Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Water

Build Dams So Hydra Can Wash Her Hair

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I don’t think KPMG partner Bernard Salt would like Hydra Sustainable -a member of the Victorian Government’s eco-perfect family. In today’s The Australian, Salt complains about hotels suggesting he re-use his towel to save water. Hydra goes as far as to suggest we should wash our hair just once a week to save water.

What Salt says:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16370702%255E25658,00.html .

What Hydra says:
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/thesustainables/hydra.htm .

I lived at a Presbyterian and Methodist girl’s boarding school in the 1970s and we were only allowed to wash our hair once a week and then only in the hand basins – noone was allowed to wash their hair in the showers at Clayfield College.

The ban on hair washing in showers probably had something to do with being austere – a Presbyterian and Methodist virtue. The rule actually created a lot of self-loathing, greasy-haired teenage girls.

Salt makes the observation that “The environment lobby has skilfully manouevered middle Australia to a no-dams policy without having to go through the tedium of public debate.”

The environment movement is really very Presbyterian and Methodist?

Salt suggests that no water restrictions would make Sydney greener and that this would be good for our souls, and our wildlife, and for social cohesion. … and I would add, our hair.

He suggests we should start talking about building some more dams.

Drinking Sewage – Request for More Information

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Toowomba is Ausralia’s largest inland regional city situated at the headwaters of the Murray Darling Basin. The population in the ‘Greater Toowoomba Region’ is 135,000 and expected to grow.

The Mayor of the city has committed to an ambitious waste water recycling program.

Some local irrigators are up-in-arms because they have been using the waste water to water their lucerne and other crops for about 60 years – and are going to lose access to this water.

Some local citizens are up-in-arms because they are being expected to drink “sewage” see, http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1443814.htm .

I am probably going to write this story up at some point in time and would be interested in information about other regional cities that are moving to recycle waste water – what it is costing, what it is delivering in terms of the social, economic and environmental impact and benefit?

To Dredge, or Not to Dredge

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ABC Online is running two stories on dredging.

One is about dredging at the mouth of the Murray, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1428180.htm

In this story, Brenton Erdmann from South Australia’s Water Department is quoted stating that dredging has made a big difference, “We’ve been dredging continuously for 24 hours, seven days a week for coming up to three years now so we’re really starting to see the benefits of that.”

I am not sure from the piece what the benefits are.

Interestingly, when Charles Sturt arrived at Lake Alexandrina (bottom of the Murray) in 1830 what we now consider the Murray’s mouth was back then a maze of impassable sandbars.

The other story is about Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay and how a flotilla plans to blockade the entry of a dredging ship on the basis dredging will destroy marine life in the area, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1427699.htm.

So it’s good to dredge the mouth of the Murray, but bad to dredge Port Phillip Bay?

Dam and Damn Climate Change in Queensland

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I received the following message from a reader of this web-log:

“You have previously exposed the drawing of shonky conclusions by government agencies from time to time. Here is a developing case. The Queensland DNRM (Department of Natural Resources) web site makes the following claim about a recently released CSIRO report titled ‘Climate Change in Queensland under Enhanced Greenhouse Conditions’, projected climate changes for Queensland can be summarized as follows: Annual rainfall over Queensland is projected to decline over most of the State, although projections of rainfall change are less certain than for temperature.
The full report link is at http://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/ClimateChanges/pub/FullReportLowRes.pdf .

The issue is, no where in the report does it state that average annual rainfall is projected to decline, quite the opposite. See statements in Section 2.2.2, page 13 “…the Mark 3 model projects slight increases in annual rainfall in Queensland by 2050 (about 7%; see section 3.2).” Other references to rainfall increases are made on pages 48 and 73. Page 74 states “average rainfall in Queensland is projected to change little by Mark 4.” Mark 4 is the next version of the Mark 3 climate model.

DNRM (Department of Natural Resources) spokespersons have recently been taking every opportunity at workshops and seminars to play up large projected declines in Queensland rainfall and I understand that the Minister was making statements to that effect today on radio too.”

In fact the report is not recent. It was published in January 2002. However, this web-log reader and others probably heard the Minister on radio on Wednesday morning and it sounded like he was talking about a new report. The ABC radio news was actually quoting the Minister answering Estimates Committee questions in the Queensland Parliament on Tuesday. This is what was said in Parliament on 12th July 2005:

“Mrs DESLEY SCOTT: Minister, page 9 of the MPS mentions the department’s role in researching the potential impacts of climate change. Can the minister outline the findings of any government
research into the possible effects of future climate change on Queensland rainfall patterns?

Mr ROBERTSON: For four years my department has been researching the possible effects of future greenhouse concentrations on Queensland’s climate. Our studies into past climate conditions have been central in covering the link between greenhouse gas concentrations, natural variability, ozone depletion and declining rainfall across much of eastern Australia. The results indicate that growing greenhouse gas concentrations and ozone depletion have contributed significantly to Queensland’s rainfall decline over the past 20 years.

In collaboration with the CSIRO’s Atmospheric Research Division we are researching whether this declining trend will continue. We expect rainfall to continue to decline over the next 70 years. Our modelling experiments suggest that over much of the state annual rainfall may decline by as much as 13 per cent by 2030 compared to conditions in the 1990s. By 2070 the decline may be as much as 40 per cent compared to conditions in the 1990s.”

Was not the Minister referring to that 2002 report that was a four-year contract between the Queensland Government and the CSIRO and that is now 3 years old?

Roger Stone contributed to that 2002 report.

