MARK M ALDRIDGE - Water answers gather dust           a.userlink { color: #000000; } a.userlink:visited { color: #25120d; } a.userlink:hover { color: #25120d; } font[size="1"] { font-size:10px; } font[size="2"] { font-size:13px; } font[size="3"] { font-size:16px; } font[size="4"] { font-size:18px; } font[size="5"] { font-size:24px; } font[size="6"] { font-size:32px; } font[size="7"] { font-size:48px; } .GuestBookMessage { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 13px; } .GuestBookMessageRow { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 12px; } .GuestBookHeader { font-family: Times New Roman; color: #25120d; font-size: 12px; }                                                                                         IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OUR WOES GATHERING DUST?  With the state government asking for Ideas from the public, and our water supply and river system suffering the stress of decades of inaction, millions wasted on talk fests and spin, could all our answers lay in the past? Is there an answer to secure our water needs, cleanse our might river, lift our food production and address other long-term issues like power production and unemployment rates? Once again, the Clarence River is in flood at Grafton, NSW, but if the Clarence River Scheme, which has been on the books since at least the early 1920s had been built, that water would now be on its way down the Darling River, to save the parched towns, farms and lakes of South Australia. The scheme would divert the waters of the upper Clarence and Nymboida Rivers over the Great Dividing Range into the Dumaresq River, and on into the Macintyre, Barwon, and Darling Rivers, before flowing into the Murray River near Mildura, and on down to South Australia. Additionally, a nearby Macleay River project would divert water into the Gwydir River and on into the Barwon and Darling Rivers. Emeritus Professor Lance Endersbee designed the Clarence Scheme as a pump storage scheme, which can take advantage of surplus off-peak electricity to pump water over the range and into storage dams, which will then produce hydroelectricity from an annual flow of water comparable to that of the Snowy Mountains diversion.  (Professor Endersbee was Dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice Chancellor of Monash University, at the end of a long career, which included distinguished work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Tasmania’s hydro scheme, and hydroelectric schemes in Southeast Asia.)  He told a national conference in 1997, “There is the catchments of the Clarence River and it is a wonderful little cup in there, and very steep country, high rainfall and one of the highest rainfall areas in Australia, and they get the summer rains down from the monsoons coming down and they get the winter rains as well. “So there is a lot of rainfall there and it all flows out into the sea, and if you have been to Grafton, you know how wide the Clarence River is at Grafton. It’s a big river” he said. He went further to say“ I have designed a scheme for the diversion of the Clarence into the Darling. Now there is a lot of algae in the Darling. This would flush all the algae out of the Darling.” Most importantly, the Clarence River diversion would go a long way to saving the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s food bowl, which produces 40 per cent of the national agricultural output, and comprises 75 per cent of Australia’s irrigated land, which to date has been slowly eroded.   Imagine the opportunity for Australia to again lead the world rather than the usual between election quick fixes we have become accustomed to. The wasted millions on the past decades on talk fests, combined with the promise of 10 Billion by the federal government would be more than enough to ensure our rivers health and secure the water we need to step forward into the next century. We must also consider the side effects of such a scheme, huge employment across many states, the reduction of reliance on imported food stocks via securing the future of our food bowl producers, not to mention the National pride created by such a grand scale project. Sometimes old fashioned Ideas should not be left in the past, not only would several states of Australia overcome power, water, employment and environmental issues associated with such grand ideals, but our government could restore the peoples faith in their leadership. All we need for success is long term vision further than the next election and a governing body with the balls to do so.   Mark M Aldridge INDEPENDENT Candidate                       Website provided by Vistaprint