MASS NATURAL WATER STORAGE FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND ITS FARMERS
Original articles below
The Great Artesian Basin provides the only reliable source of freshwater through much of inland Australia. The basin
is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world,
stretching over a total of 1,700,000 square kilometres
(660,000 sq miles).
Utilising
this resource as a mass natural storage device is the easiest and most effective
Independent ideal to water proof Australia.
I have
studied and worked with experts in water recycling and storage ideals for over
a decade. Yet in Australia educated ways forward are rarely considered unless
they come from government sponsored experts. (Many articles on my website)
Colin Pitman
a great South Australian, leads the way in proven natural methods to filter
storm water and inject it into the Aquifers, resulting in potable drinking
water without inflicting undue pressure on our ageing electricity generation or
the local environment.
Do we wish
to see a picture of power guzzling desalination plants, or natural wetlands
that take up the task of overcoming habitat restoration?
In recent
years in South Australia we have seen most infrastructure investment in road
and highway upgrades, yet consideration for the huge run off, hasn'’t even
earned a mention.
“Sending
billions of litres of water out to see, from the driest continent on earth, is ludicrous”.
Three years
ago I exposed a massive attack on the integrity of the basin. The state Labor
government closed down websites that clearly showed the existing use needed
improved regulation, and opted for new legislation allowing unlimited free take
by local contractors. The result was devastating to the local levels and water
quality, but nothing could be done.
Out of sight
out of mind is inexcusable and clear vision being clouded by corporate greed is
unacceptable!
Piping and
pumping water around the country is a pipe dream when one considers the
financial position years of a Labor government has created, yet most farms have
their pumps already in the ground.
In my area
of Virginia/Penfield, increasing bore depth is becoming a massive impost, to
our struggling farming sector with upgraded bores costing tens of thousands of
dollars. So why not bring the water to the farm?
I am not an
expert in the logistics of such an idea, but Colin Pitman in SA years ago,
could have out preformed the desalination plant in water production and costs, yet
his ideals were overlooked. Could they not have looked at the very successful
Salisbury Council wetlands project?
That
decision has left us with a white Elephant (Desal plant) that is costing us a
fortune even when it is not even in service, through green power contracts. What is more environmentally sound than
wetlands and their known ability as a carbon sink?
“I have
called for this idea for years now. So if I am wrong, please explain why?”
Any massive
catchment, including all, of our larger infrastructure has the ability to
harness storm water and inject it through filtering direct into the Aquifers. Storage
levels in the Artesian Basin exceeds an estimated 64,900 cubic kilometres, the
largest in the world, and provided to us free, by mother nature herself.
Why can’t Australia lead the world, in
water recycling, storage ideals, and farm production? Remembering food will be
the largest export trade in future years, and our farmers are the best in the
world.
Good farming practices, affordable water
and common-sense governmental support,
could see Australia again rise to the top of the list in food production, which
would help replace the income presently being lost in the ailing mining sector.
People will tell you “he must be wrong, he
is only an Independent” but independent thinking may be the only way forward!
Mark Aldridge
Independent federal candidate for Wakefield
South Australia’s future water security by Mark Aldridge Independent 2010
Since the early 1970’s water
storage was somewhat put on the back burner, as governments eyes were solely on
the shiny dollar, putting economic growth above essential services.
With no eggs in the storage
basket, it seemed the Murray was the cheapest solution, but then the population
started to out grow available resources, pushing water prices through the roof,
and causing a major crisis in available resources.
Consecutive governments were
caught with their pants down, when the drought came, they had done nothing
since the 1970’s and the Murray could no longer sustain their short
sightedness, and with election terms their ideal of long term vision,
desalination seemed the easy way out.
“The almighty spin and money
grab relating to water has clouded the way forward, leaving us with an inept
Labor government throwing money at the big end of town at the expense of
reliable and affordable water for not only personal and business use, but more
so surety of our food bowl” Mark said.
The savior was sold over a
couple of elections “Desalination” the location itself had major issues, the
environmental impact less than ideal, and the long term costs staggering, the
path to where all the money ends up, paints an interesting over all picture.
The alternatives were many,
from grand cross-country piping schemes, to the simple raising of water storage
levels, but the stand out choice for SA from my studies was and is storm water
recycling and aquifer storage.
