Starting in mid-2004 we are concerned that current WA Government water policies which are focused  unwisely on a $500 million (allows for cost over runs etc on top of $350Mill announced) proposal to build a grossly extravagant desalination plant at Kwinana, will fail to best serve the interests of Perth people.   Just remember who is paying for the "White Elephant".

June 2005 Update, following over 200mm of catchment rain in May 2005 we ask Government,  "Where has all the water gone ? This lead to an article in the Rockingham local newspaper, the "Sound Telegraph", (that's Cockburn Sound) Interesting that the Govt. response is so weak.  They say that 40GL PA could be saved (~=KDP production) so the headline is spot on.  They do not contradict our claims that rainfall has been pretty steady for 30 years and that catchment yields have collapsed to ~3% since the mid-1990's. We say, "well may the Government be sensitive."  We predict the Premier will become the State's least visible water Minister in history.

May 2005, read our submission to WA Govt. ERA water price inquiry, (pdf version on the ERA website)
Check our 13 point comments on the Premier's 29 July press release  go ahead for RO plant.

  There is much evidence that the current "water crisis" and future climate impacts are being overstated. There never was or is a "water crisis".  Dam levels were steadily reducing before 2001 due to rising demand, neglect of new sources,  all exacerbated by over a decade of  increasing understory regrowth choking catchment flows.  This means that had catchments been managed we would have started 2001 with say an extra  200 GL of supply.   Faced with these simple realities the Govt. opted to blame climate change and avoid ruffling Green feathers by avoiding the essential task of thinning the catchments.  To prop up the mantra that climate change is the bogey,  basic issues of rainfall statistics are presented to the public in a slanted manner.  For example, contrary to what we are told in the  media, rain at stations near catchments has been average for the months May to August 2004. The map of rainfall contours in the SW of WA  by Martyn Keen, WA Dept. of Agriculture,  shows how much more rain falls in the catchments and drives home the irrelevance of quoting Perth rain figures in the media as Water Corporation does.   Click here for full map with legend. Questions for Water Corporation

We say the Government should keep a cooler head and work through the current period of lower than desired dam levels by a combination of policies which do not include the desalination plant.  
Graphic of Catchment Efficiency 1980-2004 showing disastrous falloff  1996-2004 after ceasing catchment management.

The bullet points below set out some of the ways the Government should progress water policy, some need more investigation, some are "ready to go". who knows in years ahead a desal plant may be an economic option and if that comes to pass we know for certain technology will have improved the process and reduced the real costs. Perth annual water consumption is circa 300GL.

• enhancing runoff by catchment thinning starting NOW.  Since the dry winter in 2001 we have wasted nearly FOUR years by not commencing this common sense work that would increase inflows an extra $100 million in terms of value of retail water and also reduce some of the unemployment in timber towns;  The above thumbnail shows the drop off in Catchment Efficiency (CE) since the mid 1990's.  This measures the loss of inflows due to regrowth in catchments. Click on thumbnail above for full graphic. 
• The Agritech proposal to desalinate the slightly saline water now wasted from Wellington Dam has obvious merits compared to the more expensive KDP that the Govt. has panicked into. PWU also draws attention to 500GL of weakly saline water wasting to sea every year in the Avon and Murray Rivers in addition to the Collie flows, see the PWU ERA submission above.
  
•  The Water Corporation has a timetable out to 2030 published at the 2002 Water Symposium to progress its timetable of future dam and stream engineering works enhancing future storage and supply, (without the RO plant), WaterCorp should be told to get on with this;
• We draw 150 GL of water per year from the Gnangara Mound which equates to more than three times the proposed new Kwinana Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant (KRODP). The EPA want to shut down some of these bores on environmental grounds. Which usually means preserving urban wetlands = swamps and small lakes. Clearly any production from the KRODP might be cancelled out quickly by groundwater shutdowns. In fact more KRODP's might well be on GovWater's agenda. The capital cost could be enormous.  The Gnangara pine plantations are suppressing 40 GL of water per year and if converted to a mix of urban use and native bush over a decade could add 130 GL per year to capacity. Read what we say about the Gnangara Mound and pines.
• Circa 500Gl of stormwater is trapped in Perth drainage each year and then is wasted to the sea. PWU says surely some of this could be treated to potable standard cheaper than the KRODP option.
  
• take sensible steps to buy surplus water from irrigator groups if such water can be found;
• encourage reduction of water losses where improved engineering can save water in irrigator schemes;
• investigate cloud seeding to enhance catchment flows using the most up to date technology from operators with track records of success, from wherever they may be in the world.   It is ludicrous for the Water Corporation to shelter behind a 1969 report to justify their continuing to turn a blind eye to cloud seeding .  Imagine if a cancer researcher said, "..yeah well we have a inconclusive report from 1969 so we are ceasing all further research...".;    Check out web site of Weather Modification Inc
• the Government should take less notice of  exaggerated Green concerns about flora & fauna that are obviously blocking catchment thinning.
• and also not build current policy on pessimistic climate models which have no success record in predicting the future;
• the Government should see that rainfall and water supply statistics are publicised  in a more scientific way;
• of course moves towards greater reuse of processed wate-water by industry should continue and all sensible urban conservation measures;
• longer term a pipeline south from the abundant water in northern WA should be investigated as part of a process where along the route the water contributes to "Nation building", establishing new communities in new economic zones, involving food production by new migrants, supplying Pilbara industry, WA mining regions etc. Not simply a pipeline to Perth.

Links:

Web site by one of our founders, with factual information on the Perth rainfall history, water supply catchments history, Perth water shortage and water supply options including information on silly extravagant desalination option and how forest regrowth continues to, degrade our catchment potential.
http://www.warwickhughes.com/water/

Go to http://www.era.wa.gov.au/water/  for Perth Water Users submission to ERA water price inquiry.

Bureau of Meteorology FTP site, Australian high quality rainfall data 379 stations, but maybe ~300 updated thru 2003
ftp://ftp.bom.gov.au/anon/home/ncc/www/change/

Global Historical Climate Network data
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/ghcn/ghcn.SELECT.html

Indian Ocean site by Jean-Luc Le Blanc
http://indianocean.free.fr

Jacobs Perth Climate data pages, links to real time weather observations
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jacob/weather.html

Follow link on right to "Snowfall Augmentation by Cloud Seeding", many pdf reports to read note Searle 2002.
http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/

Ryan and Sadler overview of cloud seeding in Australia                                          http://www.dar.csiro.au/publications/cloud.htm

CSIRO media man Paul Holper's summary of cloud seeding.
http://www.dar.csiro.au/publications/holper_2001c.htm

Northwest Cloudbands, site by Nicola Telcik UWA scientist
http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/~telcik/menu.html

The Water Corporation, administers WA water supplies. Look in downloadable reports for useful info.
http://www.watercorporation.com.au.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, research projects of Dr. Warren B. White, including  forecasts for global rainfall.
http://jedac.ucsd.edu/PERSONNEL/WHITE/index.html    his home page
http://jedac.ucsd.edu/PROJECTS/index.html    papers by Dr White
http://jedac.ucsd.edu/acw/    his Antarctic Circumpolar Wave web pages

Viacorp, background on Perth water supply
http://viacorp.com/perth_water.html/

WA Water and Rivers Commission, much rainfall, river flow and groundwater data, little that is long term
http://www.wrc.wa.gov.au/

Water Forum, new web site with what the Government wants us to know.
http://www.ourwaterfuture.com.au

Nothing below here.