Right now our water tank here on the NSW south coast is perilously low, which is why I reckon the story of the week is the admission from NSW Premier Nathan Rees that in February Sydney nearly ran out of water. Excuse me? The biggest and most important city in the country nearly ran out of water??!! The idea is mind boggling considering the economic importance of Sydney to the nation’s economy. As the Australian reported:
In a speech to the opening of the 9th World Congress of Metropolis in Sydney, Mr Rees said NSW had faced a dire water shortage crisis in February, the severity of which was not conveyed to the public.
Mr Rees, who was water minister until September 5, says he was gagged by then-premier Morris Iemma, but admitted for the first time today that water reserves had been in danger of drying up.
“We transferred roughly half of our water supply each day up from Shoalhaven in the south,” he said.
“If we hadn’t been transporting water from that river and we hadn’t had water restrictions in place, our water supply would have been down to seven per cent … that essentially means people are drinking mud.”
For at least half a decade citizens have been blissfully unaware of how fragile Sydney’s water supply is…the city’s biggest and most important dam has been skating at glass half full for a dangerously long time. People may not be able to get the money out of their investment funds but that’s nothing compared to a city of four million people running out of water.
Hasn’t this been done before? Didn’t people use wind to get around the seas for thousands of years? As Ben Cubby at the SMH reported this week:
Solar-powered sails the size of a jumbo jet’s wings will be fitted to cargo ships, after a Sydney renewable energy company signed a deal with China’s biggest shipping line.
The Chatswood-based Solar Sailor group has designed the sails, which can be retro-fitted to existing tankers.
The aluminium sails, 30 metres long and covered with photovolatic panels, harness the wind to cut fuel costs by between 20 and 40 per cent, and use the sun to meet five per cent of a ship’s energy needs.
“…This is a case of back to the future – back to the days of sailing ships but to the future in terms of high technology solar and wind sails operated by computer rather than sailcloth and rigging manned by crew.”
How long is it before people re-discover walking?
If there is one story that Real Dirt really thinks stinks it is the proposed Gunns pulp mill in Northern Tasmania. After all, if you have to employ gardening guru Don Burke to help get your project through then you really are in trouble. These days not one tree from an old growth forest should come down and yet across the country we are still seeing scumbags clear perfectly good forests for woodchips. So what do you think of this story about the pulp mill? It is alleged Tasmanian premier, Paul Lennon, whittled down the approval process to, ummmmm, nothing. The Australian again:
Yesterday, a former ministerial driver gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry that Mr Lennon had decided the fate of the controversial mill 5 1/2 weeks before the fast-track was announced.
And we’re expected to trust these people with some of the tallest trees on Earth?
So trees are only wasted in the Apple Isle? Actually, no. My home is just south of Moruya on the NSW south coast and there is a steady stream of logs on the back of trucks heading to the chip mill in Eden…This week logging started in a new area – this time it seems we are trading cheap paper for endangered koala populations. Ben Cubby from the SMH:
BULLDOZERS rolled in to some of the last remaining koala habitats on the South Coast yesterday, marking the start of what police fear could be a divisive logging operation.
Forests NSW workers plan to log about 180 hectares of native eucalypt forest from the coast north of Bermagui, for a mixture of wood veneer products and woodchips.
…New studies by the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change show only a handful of koalas remain in the district – perhaps a dozen out of a Far South Coast population once counted in the thousands.
In these tough economic times no resource should be left untapped, which is why we may soon be mining fish. The Age reported:
Melbourne’s Yarra River has unkindly been described as an “upside-down” river for its muddy, brown colour, but it seems the river is also a nasty chemical cocktail.
Fish in the Yarra have arsenic levels up to five times the safe level for human consumption and some are so badly contaminated that they could cause kidney or nerve damage in humans, according to a study by the Herald Sun newspaper.
Tests conducted by the National Measurement Institute found fish caught between the Punt Road Bridge at Richmond, in the inner east, and Docklands, west of the CBD, had high levels of heavy metals, the newspaper said.
What have the impacts on the Shoalhaven been, James? I didn’t even know we were stealing your water.
The Shoalhaven catchment was the last, “easily dammed” catchment uitable to feed the thirsting maw that is Sydney.
There’re no others to exploit if the recent news of Sydney having 6M inhabitants is even vaguely accurate.
