News & Discussion: Water Infrastructure

[Xaragmata]

Stage 2 of the Breakout Creek Wetland is currently under way between Henley Beach & Tapleys Hill roads ...

[Omicron]

Those last few kilometres of the Torrens have been quite underwhelming (almost sad, in fact) for a few years now, so hopefully the improvements will be effective. Goodness me; I remember when the channel was always full and demonstrably flowing. When a bit of rain comes along and greens everything up nicely, I ought to have a stroll past and see how that end of town is coming along.

[AG]

Underground water rescue for Adelaide
GREG KELTON, STATE EDITOR
April 15, 2009 11:15pm

BILLIONS of litres of water in deep aquifers under the city will be used as back-up water supplies for Adelaide if Murray water continues to dry up.

Officers from the Water, Land and Biodiversity Department are carrying out an audit of the aquifers which could contain more than two years' supply of water.

The aquifers can be more than 230m below the surface and were tapped during a drought in the 1960s with more than 10,000 megalitres of water being drawn out.

Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald told The Advertiser yesterday the officers were undertaking investigations into the amount of water that could be drawn "in an emergency situation".

"There is a substantial amount of water in the deep aquifers underneath Adelaide," she said.

"The problems with those aquifers is they have a very slow recharge rate. So it's how much you can sustainably draw out without having an impact on the quality of the water in those aquifers."

But she said the state had supplies in place for next year and would have the following year's reserves in place over the next 12 months.

Water is captured in underground caverns either through natural drainage or stormwater run-off. These can be found between 50m and more than 230m below the surface. Bores are sunk and the water then piped into the main water system.

In 1967-68 more than 10,000 megalitres were pumped out over a seven-month period.

In the past 12 years, more than 700 bores have been drilled in the metropolitan area to use water from aquifers which are only 5m to 11m below the surface.

In other developments:

MRS MAYWALD also ruled out using bottled water as an option saying the state had two winters' supply before reserves were depleted and that was if there was no rain at all in that time.

THE OPPOSITION will signal its intentions to make water a key issue in the 2010 election with Liberal leader Martin Hamilton-Smith making a new policy announcement today.

THE MURRAY-DARLING Basin Authority has said it will deliver 4.4 billion litres to important environmental icon sites in NSW, Victoria and SA this month.

Mrs Maywald said there were 200 gigalitres in storage in the Hume and Dartmouth dams upstream and another 112 gigalitres in storage in reservoirs in the Adelaide Hills.

She said there was also water being held for SA in the Murrumbidgee Dam.

"We have also secured access to storage in the Hume and Dartmouth Dams for up to a year and a half of our critical human needs," she said.

"So we can actually store more water in the dams if more becomes available.

"We have about 12 months' storage capacity in the Adelaide Hills. So what we will be looking to do is pump our reserves to the maximum into the Mt Lofty storages. "We are also negotiating with NSW and Victoria for what is known as `run of the river water' which is used to move water from A to B."

Mrs Maywald said the use of bottled water was a worst case scenario.

"If the pipeline breaks between Morgan and Whyalla then we have to look at providing water and those are the type of situations where we would look at using bottled water," she said.

"We want to send a very clear message that all this work is being done to ensure we don't have to run out of water," she said.

[mattblack]

Yes, lets go from scewing one resource to screwing another ........ BRILLIANT IDEA !!!

[AG]

Yes, lets go from scewing one resource to screwing another ........ BRILLIANT IDEA !!!

It's interesting that you mention this because Shanghai has been doing this for some time to meet its own requirements. The combination of accelerating water usage from bores and rapid construction of heavy structures on poor quality soils above is creating increasing settlement issues across the city. In the past century, some parts of Shanghai have sunk by over 2m.

[mattblack]

Im sure this will come as comforting news to residents of low lying areas.

[Omicron]

After careful thought, I have decided to disguise the Water [In]Security Minister Karlene Maywald with a throw-rug and scatter her with cushions.

[Cruise]

After careful thought, I have decided to disguise the Water [In]Security Minister Karlene Maywald with a throw-rug and scatter her with cushions.

Or you could spray her with your hose.

