ENGINEERS are racing the clock to link Wivenhoe Dam with Toowoomba’s water supply before the Darling Downs city runs dry. More than 125,000 people in the Toowoomba region hope a $187 million pipeline from Wivenhoe to Cressbrook Dam will be their saviour. The 38km link is due to be commissioned in January, easing the situation for residents on level 5 restrictions that limit individual daily use to 140 litres. All outside use of hoses is banned to conserve dams which have fallen to 9.7 per cent of average capacity.

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TOOWOOMBA will become the first large urban centre to draw its town water from the Great Artesian Basin, with more than 400 megalitres a month to be extracted to meet the needs of the drought-ravaged city on Queensland’s Darling Downs. A $17million project is under way to drill bores to meet Toowoomba’s requirements as experts warned that water levels in the 1.7 million sqkm basin were falling sharply from overuse. A referendum to pump recycled waste water to shrinking storages in Toowoomba, Australia’s biggest inland city with a population of 120,000, was defeated in a 2006 referendum, with 62 per cent of residents voting no. Toowoomba will be connected to southeast Queensland’s $9 billion water grid in 2010, when it will receive water from the Wivenhoe Dam, but with city dam levels at 9.5per cent capacity yesterday — half what they were at the time of the referendum — alternative water sources are needed.

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Updated on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 10:36AM by stevem

Premier Anna Bligh welcomed news of the project, which she said would deliver a “royalties windfall,” to the state, generate hundreds of permanent jobs and help in the battle against global warming. “LNG (liquefied natural gas) is a key transition fuel as we move away from traditional fuels,” Ms Bligh said. “A gas-fired power station emits half the greenhouse gases of a coal-fired station. “As well, coal seam gas contains only about 3 per cent carbon dioxide and the carbon dioxide produced can be pumped back into the coal seam as part of the gas extraction process.” An added benefit will be that part of the gas extraction process produces large volumes of underground water – equivalent to about a quarter of Brisbane’s annual consumption – which can be used after further processing to help drought-stricken areas.

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The Bribie Island Environmental Protection Association (BIEPA), which had co-operated with the council on the Aquifer Management Working Group, developing the plans for bores and a water treatment plant, has released a draft report condemning the council for placing “the integrity of entire surface aquifer dependent flora and fauna ecosystems of Bribie Island at extreme risk.” Environmental engineer and scientist, and BIEPA president, Ian Bell, wrote the report. He states that the watchdog organisation worked with the council “on the understanding that BIEPA would not oppose this project if a suitable management and monitoring program was implemented to protect the ecology of Bribie Island. Unfortunately, such measures have not been taken.”

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Adelaide Airport Ltd commissioned studies into the plan’s feasibility after a similar project was developed by Salisbury City Council at Parafield airport in Adelaide’s north, according to Salisbury’s director of city projects Colin Pitman. He believed the recycling project could capture up to a third of the annual runoff from the Adelaide metropolitan area. The plan would have more than 50 gigalitres of storm runoff stored in aquifers under the airport and provide up to 30GL back to the city. Its proponents say that could be done at a fraction of the cost of a $1.4 billion desalination plant now under consideration. Mr Pitman said yesterday that 52GL of stormwater ran through or around Adelaide airport each year. “As a first step we could capture 15 to 20GL of that water eventually stepping up to 30GL stored in aquifers under the airport.”

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The federal Government will spend $50 million to develop a national groundwater action plan, which will include an investigation into underground dams, as well as the potential of vast water resources in aquifers in northern Australia. Some of the money will also be used to improve the management of groundwater resources that cross state borders. Under the plan, a working group will assess sites suitable for managed aquifer recharge.

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Another plank in one of Brisbane’s key drought projects will be laid today with the tapping of a massive underground water bore in the city’s south. The Runcorn aquifer site will supply up to 10 million litres (megalitres) of filtered and disinfected groundwater a day to the area’s drinking water supply. It is the second and most significant part of Brisbane City Council’s $75 million aquifer project, which is tapping the underground water source for the first time in more than 175 years.

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A NEWLY found imprint of a vast, ancient underground lake in Sudan’s Darfur could restore peace to the region by providing a potential water source to an area ravaged by drought, a US geologist says. “What most people don’t really know is that the war, the instability, in Darfur is all based on the lack of water,” Farouk el-Baz, director of Boston University’s Centre for Remote Sensing, said. The potential water deposits were found with radar that allowed researchers to see inside the depths of the desert sands. The images, Mr el-Baz said, uncovered a “megalake” of 30,750 sq km - three times the size of Lebanon.

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A key new water source was tapped for the first time in more than 175 years today as part of Brisbane’s ongoing and desperate battle against the drought. The Sunnybank bore site will supply 2.5 million litres of filtered and disinfected groundwater a day to the area’s drinking water supply. It is part of Brisbane City Council’s $75 million aquifer project to make use of a large underground water source on Brisbane’s south side. The complex project has involved extensive bore drilling and testing across the area, the laying of pipes between sites and the construction of five separate treatment plants.

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Updated on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 10:59AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 04:06PM by stevem

TODAY’S State Budget will provide $6.5 million over four years for a statewide study to identify new groundwater resources across Queensland, including near Gympie, Premier Peter Beattie and Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace announced yesterday. Mr Beattie said the funding stream, commencing in 2007-2008, would assist the Government to identify potential sources of groundwater and suitable extraction processes.

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