New dam alternative

Arthur Gorrie
16th October 2009

 
AS new Traveston Crossing dam alternatives emerged yesterday, federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett promised he would assess the Mary River plan “thoroughly and properly.”

Mr Garrett, who has last say on the dam on environmental grounds, yesterday asked Australians to trust that he will do the right thing.

It is a role which could be complicated by the emergence of new Traveston Crossing alternatives, including a now-competitive Borumba Dam proposal and a radical new plan to provide the same water at a fraction of the cost from raised Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams.

Mr Garrett’s commitment coincides with the emergence of these new or newly viable alternatives, particularly now that Queensland Co-Ordinator-General, Colin Jensen, has effectively rejected Stage Two of the dam proposal.

The State Government had previously insisted that alternatives should be measured against the larger Stage Two proposal, while at the same time insisting that environmental impacts be assessed on Stage One only.

After conditional approval from the Queensland COG, with environmental requirements effectively ruling out Stage Two, the Borumba dam alternative advanced by Mary Valley grazier Ron McMah has been given a new lease on viability.

And coinciding with that yesterday, the Wide Bay-Burnett Conservation Council advanced a significant “new” plan, which it claims has already been recognised as viable by the State Government, but effectively kept under wraps.

Mr Currie joined with Sunshine Coast Environment Council manager Narelle Mcarthy, Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group president Glenda Pickersgill and secretary David Kreutz and the Greater Mary Association’s Tanzi Smith.

In a challenge issued yesterday afternoon, they challenged Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe to justify his claim that the Traveston Crossing dam is “the most cost effective option” for South East Queensland’s water security.

“SEQ can be climate proofed for a mere $10 million,” Ms Mcarthy said, comparing the raised dam proposal to the $1.7 billion Traveston Crossing proposal, which has already cost taxpayers about one-third of that in preliminary land purchases.

“We challenge Mr Hinchliffe to explain why he is pursuing a multi-billion dollar option when the government’s own Queensland Water Commission (QWC) has identified a vastly cheaper option that provides much more water.”

She said the new option was originally outlined in a 2007 QWC report titled ‘Provision of Contingency Storage in Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams,” which included raising Wivenhoe dam 2m, a measure which would also improve the dam’s safety.

“The report states that this option ‘provides a significant increase in storage, 228,000ML, for a relatively small capital cost.”

Mr Kreutz said: “By pursuing Traveston instead of raising Wivenhoe, Hinchliffe is asking Queenslanders to pay 40 times more to get, at best one-third of the water.

“He’s asking us to fork out for a Rolls Royce and he’s going to give us a BMX with flat tyres.”

Mr Garrett says he has now received the Queensland COG’s report and expects to meet his November 18 deadline.
 

TONY MOORE
October 29, 2009

Capturing rain water and storing it under Brisbane’s suburban streets could be the answer to South-East Queensland’s water security, doing away with the need for large-scale dams such as Traveston Crossing, experts say.

Scientists hope a storm water harvesting trial on Brisbane’s northside will help them work out how to capture some of the 500 billion litres of rain water - equivalent to 500,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools - which falls over Greater Brisbane each year but simply runs into creeks and rivers.

They argue all new residential estates should be built with the capability to store and harvest rain water supplies underground or in smaller, local dams.

Adjunct Professor Ted Gardner is a principal scientist with the CSIRO and one of a handful of scientists who formed the Urban Water Security Research Alliance with $50 million in research funds handed out by former premier Peter Beattie in 2007.

Fourteen research projects are now underway.

Professor Gardner said the Queensland Water Commission was keen to trial a storm water harvesting project at a new Brisbane residential estate.

Recent tests showed water costs for the Brisbane suburb of North Lakes would now be neutral if infrastructure to capture rain run-off had been available at the time of construction.

The Federal Government is also behind the harvesting push, giving $200 million to advance opportunities in Australia.

“The best residential examples at the moment are in Adelaide,” Professor Gardner said.

“And if we go to New South Wales, the city of Orange - which was desperately short of water - is actually taking water from the street and putting it into some temporary ponds.”

“I know that the Queensland Water Commission is very interested in putting in a proposal for a new subdivision which would look at using stormwater harvesting.”

Professor Gardner estimates 500 gigalitres of rain water runs off roads and roofs in Brisbane each year and believes it is possible to capture one-quarter of it for harvesting.

“But of course how you do that in an engineering sense is very tricky,” he said.

One gigalitre of water is equivalent to 1000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

If it was to be captured, an environmentally-sensitive dam like the one planned for Travetson Crossing, near Gympie,  would be unnecessary, a fact already acknowledged in the South East Queensland Water Strategy.

Smaller rain water harvesting already occurs in Queensland, such as at local golf clubs which use dams to water greens, however researchers are now trying to identify sites to trial it on a much larger scale.

New, sloping residential land would be vital, and old dams, such as Enoggera Dam as well as old aquifers and quarries, could get a new lease on life as water storage facilities, Professor Gardner said.

