This is a genuine question - would you have preferred the dam (like Anna did)?

Sorry that last comment was not aimed at you obviously but it was not very constructive.

How about this?

Having lived for 24 years in towns that draw water from the Murray Darling system, Albury, Bathurst and Oberon, one becomes used to the fact that some of the water used in the towns reticulation has in fact passed through the sewage system of the town upstream, except in the case of Oberon which is at the summit of the catchment. There are one hell of a lot of people living in those towns. Look at a map. Millions of people live there, Dubbo, Wellington, Wodonga, Echuca all happily drinking and washing in water that has passed through really hi tech treatment plants and a lot of intestines.

And it not just limited to the Murray Darling. Every river system the supports more than one town is the same.

If it is good enough for the citizens of these towns to use recycled water why is it not good enough for the citizens of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to do the same thing?

Politics!

I take great delight in the fact that a lot of what I have flushed down the toilet in Oberon ends up in the Waragamba dam outside Sydney, to dwell there for a short time before being meted out to the good citizens of Sydney. Yes I get a nice warm feeling when I think of that! I am sure the citizens of Lithgow feel the same way!

The jump to desalination plants indicates that no one is really taking energy reduction seriously either and that is really sad.

Compulsory rain water tanks for every single household, unit development etc.....and an allocation of metered water,
once you use your allocated amount you either have rainwater only or you have to buy more water at a higher cost and your meter gets put back on.

Will certainly make people think before wasting water etc.....

just a thought

thanks willy
last time i was on the gold coast I saw this monsterous thing sitting off the beach
Can goldcoast people please update on what has been the impact

thanks
Bruce

Fact of life however you look at it – the more people in Oz, the more water sources required and the demand won’t stop until the population stops growing, and if the public doesn’t want to build dams or tap ground-water, desal it is!

If everyone cut his consumption by half, by the time the population doubles, we will be using exactly the same as we are now, so we will just be delaying the problem.

Why blast the poor **&^’ers playing catch up trying to provide essential services – if you feel that strongly against essential infrastructure, spend energy on trying to ensure the population doesn’t grow.

My 2 cents!

Welcome to the world of 2868 folks....far too much BS is driving the political agenda...mainly because certain parties have biased business interests....just have a look at the pecuniary interest register for state and federal politicians....its no different from the wankers in the good ol US of A flogging the climate change agenda. Those that will make money on a business venture go pro and those that don't try to look good by playing the " don't do it card ".

If you don't believe it then just have a look at some of the directors names of companies involved in the Kurnell desal BS.....very interesting indeed.

Nothing has changed really since the beginning of mankind...there is always someone out there ready to rip off his fellow countryman/woman......but it just seems to be so bloody everywhere at the moment.....and it is really p!ssing me off

sorry for the rant folks....too many of the little red pills have kicked in.

THANKS FOR THE APOLOGY

the fox

Hi Brucex we have the desal that NSW had to have here in the KKK (Kurnell) its not quiet finished yet , but they have completely destroyed the roads the water front and for a time totally polluted the bay while dredgeing and laying pipes any complaints made by locals were completely ignored ,

when its finished granted you will only see the plant but there pledge to return the town to exactly what it was before they started is absolute bull.

Good luck . hope you have more of it than we did.

maybe we could borrow some money of a foreign country and centrally irrergate qld [or **** already been thought of: may we save the queen because nothing can save the governor general

Desal combined with Nuclear is the way forward, like it or not and somewhere (wherever they build it) someone is going to be pissed off. Its just a reality of the way we are moving. Unless you plan on showering once every 3 days and living with the stench of only flushing every 3rd crap, get used to the idea.

^^^ With all due respect, just because QLD is at the top of the map doesn't mean the water has a downhill run to get to the southern states.
Would be worth comparing the energy needed to pump water vast distances vs the energy needed to desal.
Yes, it seems a shame to see the various rivers in QLD flowing with huge amounts of fresh water straight into the sea, but pumping it to Vic. is not the silver bullet

Bigwavedave said...

Don't underestimate the power of the people.

Mary River was saved by the loud protests of voters. More sensible options should now be considered

Qld's Labor Party are clinging to power by a fingernail and this decision to force energy intensive desalination plants on the population will be their death knell.

Dave's future forecast: LNP will win next election and existing dam walls will be raised... hmmmmm

The problem is the water issue is not going to go away and every year they delay building something, they put Aus in deeper ****. De-sal plants don't get built overnight so I'm guessing it would take 5-10 years to build like the power plants do.

Pumping from the north vs desal – rough rule of thumb for a 50GL/year flow, which is the size of the first phase of most of the desal plants that are currently being built:-

Pipe that does not have to be replaced every 30 years purchased and laid costs $2mil per km. 500km + approx cost of 1 desal plant
You need to pump roughly every 100km – 5 pump stations use as much energy as 1 desal plant.
A good working width to construct a pipeline is 30m, so you need a 30m corridor from the north - then you have the NIMBY’s greenies, possum huggers, aboriginal heritage, EPA, politics and every money grabbing land owner along the route to contend with and pay, which believe it or not, is added to the price of the water.

If it was a canal, you need a fall of about 1 in 1000, so after a 1000km your trench would be 1km deep, not to mention all the rivers you have to build bridges to get over, or mountains you have to cut down to maintain your grade or stop the water flowing to the ocean.

For the next 50GL/year, you have to do it all again at the same cost.

They paid some dudes $5 million to look at the viability of getting water from the ORD to Perth – I have just done it in 13 lines for free!! Desal is cheaper and more energy efficient than bringing water anywhere further than approx 500km from the source.

Answer – stop immigration and population growth and the problem will go away by itself.

This is the sort of subject that should not have anything to do with politics. We deserve better and yet whenever it becomes an issue it gets very divisive. You are not on your own up there and only when sheer necessity or great leadership comes to the fore does it get resolved.

If you are looking for examples of good water management go anywhere West of the range to see some good ideas born of sheer necessity. Boiling the salt out of water to flush turds is a ridiculous notion. Good to see there is some support on recycling.

They also did some smart stuff by raising their dam wall and now Orange are laying claim to some water.

Here they are proposing a dam outside Newcastle to feed the Central Coast. The Shoalhaven were told that Sydney would take their "excess water"! What the **** is excess water?

If a place cannot supply it's own water then perhaps it is time to have a think about spreading things around a little, or god forbid, slowing down growth!

Bathurst water treatment now removes nutrient as well as sludge. I have fiished for trout on the outflow without concern about eating the fish. They achieved this with a great deal of research paid for by the taxpayer and it seems ludicrous to me that they are not brought into the equation.

Also have a look at some of the scandal about collusion between the electricity supplier and the energy rating regulator in WA. As I recall there was some collusion there.

what are we going to use for engery when the Dsal plants use up all the coal? and Australias become a radioactive toxic waste dump? and we can hardly breath due to all the CO2 and other gasses?

check out this...

www.originclear.com/

Piss easy soulition, get Peter Garret into kiting!!!.

I'll give the bloke lessons!!!