Funny that this dam often overflows – 2013 overflow events – yet the nearby Perth water supply dams are near useless – I wonder why? Surely it could FEZINIL CAPSULES are herbal over here viagra ordination medicine to increase the blood flow to penis during sexual intercourse. Stress: Stress is one of the major reasons for improved source of blood circulation and relaxation of penile muscles. prescription viagra prices deeprootsmag.org Before using this product, it is recommended to seek the advice of a fertility clinic, a gynecologist or a urologist. viagra buy in usa Yes, it will surely shine your life by increasing the level of testosterone that helps easy erection of the male ordering levitra online organ and to get maximum pleasure out of lovemaking. not be such a simple thing as managing catchment vegetation sensibly? In 2012 I wrote to the WA Minister on this issue – my letter and his reply is here.
Wellington Dam water is too salty for human consumption and is only used for irrigation and some industrial uses.
There has been reforestation in the catchment to try and reduce the salinity and this has reduced inflows by a similar amount to other dams.
www.watercorporation.com.au/-/media/files/residential/water%20supply%20and%20services/water%20forever%20south%20west/fact-sheet-wellington-dam-water-forever-sw.pdf
Mr. Hughes, Don’t you realize that it’s “Global Warming”! Global warming can fill some dams AND leave others empty! Just ask Tim Flannery. You must be one of them darn deniers. LOL
DAS
No need for ”global” warming dams to be overflowing!
Dams need to be built first; Flannery is against dams – all stormwater must be drained into the sea AND even farmer’s water repossessed and drained – because Pacific doesn’t have enough water…
Farmers irrigate when is hot and dry -> increases humidity in the area / clouds from the sea don’t go where is no humidity, water storages and topsoil moisture
Philip Bradley is trying to defend the indefensible by using the same tripe handed out by the Water Corporation and Department of Water for decades.
The recent facts are that the dam overflowed recently, for the third consecutive year, making a total of seven times over the past twelve years.
Anyone viewing a photo of any of the dams overflows, will notice at the foot of the dam wall, in the centre, you will not a large diameter gate valve also gushing water out and like the over flow is wasted to the sea in close proximity to the new Binningup seawater desalination plant.
The gate valve is used to discharge the more saline water from the bottom of the dam (appox 2000ppm) and operates over the winter months and up until November.
On the days when the valve is open it is discharging up to 450,000 tonnes or 450 million litres per day. When this is added to the overflow the loss is up to one billion litres per day. Put in context this amount equates to 25% more than Perths entire daily water use.
Philip Bradley is wrong to suggest reforestation has reduced inflow into the dam and I’m surprised he is not towing the Water Corporation line and saying that rainfall has fallen dramatically reducing inflow into the dams.
Readers can come to their own conclusions but when I did the figures about a month ago I found this compelling information on the Water Corporation’s own website.
The 13 metro dams were holding 210GL of water and annual stream inflow was a staggering 39.1 GL for the year. Wellington Dam was holding 186GL or about 85% of the combined water in storage of the 13 metro dams, despite having discharged 40 GL of scour water and about the same in dam over flow.
Given this monumental waste why do the Water Corporation and Government keep wasting 100,s of thousands of taxpayers dollars to reduce their water use, while they do the opposite.
Peter Coyne,
No sure what you point is.
Mine was the Wellington Dam suffers from the same catchment runoff issues as the other dams (documented in the link). In fact, it is probably worse with this dam, because rather than lack of catchment bush clearing, they are reforesting parts of the catchment (to reduce salinity). Also documented in the link I provided.
That the dam has overflowed is neither here nor there. It’s catchment is bigger than any of the other dams and the water is too salty to use as scheme water.
The only surprising aspect to the dam overflowing is the Wellington dam has a hydro-electric plant, and the water could have been used to generate electricity.
Philip Bradley, I do not know where you got the idea that the water from this dam is too salty for human consumption. Your link states that the average salinity is 950 mg/l and that the maximum in dry periods is 1200 mg/l. The USA limit for fresh drinking water is 1000 mg/l and the recommended limit for agricultural use is 2000 mg/l. There are many homesteads around Australia that are using bore water upto 2000 mg/l. It is not that difficult to install plant to reduce the salinity. I have a double cartridge filter take takes out the Chlorine add to purify drinking water.
It would have been far cheaper to put a plant to reduce the salinity from 1000mg/l to about 500mg/l next to the Collie power station instead built a plant at Kwinana for seawater (salinity 35,000 mg/l)desalination. But the stupid labor and greens do not like coal and have a habit of wasting other peoples (public) money.
Wellington Dam has been the subject of a proposal by Agritech for about a decade – to use the pressure from the ~150m fall below the dam – to desalinate the wastewater and supply this to Perth. This figure gives you the basics.
WaterCorp and the previous Labor Govt have opposed this proposal tooth and nail. I do not know what current Govt attitudes are. The figure below is from a 2006 pdf report and gives the broad idea.
Agritech have another separate proposal to drain the Blackwood catchment in the wheatbelt to reduce salinity.
Let me know if any links do not work – I have just dug these old pages out of archives and checked what I could.
I am sure Peter Coyne will add to this.
The comments of Philip Bradley’s last post need correction because I don’t know where he is getting his information from, probably Water Corporation spin doctors.
The Wellington Dam catchment is a large agricultural catchment (broad acre clearing) and is also a large coalmining area. The east Collie catchment is where the salinity exists and has increased the salinty level of the Collie river, the major source of inflow into the dam.
Reafforestation will not fix the problem and attempts to do same over 30 years have all failed. There have been more committee’s formed over those years than I can count. The problem is they have all been by State Government agencies, water corp, Dept of Water, CALM, Department of Agriculture and that’s wher the problem lays.
These organisations are all of a scientific bent and as a consequence will only consider, scientific solutions, whereas the problem requires an engineering solution and Agritech in conjuction with a number of engineering organisations and a team of their best engineers have put up a total solution not just for the Wellington Dam catchment, but also the, Murray, Blackwood and Avon Catchments.
Salinity has ravaged over 2.5 million hectare of the SW wheatbelt, together with every river, stream and lake and has production losses measured in hundreds of millions of dollars and yet these agencies and their solutions have not corrected one nett hectare of land.
I would also point out that when it was decided to increase the height of the wall of Wellington Dam in the 60’s the PWD advised against it because salinity, already in the dam would increase and it has.
Peter Coyne
Cementafriend, the salinity level of the dam is a lot higher than you state but there are other compelling reasons why it cannot be used as potable water.
For over 30 years towns in the great southern have been receiving Wellington Dam water. One for potable domestic supplies and the other for irrigation purposes.
Both have complained bitterly about the quality of the water to the extent that domestic supplies became so saline it was unfit for human consumption and as a result a new dam was built 20 years ago (Harris Dam)and that took over domestic supplies to the great southern towns.
The irrigators have had to put up with the poor quality of the water whose salinity level is a lot higher than the figures you have quoted (Dept of Water trying to tell us they are improving the problem).
It is worth noting that currently this water subjects pasture to an annual salt load of between 3000-6000kg per hectare and is destroying their farms. In addition it is 40% less productive than water from the Harvey dam supply but costs the same to buy.
Cementafriend, regardless of the salinity level and the nasties in the dam, the real reason it cannot be sold as potable water is because recreation pursuits are allowed on the dam and the Health Department edict states that where there has been human contact with the water it cannot be sold or used as potable.
Peter Coyne
‘The comments of Philip Bradley’s last post need correction because I don’t know where he is getting his information from, probably Water Corporation spin doctors.’
What correction would that be?