Consider the actual picture
alone, with out the many other factors, for which sustainability and long term
costs will further back my preferred ideal. Scattered wet lands through out the
state or the ugly picture of a massive plant sucking our dwindling power
supplies.
Salisbury City already has a
world leading program to collect, cleanse and store storm water, it is
economical, environmentally friendly, helps restore native habitat, and looks
great to boot.
Salisbury alone has a
rainfall/storm water quota of around 33 GL, the state in total has in excess of
350 GL of storm water available for capture and our underground storage is
quoted at around 175 GL, more than enough to completely water proof the state.
Colin Pitman once offered to
waterproof South Australia, only to meet with the usual ignorance of our Labor
government, it was a better option for the environment, employment and over all
costing, including the long-term overheads of running a desalination plant.
Salisbury Council has put about $38 million into
its wetlands, and revenue is estimated at $15 million to $20 million a year.
But that is only the beginning, so the storm water can not only pay for itself,
it would ensure a lower cost resource for all South Australian, something I
sincerely doubt will be bragged by the new desalination plant with the
overheads of power alone.
The Desalination plant faced
many problems before it even made the planning stages, environmentalists
exposed the danger of not only the process but the location, the costs alone
blew out to over 1.83 Billion, the completion date behind schedule, work place
safety failed, and even this being the fact, the Rann Labor government awarded
the builders very handsome (50 million bonus).
The claimed output was to be
50 GL, and maximum output was expanded at the last minute to around 100 GL,
which has yet to be proven, the costs do not end there, a 20 year power supply
contract was signed at $130 million per year.
"It is a financially risky business, once
you build a plant of this nature, there's the imperative to operate them,
sometimes a contractual imperative to operate them flat-out." Are the
words of the leading experts, and this is a sad fact when looking at the
long-term costs, which we all know are passed on to we the consumers.
One liter of purified seawater can cost four
times to source than dam water, so the desal plant is going to cost us dearly
compared to the ideal of storm water recycling, let alone if the government had
simply continued to increase dam storage beyond the 70’s when the last
expansion took place.
"The life spans of some of these plants
certainly is not as long as building a dam, or some of the other recycling
options, so it's a costly way of providing water," with more long term pain
than gain, says Mark
Once a plant is built, electricity makes up 60
per cent of running costs, according to the National Water Commission. Even
taking all costs into account - from construction to ongoing maintenance -
energy still accounts for a quarter of the total expenditure. So allowing in SA
a cost of 130 million and rising for power alone, the yearly costs could
stretch to 300 million, yet the Salisbury wet lands scheme if adopted on a
state wide basis, would have reduced that cost 4 fold, and kept not only the
over all budget down, but the end costs to all users.
Colin Pitman’s scheme was quoted at a statewide
cost of around 1.4 billion, it would have saved us the huge burden of the power
costs and would have been an environmental blessing to the state as a whole,
let alone the benefits for our habitat restoration and the overall presentation
as a state.
The fact is, regardless of where the power for
desalination is sourced, it still means we will have to up the level of
supposed Co2 emissions, again attracting a further huge cost in the soon to be
introduced federal Labor carbon tax, so rising costs will blow out to simply
unacceptable levels, my estimates of around 16% increase in running costs from
a carbon tax by 2104 make for a massive burden on the South Australian tax
payer, or should I say water users.
“It is mind boggling that a scheme like that of
wetlands what would absorb Co2 would be pushed aside for one that emits more”,
says Mark
Aquifers can store large quantities of water without
losses from evaporation and with reduced risk of contamination, both of which
are problems associated with surface water storage areas such as reservoirs and
dams, water brought up to drinking standards can be added to existing
infrastructure, so can easily be made available to every home and business,
unlike the purple piped related sewerage water, or the added infrastructure
required by desalination.
It is not too late for the government to adopt
such measures for the state, even if gradually introduced, the desalination
plant will not last for ever, and droughts are some times followed by flooding
rains, so why not top up the storage facilities offered up to us by mother
nature herself.
With water, power and food production being the
most important necessities, let alone our ailing environment, and the fact our
long-term future extends way beyond the next election, why not embrace the
Ideal of storm water recycling and Aquifer storage now, even if it takes a few
years, if population growth continues, so will our need for clean water,
affordable power and locally grown produce.
Mark M Aldridge
Independent for Ramsay
\ 08
82847482 / 0403379500
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