blog articles from my “water” category
[14] 2007 ACT Govt – yes Canberra – spends multi $Millions scoping a seawater desal plant on NSW coast with water to be pumped 150km inland and vertically 750m.
[15] 2006-2007 and after WA Govt spread their weird anti-rain ideas to Eastern States via COAG and other lower level Govt channels. The misleading WA dam inflows graphic can be found in various Eastern States water reports. Plenty of “water bureaucrats” saw nothing wrong with “more expensive water” and academics like the “Wentworth Group” eagerly chimed in.
[16] Nov 2009 proposed Traveston dam north of Brisbane near Gympie cancelled by Peter Garrett
[17] 2009 Tugun desal plant on Gold Coast commissioned
[18] 2010 Kurnell desal plant in Sydney commissioned
[19] 2010-2011 Big wet years Eastern Australia. I need URL’s to floods.
[20 2011 Wyaralong dam built in SE Qld – a rare dam built against the trend.
[21] 2012 Binningup south of Perth, Wonthaggi near Melbourne and Port Stanvac Adelaide all commissioned a vintage year for “seawater desalination Mega Taxpayer $Billions wasting” in Oz
[22] Nov 2012 PM Julia Gillard signed into law the Murray Darling Basin plan that kneecapped dams with increased environmental flows. I have been commenting on the wasteful MDB plan for years.
[23] Dec 2012 Enlarged Cotter dam built for Canberra Rolls Royce water supply – another rare dam built against the trend.
[24] Feb 2013 When Tony Abbott was Opposition Leader the Libs/Nats develop a report said to mention 100 dam sites. It was leaked in Feb 2013 and seldom heard about again.
Coalition bold water plan leaked
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Not vandals ABC!! Just sensible people who want to use water their taxes have paid to dam. All “environmental flows” should be simply cancelled – now.
Dumped gravel and rocks blocks environmental water from flowing into Murray-Darling forest 23Sep19
Yep, we will find out just how clever this is when the Warragamba Catchment suffers from a decent wild fire.
It is staggering. Just imagine decades ago around 1985 deep in Tasmania a group of Greens kicking ideas around. Somebody says – “now we have beaten the Gordon/Franklin – lets campaign against all mainland dams”. Surely someone else would say “attacking peoples water supply is hardly likely to succeed”.
Yet with help from GreenLeft public servants, GreenLeft academics, GreenLeft media; they have walked it in no worries and now any dam proposal is by default starting from 100 miles behind.
Just what is an “environmental flow” in any river during a prolonged drought ?
Zero ?
The Thompson Dam in Victoria was designed and built by the now defunct Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works and completed in 1983. It was intended to drought-proof Melbourne for 25 years (to 2008).
The MMBW had plans for further dams to keep up with Melbourne’s growing population but these went in the dust bin with the MMBW itself.
No dams have been built since and it is only good fortune that has seen enough rainfall to add water into the Thompson dam.
Ever since the dam was completed it has provided a steady “environmental flow” down the river, regardless of the conditions nature arranges.
This begs the question would the dam be holding more water today if this waste (environmental flow) had been curtailed?
Three years ago I did blog on wasteful enviro flows from Thomson dam. But it is right thru all our dams like a “Green virus”. I have been advocating that all EF’s simply be cancelled.
Looks like finding money to deconstruct dams is not too hard.
“Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt said it was a “kick in the guts for producers … that the Queensland State Labor Government would — in the middle of a drought — announce they will spend up to $100 million to reduce the height of the wall of Paradise Dam”
www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-24/bundaberg-paradise-dam-water-release-controversy/11541856
In 2003 the Bracks Labor government created the huge Mitchell River National Park In Gippsland. Ending any chance that Victoria would be able to dam the huge Mitchell catchment, mitigate the regular floods and harvest the water So we got the huge Wonthaggi desalt white elephant, a $1M a day mill stone that has not been used yet apart from a short squirt for show at one point.
I saw the Dubbo Mayor on TV news talking about increased water restrictions due to the low level of Burrendong dam which supplies town water for Wellington, Dubbo, Narrowmine. Google tells me Burrendong dam was built in 1967, heavens!! 52 years ago. 3 x Sydney Harbours I think I saw.
Warwick The Paradise dam mentioned by Sliggy was approved in 2002 and completed in 2005 see here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Dam_(Queensland)
I think it was around 2007 that Flannery said during a Qld drought period something like “even if it rains the dams will not fill” . When there was record rainfall (since records kept) in Dec 2010 the government ordered the Wivenhoe dam to be kept at 100% drinking water level (although Jan, Feb, and Mar are the rainy months). With more rain in Jan 2011 dam level had reached a dangerous overflow level and water had to be released which caused flooding in Brisbane and deaths. Flannery , the water minister and the Premier should have been jailed. The Royal Commissioners of inquiry with limited terms of reference should have been charged with a breach of the Professional Engineers Act Qld ( none of the three were registered engineers and so should not have given opinions about the design or operation)
Brisbane had floods in 1974 it was then proposed to lift the level of Wivenhoe dam for both drinking water and flood mitigation. Even after the 2011 floods it still has not been done but the level for water release has been lowered from 100% to 75%.
ANCOLD lists Wivenhoe as being built in 1985 – I assume that is completion.
BTW – has the LNP coalition Govt starting with Abbott in Sep 2013 approved a dam anywhere in Oz ?
Have any dam proposals come before them?
We must remember they have been a lame duck Govt from day 1 – never controlling the Senate.
There has been recent yakka about Nth Qld but specifics elude me.
As cementafriend (above) correctly points out:
> “The Royal Commissioners of inquiry with limited terms of reference should have been charged with a breach of the Professional Engineers Act Qld ( none of the three were registered engineers …”
This criterion also applies to the current destruction of our power grids. No MSM outlet in over 5 years has published an in-depth interview with a genuine, experienced power grid engineer (about 18 months ago, I confronted a journo from The Aus on exactly this – his reply was a weaselly “engineers are boring” excuse). One of the hard results of this delinquency is that the domestic solar output, maximised about midday in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne almost simultaneously, is only now recognised as being unable to reach transmission lines beyond the local sub-stations (duuuhhh !!).
Now we have that vomitous lawyer running the AEMO whining for more $billions to re-engineer these sub-stations. Our despicable MSM will not recognise its’ own hypocrisy here from the gold-plating lie propagandised a few years ago.
Here are a few policy threads that have assumed more importance over recent decades as Greens Anti-Dam policies have gripped tighter.
Toilet water to drinking water. I recall more than one council or Govt beating up this solution to water shortages. Toowoomba I think; certainly in Perth waste water is injected into ground water and I have a distant memory Canberra was talking up “water purification”. Anywhere else?
Household water tanks is another that we heard some years back but seems to have gone quiet lately.
More expensive water. I am sure I have read on this blog about policy drifting this way for years now. Green agitprop refers to water as “precious” despite it being one of the most common compounds on planet earth.
ABC reports Prime Minister and NSW Premier announce $1b funding for Wyangala, Dungowan dam projects
Dungowan is near Tamworth and both are upgrades to existing sites.
I enjoyed quote from Gladys, “What was missing in the past, was the funds to accelerate the project”. Reality is NSW budget has been overflowing with funds from real-estate taxes. So overflowing Govt has commenced wasteful projects like replacing perfectly sound stadiums. Can you fix link please.