The giant conurbations of Oz are quite unsusual ont eh otherwise grossly overcrowded European continent. Apart from Berlin, Rome, Paris, Madrid & London (the national capitals), cities in excess of 1M are uncommon but there are many, many cities of many hundreds of thousands, with farmlands within cycling distance and market gardens -allotments(‘colonies’ in Germany) in most suburbs.
In Oz we have the option of repopulating the many declining inland cities, remnants of a time before limitless hydrocarbon profligacy made everyone their own ship’s capitan.
Most of them aree about 50-70 kilometresd apart, two days with an oxen/horse cart.
There have been attempts to tell the media, (including yourself, James) about the disastrous state of Sydney’s water supply – with little or no response – until Nathan Rees’s comment.
Google “Shoalhaven Transfers”.
.
Sydney Catchment Authority is still trying to despoil the last great undisturbed piece of natural bushland in the Southern Catchment. This is the Kangaloon Aquifer. For 3 days water supply for Sydney, they propose to drain “upland swamps” which are protected environments. But Sartor’s Part 3A legislation over-rides all State environmental controls.
However, the SCA is still pushing ahead to get this approved – now under Keneally.
Kindly Google Kangaloon Aquifer.
Denis Wilson
I seem to remember hearing something about Sydney taking water out of Shoalhaven during the worst of the shortages, so maybe it did hit the news at the time.
It’s not the sneakyness I find shocking, it’s two other things;
It seems to be that the water they ‘borrowed’, and will probably ‘borrow’ again, seems unsustainable – i.e, it might solve Sydney’s short term problem, but leave the local out-of-Sydney area with a long term problem.
The other thing I find astounding is the light touch of local government in Sydney. I just find it astonishing that local councils, or the state government, or both, haven’t flat out said; put in water tanks (and other things), or else…..
Seems like there’s only so many times Sydney can pop down the road to the neighbour’s for a cup of water…
I wish the state would get heavy handed, but currently I can see only two likely solutions; either, Sydney will run out of water and residents will get serious about saving it, or two, the state government will increase the cost of water hugely.
Both situations suck, like a reeeaally long pipe.
Not only are they transfering water, they transfer algae into our drinking water supply – sometimes with dramatic, and potentially dangerous effects.
In another cute twist, the power station pumps the water up to the storages using coal power, and runs the water back down during peak periods to generate “clean green” hydro energy which they can flog at a premium price….
Its all very silly, and symptomatic of Sydney Water’s determination to keep us hooked on centralised water supply – delivered by them of course. The State Government is hooked on the dividends and income tax equivalent payments from Sydney Water.
Michael Mobbs has proven that even in the middle of Sydney the quality of water from his roof, stored by his tanks is better than that coming out of his neighbours taps – and that his 10,000 l tanks are sufficient to keep his thirst quenched and toot flushed, even through the droughts.
It is time to think seriously about embedded generation of power and water, and how it is properly costed.
Then Sydney Water will really feel some competition.
KathyRidge – re Michael Mobb’s clear example – this applies to power (PhV), heating, sewage & stormwater retention & reticulation.
It is the antithesis of integrated urbanisation which is dependence of centralised distribution of such things. Now that metering is simpole & cheap, there is no excuse for a singloe new p ower station – let each person who wishes because a supplier to the grid as well as consumer – indigenous gneration will win every time, even in least optimal conditions.
The government has messed up the water and power utilities since they have been in control of the two.An independant body should look after our water supplies as they are dwindling at an alarming rate and why because of greed don’t worry about how much water you have just keep on flogging it of till it runs out.As the senario we are now facing.I look after my own water my own power and also a large part of my own food.The Murrey Darling basin is a perfect example of greed gone out of control when you mess a natural ecosystem up it will be repaired but not with money only with time and most times it will never be the same.If any one needs some education on how to live in tune with nature they should come and see me i will show you how to distance yourself from the money chain and get free power free water and free food.I will also show you how to create your own pastures your own tree bank and your own water supply.(the water supply might be the difficult one this one is up to mother nature)but most of what i do is to work in tune with nature take what i need and put a lot back and this has been the opposite that the governments do they take the lot sell it and put nothing back.This will not work.Truth is coming home to roost and humans are going to be in the firing line yes climate change is not coming climate change is here and i believe the only way to right the wrongs that have been thrust on us as a hoodwinked society is to stop coal in its tracks and we will have clean air clean water and a sustainable food growing environment nothing else adds up .
cheers
ROB AN ANTICOAL WARRIOR