Category: Archive

Graeme Turner on the Rhetoric of Alan Jones

admin /16 May, 2007

Alan Jones is a broadcaster of legendary influence. His Sydney breakfast program attracts around 20 per cent of the radio audience, streets ahead of his nearest rivals, and about 65 per cent of his listeners are aged over 55. Professor Graeme Turner is Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University Continue Reading →

Why did our massive dams dry up?

admin /16 May, 2007

How did our massive dams manage to fill to overflowing in the 14 years to 1999, and then drop like a stone in the past six? The answer lies not in rainfall and population growth, but rather in highly uneven rainfall patterns to various supply sources, reported The Courier Mail (7/5/2007, p. 15).

Rainfall and population growth not the answer: The Centre for Climate Excellence reported that the catchments received 76.2 pec of average rainfall. The Bureau of Meteorology data showed that the balance of 23.8 pc occurred in the nonsummer months which provide little or no inflow to the dams. The State Government website showed population growth steady and predictable.

The answer in two parts – Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams: The Wivenhoe is a flood mitigation dam. The past 100 years of bureau records show that its catchment would be flat out providing 100ML per day. As a stable water supply it is a damp squib. After 50 years, Somerset Dam is still our main water-supply source. Its catchment is one-third the size of Wivenhoe’s, but three times as efficient (SEQWater website). It receives 30 pc more rainfall than Wivenhoe.

Drought-breaking falls are one in a million: SEQWater points to uncommon events in the summer months that fill the dams (C-M, Feb 10). Somerset Dam received two of these events in 1992 and the littleknown flood of 1999 (SEQWater annual report). They rivalled the 1974 flood rains. The 1992 event half-filled the dams and the 1999 event finished the job – to overflowing. The previous uncommon event was in 1927. To have two events in such a short space of time has longer odds than lotto. Those residents waiting for a "drought" to break will be waiting a very long time.

Albany’s sewage headed for the Murray

admin /16 May, 2007

A New South Wales council was planning to dump treated sewage into the River Murray, reported The Advertiser, (12/05/2007, p.7).

Treated wastewater to enhance Murray flows: Albury City Council flagged the possibility of diverting treated wastewater from its $33 million Waterview facility into the Murray to increase flows.

4ML/day to be pumped into the river system: Albury council was adamant the water be treated to "drinkable" standard and meet World Health Organisation requirements. It proposed injecting four megalitres a day into the river system.

Tackling the psychological barrier: Greens MLC Mark Parnell said there would always be the "yuck factor" when people thought about drinking treated wastewater. "The question would have to be how is the water treated and to what level," he said. "If it was to a drinkable standard we wouldn’t be against the idea."

Not used for drinking: Council environmental team leader Adam Carty said treated water at the Waterview facility was not used for drinking in the city, which is about 900km east of Adelaide. “(The idea) is something someone brought to the table and that’s as far as it’s gone,” he said. “The water quality is to a drinkable standard and it does meet World Health Organisation requirements.”

Dead Sea shrinks

admin /16 May, 2007

The Dead Sea has been receding by a metre for the past 25 years; neighbouring countries must co-operate in `Red-Dead’ project to salvage sea
The famously salty sea which lies at Earth’s lowest point is shrinking, having receded by around a metre a year for the past 25 years. A crucial project to boost the level by piping in water from the Red Sea has long been held up by disputes between Israel and its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbours, reported The Weekly Times (7/5/2007, p. 4).

Ecosystem, resource and heritage site to vanish by 2050: Jordan and Israel warn that if the trend continues it will vanish by 2050 along with its unique ecosystem defeated by river diversions, mineral extraction and natural reasons, like evaporation. "The Dead Sea is a worse disaster than the Aral [which has lost one-third of its surface area in less than half a century because of Soviet-era diversion of rivers to promote farming] because it’s shrinking quicker and the catastrophe it poses is greater to the surrounding ecosystem, the economy from its minerals and the site as a world cultural and religious heritage," Jordan’s water minister Mohammed Thafer al-Alem says.

Sinkholes compound urgency: The urgency is made clear by a dramatic side effect of the dwindling water: sinkholes. These yawn open in a flash, leaving pits 30m deep or more in the sponge-like terrain. At Chor Haditha, a Jordanian village of 6000 people on the Dead Sea’s southern tip, signs warn of the peril and huge holes dot the vegetable fields. The sinkholes happen because underground aquifers shrink and salt left by the receding Dead Sea waters erodes the earth.

”Red-Dead” to draw water from the Red Sea: The Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea is part of a river network whose overuse and diversions by Jordan, Israel and Syria compound the shrinkage. After Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, they began mulling over ideas to save the Dead Sea. One plan, to draw water from the Mediterranean, about 80km to the west, was shelved as too costly, so "Med-Dead" shifted to "Red-Dead" – an underground pipeline bringing water from the Red Sea, 200km south.

Gravity of the situation to trigger co-operation: A crucial project to boost the level by piping in water from the Red Sea has long been held up by disputes between Israel and its Palestinian and Jordanian neighbours. "But the ball began to roll a few months ago because of the gravity of the situation and the dangers facing the Dead Sea, which is a unique heritage not only to the countries that border it but to the whole world," al-Alem says. "The Red-Dead project is very significant to Israel because the surrounding area is water-poor and in 10 or 15 years there will be no water there," except whatever is piped in for drinking water, says Israeli foreign ministry official Jacob Keidar, referring to groundwater wells in the nearby Jordan Valley area.

Photos by Tulip Graphics