Graham Young (Editor of e-journal Online Opinion and Blogger) has been remembering Roger Stone’s predictions. This is what Graham wrote on 1st July 2005:

“Another entry for my yet to be constructed database of predictions is climatologist Dr Roger Stone of the University of Southern Queensland and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
On the first of June ABC Rural carried these pars:

The prospects for normal winter rainfall and crops have deteriorated, with news today Australia is officially in a borderline El Nino.
The southern oscillation index is in the negative.
Dr Roger Stone, a climatologist with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries, says the outlook is bleak for winter crops.
He says three eastern states have almost no chance of a normal crop, with the outlook worst in New South Wales.
“For the state as a whole, less than 10 per cent chance of getting normal winter crop,” he said.
“This is normal yield, so it doesn’t miss out altogether on getting what we call median yields.
“For most of those shires to the west and south-west of Parkes and Dubbo, stretching down towards the Victorian border, in fact for most of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, the chances of getting a normal wheat crop are about 10 per cent to 20 per cent at most.”

Then, on the 30th June, a mere 29 days later, the Courier Mail carried this sentence about the sometimes torrential rain South-East Queensland has been receiving since mid-June:
Climatologist Roger Stone said the rain was likely to continue at least through winter due to a one-in-10-year climate phenomenon.”

Yeah, we did have a bit of rain including through the NSW wheat belt -and contrary to the original prediction!

I note that the Queensland Government in their summary of that 2002 report claims that:

“Maximum tropical cyclone wind speeds are likely to increase by 5 to 10%, by 2050. This will be accompanied by increases of 20 to 30% in peak tropical cyclone precipitation rates. However, little change is expected in the regions of tropical cyclone formation, and there is no evidence that tropical cyclones travel further south.”

I don’t think cyclone-expert Chris Landsea would approved, see
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_policy_general/000318chris_landsea_leaves.html .

And I was recently sent this information in relation to my blog about the Wyaralong Dam (my blog of 7th July titled Government Commits $2.3 million to Unknown Quantity of Water):

“I suspect DNR (Queensland Department of Natural Resources) is fudging on projected volumes because the decision to go with Wyaralong rather than Glendower as the next dam site was taken late in the piece. The Government has bought up almost all the land it needs for Gledower, not so for the dam it is now shackled to. Old timers tell me that there is no way the water volumes from the Teviot Brook catchment will produce the sort of dam the Government is talking about, but I suspect there is a bit of politics in that, too. Locally, the dam is seen as water storage for metropolitan use located smack dab in an area crying out for more water for rural use.
DNR has always maintained that the Mary River valley is where the next big dam will be located for seq’s urban water needs. I believe all this talk of Wyaralong is an attempt to control the policy agenda until the Government sniffs how the political breeze will blow in relation to a bigger dam on the Mary.”

I think this message is saying that the Queensland Government already knows that the dam they have committed to, will catch no water.

In making this determination I suspect the Queensland Government did not even consider the predicted 40 percent decline in rainfall over the next few decades as per the Minister’s comments in state Parliament on Tuesday?

Site Chosen for Sydney Desal Plant

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While in Dubai looking at water desalination plants, NSW Premier Bob Carr announced that the proposed $2 billion desal plant for Sydney would be located in the Kurnell industrial area in southern Sydney (adjacent to the Caltex oil refinery).

So it is going ahead!

The plant is expected to supply up to a third of the city’s daily drinking water needs.

The proposal is already being condemned by many
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15895531-1242,00.html .

Aren’t these people, who are complaining the water from desal will cost too much, the same people who have been complaining we don’t pay enought for our water and/or we will all be doomed because Sydney is going to run out of water?

I think it is good that a state government is finally making a serious investment in some new water infrastructure.

Interestingly it was only last September, I think the 15th September 2004, that Alan Jones had me on his radio program wanting to talk about water – though he did most of the talking. I remember raising the possiblity of desalination and that ended ‘the conversation’.

There has been some discussion at this web-log on the issue of desalination
https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000612.html with some useful links with the comments.

I am reminded of a quote from Bjorn Lomborg, “Desalination puts an upper boundary on the degree of water problems in the world. In principle we could produce the Earth’s entire present water consumption with a single desalination facility in the Sahara, powered by solar cells. The total area needed for the solar cells would take up less than 0.3 percent of the Sahara” (pg 153, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Cambridge University Press).

Government Commits $2.3 Billion for Unknown Quantity of Water

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On 27th April Queensland Premier Peter Beattie announced $2.3 billion worth of water projects for Queensland. The Premier said,

“The Infrastructure Plan includes funding for a new dam and two new weirs. We will need more urban and industrial water supplies in order to meet the needs of the more than one million extra people expected to live here in 2026. We will meet the challenges not only by building dams and weirs, but also through strategies including recycling, better management of available water, and demand management.”

My first question was how much more water will the different components of this Infrastructure Plan deliver? This information was not available in the glossy report launched with the announcement (see especially pg 28, table 6).

I wrote a piece for the Courier Mail on this topic, and later a blog piece outlining how difficult it was proving to find out what should be a fairly straight forward information.

Today I received an email from the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines explaining that,

“With regard to the South East Queensland (SEQ) Infrastructure Plan, investigations are taking place on the infrastructure listed in Table 6 and the need timing, sequencing and optimum level of development of these projects will be finalised as part of the SEQ Regional Water Supply Strategy. The amount of water available to the projects will be clarified with the release of relevant Water Resource Plans. The Draft Logan and Mary Basin Water Resource Plans are planned for release for public consultation at the end of this year, while the Draft Moreton Water Resource Plan is expected to be released for public consultation towards the middle of next year.”

The name and number of a policy officer was provided should I have any further queries. I rang the officer, just to check that they really had a costing and a timeline for the dam, the Wyaralong, but no idea what its storage capacity might be. “It is still being modelling. The yield is still being looked at,” he said.

So we have a plan and a budget, all announced with lots of media coverage, but not even an estimate of how much water will be delivered.