Wednesday 12 August 2009
Our guest speaker was Dr Michael Storey a microbiologist with Sydney Water. Dr Storey was introduced by Paolo Giammarco. His subject was ‘Water For Life’.
Water for Life is an ongoing project whose ultimate aim is to secure adequate water for the population of the Sydney basin for the foreseeable future. This project has 4 components-
1. DAMS - A series of water storage dams across the Sydney basin. The largest is Warragamba which holds by far the greatest amount of water. Other dams are at Cataract, Avon, Nepean and Woronora. Additional water is available from the Shoalhaven area south of Sydney.
2. RECYCLING - Secondary treatment of water for use in toilets, car washing and garden use. This is currently in operation in Newington ( the Olympic suburb) and the newly developed housing area of Rouse Hill. The next major project is Hoxton Park. There are also major recycling projects being undertaken with large business users of water. It is planned that recycling will supply 12% of overall water needs by 2015
3. DESALINATION - The plant currently under construction at Kurnell will come on line in December of this year. In its current size it will produce 250 million litres per day which equates to 15% of current usage. Should the need arise this capacity can be doubled to produce 500 million litres per day. It was noted that this plant will be run on 100% renewable energy from a purpose built wind farm constructed at Lake George.
4. WATER EFFICIENCY - The aim is to save 24% of current consumption by 2015. This will be achieved by a series of innovations which are progressively being introduced. These include water efficient showerheads, houses designed to use less water, rebates for water efficient washing machines and rebates for people to install rainwater tanks. Also part of the water efficiency plan is to reduce leakage from the 21000 kilometres of pipelines maintained by Sydney Water.
In addition there is an ongoing education program directed at all users to conserve water. It should be noted that currently water usage is at the same level as the early 1970’s but we have had a population increase of 1.3 million.
Dr Storey produced graphs showing how the average rainfall has declined in the last 5 to 10 years with the resultant decline in inflows into the dams hence the need for all consumers to be aware of the need to be water wise. One other fact was that if there was no inflow into the water storage dams there was water to last 4 years at the current rate of adage.
The subject was obviously of great interest to all judging by the large volume of questions asked.
Dr Storey was thanked by PP Keith Byrn.