Why We Must Triple-Use Water

First step; stop Jay Weatherill and those other corrupt and/or incompetent idiots in Adelaide and their $2.2billion apparently dysfunctional De-salination Plant from destroying the Murray, because they will/already are, and then coming after the South East Aquifer, because they will (already are?).

Only yesterday, whilst opening the De-sal Plant, Mr Weatherill again changed his postion on securing Adelaide's water supply. Only a few months ago he stated that the Plant would be 'moth-balled after a Warranty related 2 year trial period and that Adelaide was going to renew/continue drawing it's water from the Murray because it's been raining alot upstream'. (paraphrasing)

He went halfway there yesterday, but changed at the end to 'we don't know what is going to happen in the future', as opposed to 'it's been raining alot', etc. But the plan continues to be 2 years of partial De-sal operation, then 'moth-balling' it, all whilst pulling a gazillion giggley-litres from a dying Murray.

It's a massive con.

I believe that the De-sal Plant doesn't work properly, and that it is going to be partially run to the end of the warranty period to cover the builders, owners, government, etc, and then Adelaide will have a non-functioning, un-warrantied big damp $2.2 billion hole in the ground.

I genuinely hope that I am very wrong, because if I'm correct, the Murray, Lakes, Coorong, and South East Aquifer will all be dead inside a decade, drained for Adelaide.

I refer to previous posts; the Rann/Weatherill Labor government have spent $2.2billion (thus far) on a plant that they are only going to use as "insurance". Mr Weatherill's speech yesterday about Adelaide's water supply only went 2 years into the future, to the end of the Warranty Period, and did not mention the health of the Murray, etc.

Only days ago he was on ABC Radio provaricating about how great the 'Save The Murray' campaign had been for the River, but that water, if a single giggley-litre of it ever crosses the border, is for Adelaide; Mr Weatherill/Labor knows the De-sal Plant does not work, they have failed to improve cathchments/retention around Adelaide, and all that means water from the Murray...or the South East.

What haven't Labor already sold? And what happens when the Murray dies (is killed)? Either way the South East Aquifer will be sold and/or drained to prop up corruption and mis-management in Adelaide.

The Murray River, Lower Lakes, and the Coorong are rooted; good as dead; it's all over if Adelaide continues with this lunacy. No stupid new mega-drain across the South East will help the Coorong when (long term weather and climate estimates suggest it is a when, not an if) the weir gets built near Wellington.

Giggley-litres are a unit of measure for the laughable quantities of water that effectively doesn't exist that the Labor government says are coming down the River for 'Environmental Flows', and Totally Hilari-litres is for the much larger flows that Environmentalists demanded for the health of the River Murray, etc.

It will take multiple extreme weather events, flooding, etc, every decade, in the Murray Catchment to supply enough water for both the health of the River System and Adelaide; failing that Adelaide will put itself first.

So Step One is to secure the South East Aquifer(s) for the benefit of all South Australians.

I genuinely do not enjoy engaging in 'Us and Them' arguments, but Adelaide, it's politicians and populace, will continue to destroy the state to secure things for itself... those 'things' include a stadium on a stadium; a privatised hospital in a railyard under a flight path; an expressway next to an expressway next to a major southern arterial road;  57,238 electric trains (alright, a slight exaggeration), etc.

If it ever kicks off in Asia, be that due to extreme climate change, Water Wars, irretrievable religious and/or nuclear conflict and/or accident...whatever...or even just if climate extremes continue to devastate Northern Australian crops, infrastructure, etc, and throw in a veracious, selfish mining industry...there I said it...and it is not inconceivable that South Eastern Australia will find itself critical to food production for our own internal population, forget about exports.

However, we must reduce reliance on the local Aquifers in exactly the same way that Adelaide must find it's own water.

Here's something to think about...if my understanding of the formation of the Blue Lake is correct, then the Aquifer is vital for Mt Gambier for another reason. I think the signs around the Blue Lake explain it quite well, so close your eyes a..........no, no...read this first and then close your...hello..ssuui...thankyou...read this and then...yessss.......alright...picture those signs of a lava tube that is capped by the detritus and rubble that fell back into the hole after the initial blasts and was fused in place...with a large weight of water on top of that.

Again, I hope I'm wrong, but what influence does the depth of the Aquifer (and therefore the weight on that 'cap') have on keeping that 'cap' in place? I am not a scientist, geologist, etc, this is only my observation, not a scientific opinion, it is quite possibly just alarmist, partially informed, Ludite psuedo-science...

But apart from my theorising, there are the realites of what this and other Aquifers mean to local agriculture, Mt Gambier's water supply, Forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, etc.

Improving water quality and availability are critical to continuing what we have now, let alone improving things into the future. And so in a very round-about way that leads to 'Why We Must Triple-Use Water' because water is so critical that if I could think of four ways to use the same drop of water, then I would write about that...actually...I think I just did...so;

Tomorrow: How To Use Water Four Ways

Ooo...make that five...I think

This Arvo: TFTIM Russell Peate

Former CEO for the Grant District Council, now CEO with the Mid-Murray Council.