Updated on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 12:27PM by stevem

The Bligh Government may not admit it but there were quarters breathing a deep sigh of relief after federal Minister Peter Garrett put the ‘stop’ sign up for the Traveston dam project. The wheels were well in motion for damming the Mary River when Anna Bligh took over as premier — it was a Peter Beattie project. Fast forward to 2009 and the State Government simply can’t afford any more big-ticket infrastructure projects. To have the Traveston dam off the books is like winning lotto for this Government. And limiting water consumption to 200 litres per person per day is as much about delaying the need to sign a cheque for another desalination plant as it is about genuine water conservation.

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Campaigners who have successfully stopped the construction of the proposed Traveston Crossing dam were today calling on the Premier to “stop the scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Minister Garrett’s decision regarding the proposed dam. “We are responding to the repeated claims by the Premier that now that the Traveston Crossing dam has been knocked back by Garrett, water prices will have to go up in Brisbane,” said Glenda Pickersgill, president of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.” The Coordinator General himself admitted in his report on the Traveston Crossing dam proposal, that even with the highest population growth predicted only 20 billion litres more water would be needed in South East Queensland by 2026.

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LAST month’s announcement that the federal government would demand a say in planning the future of Australian cities saw Queensland premier Anna Bligh immediately jump in with a suggestion. Ms Bligh applauded prime minister Kevin Rudd’s approach but said her state already had the answers. Lauding her government’s infrastructure plan as an international award winner, Ms Bligh said it could be the model to guide the growth of the “big Australia” Mr Rudd envisaged. There is fat chance of that now. Central to that SEQ infrastructure plan was her government’s $9 billion water strategy which now lies exposed as an exercise in pure folly.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:38AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:42AM by stevem

Premier Anna Bligh has another water battle on her hands after a huge rally last night vowed to fight tooth and nail to block desalination plants as a water security option. Ms Bligh will again have to run the gauntlet of the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Protection Act, which killed off the Traveston Crossing Dam. The Marcoola pipeline route from the ocean to the desalination plant and then on to connect with the grid to take water to Brisbane would affect 35 different species covered by that act, according to Sunshine Coast councillor Debbie Blumel.

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Updated on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 06:55AM by stevem

Campaigners who have successfully stopped the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal yesterday called on Premier Anna Bligh to “stop scaremongering” over the price of water in the wake of Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s rejection of the dam. The Premier’s claims had already been shown to be spurious and that was one reason they were rejected, according to Save the Mary River Group president Glenda Pickersgill. “The independent assessment Minister Garrett commissioned found the economic analysis used to justify the failed Traveston Crossing Dam to be seriously flawed. This report vindicates criticisms that we, and many other groups have made over the last three and a half years.” “Are they using the same flawed economic analysis to support the statements made last week about the increase in water costs? - asked Ms Pickersgill. “The figures suggested by Minister Robertson last week certainly don’t stack up in our view and we are very concerned that the Premier is making the same mistakes all over again.” “If prices go up, the numbers show it would be no fault of Minister Garrett but the fault of the Queensland Government for their dogmatic approach to water management, their consistent economic bungling and repeated cost blowouts in their water infrastructure projects.

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The Queensland president of the Australian Water Association (AWA) says the State Government has plenty of water supply options for the south-east. The AWA’s annual Queensland regional conference was held at Coolum, on the Sunshine Coast, at the weekend. Issues discussed included the management, treatment and regulation of water. Last week, Premier Anna Bligh said the construction of two desalination plants would have to be brought forward because the Traveston Crossing dam, near Gympie, had been vetoed. But the AWA’s John Graham says desalination is one of a number of options. “There are plenty of options - there’s recycled water, there’s stormwater recycling, there’s surface water, there’s also desalination but there’s also consumption,” he said. “Certainly changing people’s patterns, that is an important factor.

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IF YOU’VE ever wondered why your garden hose has been reduced to a trickle or the water barely makes it to your shower head - here’s why. In a desperate bid to stop ageing pipes and water mains bursting, Sydney Water dropped the pressure in thousands of homes. It claims its “pressure management program” has already saved an estimated $4.6 million and 400 water main breaks, with the program expected to save the equivalent of 30 Olympic-size swimming pools a day.

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Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:03AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 07:34AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:04AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:15AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 09:00AM by stevem

A Split has opened in the state government over whether a desalination plant would be built and operating at Marcoola by 2017. Queensland premier Anna Bligh responded to the federal government’s axing of the Traveston dam last week by declaring that sites at Marcoola and Lytton, on Brisbane’s bayside, would “be needed for desalination to be operational in 2017. This will mean more expensive water as a result of the federal decision this afternoon”. However, the department of natural resources, in response to several questions asked by the Sunshine Coast Daily, has cast serious doubt on those time lines.

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THE tears of relief shed over the Mary River’s reprieve have been many, but let’s not get carried too far down stream by this flood of emotion. Now, alternatives have to be considered, but not in the stridently reactionary way of premier Bligh. Why the rush to build more desalination plants, Anna? This smells more of payback than planning. The first one at Tugun, plagued as it is with problems, doesn’t strike me as much of a model to be duplicated or trebled or even quadrupled. Why not raise the walls of existing dams like Wivenhoe, Borumba, Baroon and so on? By the time that’s done, say in five or 10 years, the technology for desalination could well have improved to make it much more viable. Meanwhile, why not a “Tanks a Million” campaign to capture more of the wasteful run-off from roofs?

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Premier Anna Bligh should use the money she has “saved” on the $1.8 billion Traveston Dam project to buy every household in South-East Queensland a rainwater tank, say the Greens. South-East Queensland added around 240,000 rainwater tanks over the past three years and there are about 450,000 ratepayers in Brisbane alone. Australian Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland, Larissa Waters, said the Premier must move more aggressively on cutting the demand for water stored in dams.

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