[sageru]

In a particularly unmotivated and listless period of last year I decided to do engineering at TAFE. I remember my lecturer told us how Adelaide's water pipes are only replaced on failure or otherwise patched up until they fail at a later date and that 40% of all water that travels through the pipes is lost. Cost wise it would be higher than a desalination plant--not to mention delays to traffic, labour costs etc.--but it's a pretty alarming idea that there is ample water reaching Adelaide, just that a large percentage of it is lost through wastage. These underwater aquifers are probably replenished by the water we lose from our pipes

[monotonehell]

In a particularly unmotivated and listless period of last year I decided to do engineering at TAFE. I remember my lecturer told us how Adelaide's water pipes are only replaced on failure or otherwise patched up until they fail at a later date and that 40% of all water that travels through the pipes is lost. Cost wise it would be higher than a desalination plant--not to mention delays to traffic, labour costs etc.--but it's a pretty alarming idea that there is ample water reaching Adelaide, just that a large percentage of it is lost through wastage. These underwater aquifers are probably replenished by the water we lose from our pipes

While I agree that maintenance is an issue, I find the figure of 40% too high to believe.

Anyone have a source for this?

[Wayno]

I also doubt Adelaide loses 40% - simply seems too much.

While i don't have local leakage statistics, i used to be involved with Macquarie Bank who bought "Thames Water" which supplies water to the London area. Back in 2006, their leakage rate was ~33% (2800 meglitres distributed, with only 1700megalitres actually arriving at houses & industry). Many of the water pipes are still from the victorian era, and literally leak like a sieve.

[sageru]

Well I used to take rather detailed lecture notes which I then lost but yes 40% is probably a rather inflated figure, our lecturer was passionate about civil engineering
After a bit of Googling I found this http://www.ministers.sa.gov.au/news.php?id=3381 which gives a statistic which this http://www.liemberger.cc/downloads/publ ... t%204.pdfi then explains. Apparently we're actually quite good if the government estimated ILI is correct. I think I need somebody else needs to make sense of this because it is 3am and it is all a blur.

[mattblack]

I also doubt Adelaide loses 40% - simply seems too much.

Just think of it as a Adelaide aquifer recharge system, just about as efficient a one-way expressway.

[fabricator]

Well I used to take rather detailed lecture notes which I then lost but yes 40% is probably a rather inflated figure, our lecturer was passionate about civil engineering
After a bit of Googling I found this http://www.ministers.sa.gov.au/news.php?id=3381 which gives a statistic which this http://www.liemberger.cc/downloads/publ ... t%204.pdfi then explains. Apparently we're actually quite good if the government estimated ILI is correct. I think I need somebody else needs to make sense of this because it is 3am and it is all a blur.

http://www.sawater.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/ ... sLeaks.pdf

It is estimated we lose about 7% of the water supplied from our metropolitan system each year – about 12 gigalitres

We also recorded an Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) level of 1.1

[Norman]

I think this is the right thread? From the Guardian Messenger:

Plant on track for early water

15 Jul 09 @ 07:33am
by David Goldsmith

RECYCLED water from the Glenelg Waste Water Treatment Plant could begin flowing to city parklands before the end of this year.

Jointly funded by the Federal and State governments, the $75 million project will direct at least 1.3 billion litres of treated wastewater a year to Adelaide City parklands.

The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-2010.

“However construction is tracking ahead of schedule and the first water could be delivered as early as December,” SA Water’s chief operating officer John Ringham said.

The work includes an upgrade of the Barcoo Rd treatment plant, laying an 8km Glenelg-Adelaide pipeline and linking it with a 34km line around the city.

Mr Ringham said the treatment plant work was close to completion.

“The large pipes and treatment plant have been constructed and installed, work is under way on the plant’s electrical components and contractors are finishing the installation of new pump and filter connections,” he said.

CityGreen Alliance construction crews are also in the final stages of testing four newly-built storage lagoons capable of holding a combined 22 million litres at the Glenelg site.

Mr Ringham said SA Water was in talks with more than 30 potential customers, including councils, sporting groups, schools and businesses, about making use of the recycled water.

Among the groups to have expressed an interest was the Adelaide Sailing Club.

Club Commodore Mike Badenoch said they had applied to tap into the pipeline to allow members to wash down their boats on the club lawns a practice that was banned due to the drought.