Toowoomba taps into Great Artesian Basin ...
Excerpt from ABC News (annotated):
Toowoomba taps into Great Artesian Basin
17 October 2008
The southern Queensland city of Toowoomba will become the first major urban centre to draw its drinking water from the Great Artesian Basin.
Currently five deep bores are being drilled to meet water needs in the drought-affected region.
Dam levels in Toowoomba are down to just under 10 per cent and the last time there was adequate run-off into the dams was in 1999.
So now the regional council has decided to make greater use of groundwater and tap into the Great Artesian Basin.
Toowoomba's Mayor Peter Taylor says it's only a short-term measure until the town can connect to a new south-east Queensland water grid in 2010.
"It's a short-term measure until a pipeline is built from the Wivenhoe dam near Brisbane which has got adequate water, through to Cressbrook dam which is one of our other major storages for the Toowoomba region," he said.
"Until that pipeline is finished and available, we'll be using both groundwater which is shallow water and of course that's been used for many years.
"We're establishing a number of deep bores... which will get us through until the pipeline is actually constructed and the water is flowing, which will be at the end of 2009 or very early in 2010."
The $17 million project is expected to draw about 2,000 megalitres of water from the basin each year.
Currently 5 per cent of Toowoomba's water is taken from groundwater and by early next year that will increase to almost half.
Mr Taylor says the city which has been badly affected by the drought has already decreased urban water use.
"Many, many people, almost every person around the place here, does have a rain water tank. In fact it is compulsory in our region now if you're building a new house or relocating a house to put in a rain water tank," he said.
"Certainly people have been saving water. We're down to less than 120 litres per person per day. So it's very low water consumption. A lot of people are re-using their water."
Basin concerns
But groundwater experts have expressed concern about the impact this could have on the Great Artesian Basin.
One expert from the CSIRO has warned that water in the basin which was close to the surface has now dropped to 100 metres underground due to too much pumping.
Dr Charles Essery is an independent water consultant and a former government adviser.
[Everyone remembers Charles Essery and his 'cow and possum poo in the dam' argument - see - Another Top Gun comes to town.]
"Ultimately in the short-term you won't notice much... but if they rely on this for continuous water supply it will start drawing down that region of the water table and that in itself will start affecting the other users in the area and also the environment that relies on the aquifers," he said.
But Dr Essery says there is some heart to be taken from the plan to draw recycled water from Wivenhoe Dam.
"The people have forgotten that Wivenhoe is now going to have 25 per cent of its water in 2010 coming from recycled effluent from Brisbane," he added.
See - Toowoomba taps into Great Artesian Basin.
Remember what the Toowoomba City Council said about GAB reserves:
Toowoomba’s bore water supplies are drawn from the Great Artesian Basin which contains 64,900 million megalitres of water.
At 2,000 ML per annum, it might take a while to exhaust 64,900 million ML of water ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 7:53 AM
3 Comments:
The Australian:
Parched Toowoomba first to draw water from 'exploited' basin
17 October 2008
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 $17 million project is under way to drill bores to meet Toowoomba's requirements as experts warned that water levels in the 1.7 million sq km 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.
"Our water will run out if it doesn't rain and we don't do something," said Toowoomba Regional Council water services director Kevin Flanagan.
"The last time we had run-off into our dams was in 1999. We've got kids born in this town who've never seen it rain properly."
The Great Artesian Basin covers 20per cent of the Australian land mass. About 500,000 megalitres of water a year are extracted annually from the basin, primarily for grazing and mining.
Lesser quantities are used for irrigation and to supplement supplies in small inland towns, mainly in western Queensland.
Toowoomba's dam supply was being supplemented by groundwater from the local Main Range Volcanics Aquifer, but its level has dropped so low that irrigators had allocations slashed last month.
Five bores to tap the Great Artesian Basin are now being drilled. One basin bore is supplying 5per cent of Toowoomba's water. By early next year, more than half the city's supply will come from the basin, with a weekly volume equivalent to 50 Olympic swimming pools.
"There were no other options on the table," said Toowoomba Deputy Mayor Paul Antonio.
"We will stop using water from the bores as soon as we can."
CSIRO groundwater expert Andrew Herczeg said programs were under way to reduce water extraction from the Great Artesian Basin, particularly in western Queensland.
"There has been overuse and over-exploitation in parts of the basin so there needs to be a cautious approach to the use of its water," Dr Herczeg said.
"Water in the Great Artesian Basin that was once close to the surface is now 100 metres underground."
NSW University of Technology water expert Stuart White said the tapping of the basin to meet Toowoomba's water needs was avoidable.
"It's a great pity the waste water issue was put to a referendum in the first place," Professor White said. "All that did was to create a politically polarised row, when there should have been a reasoned community debate about options."
1:15 PM, October 18, 2008
4 words - coal seam gas water!
1:25 PM, October 18, 2008
We have not forgotten - that is why we are planning to get rid of Anna Bligh and her cohorts to stop recycled water reaching Toowoomba and to put an immediate stop to recycled sewage water into Wivanhoe
9:31 PM, October 18, 2008
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