The 4350water Blog highlights some of the issues relating to proposals for potable reuse in Toowoomba and South East Qld. 4350water blog looks at related political issues as well.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Qld government finally admits 40% dam levels passed ...

... eases water restrictions for Brisbane.

See - Courier Mail - Tough water rules scrapped.

posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 10:53 AM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Age:

SE Qld relaxes water restrictions

July 30, 2008

Water restrictions will be relaxed for southeast Queensland residents tonight as regional towns struggle in the face of the drought.

Extreme level six water restrictions will be relaxed at midnight, giving residents an extra 30 litres a day.

This follows heavy rain last week which topped the region's combined dam levels to 40 per cent, the level needed to trigger a relaxation in water restrictions.

The Queensland Water Commission officially announced that the daily consumption target would be lifted from 140 to 170 litres a person.

Residents will be able to use a hand-held hose with a trigger or a twist nozzle between 4pm and 4.30pm on Saturday or Sunday.

They also will be able to bucket-water gardens on any day between 4pm and 8am and use a bucket to clean anytime.

The commission's chief executive officer John Bradley said southeast Queensland could have three failed wet seasons and still have a sufficient supply of water under the new regime.

"From this weekend there will be half an hour of hosing," Mr Bradley said.

"People can choose to use that for watering their gardens and plants, for cleaning external surfaces from motor vehicles to boats, but they won't be able to use it to water lawns or to hose hard surfaces such as pavements.

"We see no circumstances, barring a catastrophic event, where we'll have to go back to extreme restrictions ... again in the future."

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said she was confident residents would not start wasting water.

"I certainly look forward to a time where people will be able to use their hoses more often for legitimate purposes like watering their garden, but I think we'll never see a time where people are hosing down their driveways and watching water disappear down into drains," Ms Bligh said.

However, Cloncurry's main water supply is set to run out in 10 weeks, prompting the state government to guarantee supply.

"The dam's going to be dry in about 10 weeks, but we're mixing bore water, water out of the underground wells and the river," Cloncurry mayor Andrew Daniels said.

The government claims Cloncurry residents use more than 700 litres a person a day, a figure hotly disputed by the mayor who says it is more like 530 litres, which includes households and industry.

He said it was spurious to compare Brisbane residents' 129 litres a day average to that of Cloncurry residents.

"Half of (Brisbane residents) don't do their washing in their units, they get it dry-cleaned, and the other half only have a shower once a week because they don't get bloody dirty," Mr Daniels said.

Local Government Minister Warren Pitt said the government would guarantee funding to boost the water supply should Cloncurry's situation reach a critical level.

The government is also fast-tracking a $187 million pipeline to pump water from Wivenhoe Dam, north of Brisbane to the Darling Downs city of Toowoomba.

The combined capacity of the town's three dams has dropped to below 11 per cent.

The pipeline would be built by the end of 2009 and begin operating before February 2010.

The water commission said it was talking to Toowoomba Regional Council about a range of water measures.

4:14 PM, July 30, 2008

 

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