Custom storage devices, such as large concrete tanks capbale of holding up to 20 megalitres are also being considered.

‘It can be done’

Professor Gardner said in Orange, harvested rain water was even used for drinking.

After quality tests the water is added to the city’s drinking supply in Suma Dam.

Professor Gardner said Orange could collect about 1200 megalitres a year through the process.

“This is the water that they are getting from their urban catchment. So Orange City Council has really led the way big time.”

In Adelaide, the city takes advantage of its large aquifer to filter the storm water runoff, and the water is now being trialled to flush toilets in some suburbs.

Existing projects in South-East Queensland

Like most storm water projects around Australia, Queensland’s programs are relatively small.

The State Government last year gave the South Bank Parklands $4.6 million to collect storm water and recycle it for irrigation.

South Bank now diverts water that for 100 years ran into the Brisbane River, directing it instead into a two-megalitre underground storage reservoir beneath the Russell Street green.

Another successful program is underway on the Sunshine Coast at the Bellvista Estate, near Caloundra.

Bellvista’s storm water is channelled straight into big basins which collected water and allowed it to pass into streams.

More recently it has shifted towards a linked network of “biopods”, or small gardens, which receive, filter and store storm water.

In newer land releases of Bellvista, there is a biopod on each street corner, growing trees and plants that filter the water which can be stored and later recycled to use on gardens.

‘It’s become a fact of life’

Water that soaks into the ground absorbs about 15 millimetres before any run-off is left for dams.

But water that falls on hard surfaces such as roofs, roads and footpaths almost immediately produces run-off.

Managing how quickly it flows and where it can be collected is key, according to Malcolm Eadie, a storm water management expert who worked on the Bellvista Estate.

He said installing biopods on every street corner was an easy solution.

“Storm water feeds into these bio-filters, or bio-retention beds if you like. That takes all the energy out of the flow, slows it down. It percolates down through a prescribed soil and gets collected at the bottom as clean water, slow water,” he said.

“Now that water can then be potentially stored for re-use. So a lot of the metals, a lot of the hydrocarbons and nutrients will be taken out.

“So what you are looking at here would be a standard suite of the infrastructure that would be needed to support a full storm water harvesting system.”

He argues that the residents have accepted the biopods on their street corners as a fact of life.

The bigger picture

Last year the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects nominated Bellvista as its National Climate Change Project because it included many of the features which were last night described by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as necessary to tie “smarter” residential estates to future Federal Government investment.

Mr Eadie said stakeholders were approaching storm water harvesting in a piecemeal manner.

Few planners see the bigger picture as climate change become a fact, he said.

“If we can eke out, within the fabric of the city, how to better use the resources generated within the city - that is storm water and solar - and by doing that start to take the pressure off the surrounding bio-region, which means that basically we can decommission a few weirs, change the way a dam works, put more water back into rivers and make them more resilient, then we are on sounder footing going forward.”
 

Adelaide Now

Adelaide stormwater harvesting to be tripled
GREG KELTON, STATE EDITOR

November 02, 2009

MORE than three times as much stormwater will be harvested and recycled in Adelaide, with a series of projects to benefit from $150 million in new funding.

The Federal Government today announced it had given the go-ahead for funding to numerous stormwater conservation projects around Adelaide.

The projects will more than triple the annual stormwater harvest from the current six billion litres to more than 20 billion litres.

The State Government will contribute $45 million and the Commonwealth $65 million, with the remainder coming from local government.
Federal Water Minister Penny Wong paid tribute to No Pokies Senator Nick Xenophon for his role in seeking extra funding for stormwater harvesting while negotiating the passage of the Commonwealth’s stimulus package through the Senate.

Premier Mike Rann said the projects would give a substantial lift to stormwater harvesting in SA, while Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald said it showed the Government was committed to diversifying the state’s water supplies.

“In this era of extended drought and the emerging effects of climate change, we need to invest in alternative water supplies and make better use of the water we have available in our cities and towns,” Senator Wong said.

Among the projects to benefit will be:

$20 million for Charles Sturt Council for waterproofing the western suburbs, saving about 555 million litres a year.

$14.9 million to Onkaparinga for waterproofing the south to divert water at five sites into wetlands where it will be treated and used for parklands, playing fields and trees.

$9.6 million for the City of Playford to harvest water from the Smith Creek drainage system to irrigate sporting fields, reserves and other areas.

$4.8 million to SA Water for a stormwater scheme at Adelaide Airport where a storage basin will capture flows which will be treated using biofiltration and then used for non-potable purposes.

“This is exactly the sort of outcome that we envisaged when Local Government called for the creation of the Stormwater Management Agreement with State Government, which was signed in March 2006,” said Local Government Association president Felicity-Ann Lewis.

“The saving of billions of litres of stormwater each year will have a marked reduction in the draw on the ailing Murray River system and these projects are part of councils’ commitment to securing Adelaide’s water supply.”

Opposition water security spokesman Mitch Williams said the announcement was “a hoax”.

He said there was no existing pipe system capable of delivering the treated stormwater to gardens and toilets.