The drought, water and what's doing ?

[Lucky_Phill]

Sorry guys, couldn't think of another title.

Basically, Senator Glenn Lazarus is hoping to put together a " Queensland Water " talk-fest in late September this year. He has invited the Govt to set this up / contribute and obviously revolves around water... or the lack of or the polluted ones, Coal Seam Gas and the like. This is probably more aimed at primary producers, but I feel it important to get the " whole " picture.

Seeing that Freshwater fishing in Queensland is totally reliant on water... ( hahahahahaha ) I was wondering if anyone has any imput into this ?

I have no idea about the terms of reference, as it is an idea from Glenn, that he only talked about yesterday.

Obviously drought affects all waterways and stakeholders to some degree, but to what extent would severe drought affect fishing and also flooding ? Also considering the options that may be talked about like connecting pipelines from various dams, water / river diversions, massive inland water culvets, and also would this lead to further agriculture......... which I think is the ultimate aim or at least sustainable and stable agriculture.

But certainly freshwater fishing and the fishery itself are heavily involved in this and needs to have their say.

I have made a submission to Glenn, to be kept informed of the progress of the event and also if he would like written of physical participation.

Any and all thoughts are welcome............. thanks


LP

[Fitzy]

First I've heard of it LP. Can you forward any info to me that you have please?

Fitz..

[TheRealAndy]

Its been a while, but I have done a fair bit of work installing equipment into rural areas to monitor water levels, water flow, nitrogen and phosphorus levels among other things. I would be concerned about connecting various damns and waterways together...

Now let me say this, many people kicked up a stink (no pun intended) about putting treated sewerage water back into the dams that are used for water supply. I know of several towns that used to (and I say used to because it has been a while) that put secondary treated waste water into holding ponds that will flow into waterways that end up in Brisbane dams. The treatment plants in Brisbane at the time would output water that was much cleaner and much safer (and dare I say it, drinkable).

I was one of those guys that used to wade around in your shite, installing gear and repairing stuff to measure what came out of the treatment plants. And whilst I cant vouch for what was done in Brisbane, I know that there was very little testing of anything but Nitrates and Phosphates in rural plants. Testing of heavy metals at the time was almost non existent. Testing of biological contaminates was pretty much unheard of. In fact, testing of biological pathogens in water in Brisbane waterways only became popular after the 2011 floods.

If you want to connect dams together, then you want to make damn sure that there is no implications from contaminants that will have adverse affects. This means heavy metals, organic materials such as nitrate and phosphate and pathogens.

[rayken1938]

SEQ water have been doing a lot of testing in NPD re the movement of pathogens and other contaminants and the time it takes them to move from the headwaters to the water intake tower.
During the last flooding it took ( From memory) aprox 5 days for e coli to travel the distance and during this time the majority of the e coli died.
This study is continuing and until it is completed the review of the recreational use of the dam will not be finalized.
The data gathered will also be used to develop models to be applied to all dams under their control.
Apparently it is a world first.
There was supposed to be a information meeting re the progress last month but it did not happen.
Cheers
Ray

[aussiebasser]

Hang on, Brisbane is now drought proof. We have the recycled water pipeline, and a de-salination plant now. We are surely saved.

[TheRealAndy]

SEQ water have been doing a lot of testing in NPD re the movement of pathogens and other contaminants and the time it takes them to move from the headwaters to the water intake tower.
During the last flooding it took ( From memory) aprox 5 days for e coli to travel the distance and during this time the majority of the e coli died.
This study is continuing and until it is completed the review of the recreational use of the dam will not be finalized.
The data gathered will also be used to develop models to be applied to all dams under their control.
Apparently it is a world first.
There was supposed to be a information meeting re the progress last month but it did not happen.
Cheers
Ray

Thats good to hear. When I was still working as an instrument tech, they were only just rolling out monitoring of phosphates and nitrates (I was working on automated testing gear for outfall). I have no doubt now that outfall testing is a lot stricter and probably a lot more comprehensive these days.