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Archive for March, 2008
Mar 27
Kenneth Davidson
March 27, 2008
ANOTHER water tale from La La Land: Age Diary ran a story last Thursday from one of our readers, Andrew Dawson, who discovered that by simply adjusting his tap at the meter he could cut the water bill for his family of four in half without any discernible lack of amenity.
This was a Eureka moment that he attempted to share with the responsible ministers in Spring Street and at Yarra Valley Water, but he received no response, despite the CSIRO thinking it an idea worth pursuing. (Remember all this inactivity was conducted against a background of drought, declining water supplies and the threat of stage 4 restrictions.)
In the face of this official turpitude, Dawson turned to The Age. Diarist Lawrence Money put a question to Yarra Valley Water last Wednesday about whether cutting water flows to households might be a viable method of conserving water.
The reply came back 6½ hours later. It said that if households wanted to do this and put up with the inconvenience then Yarra Valley Water saw “no harm in it”. Thirty seconds later another email arrived rescinding the first. A week later and Money is still waiting for a considered answer.
The Age - Ludicrous water policy puts profits before the public interest
Mar 23
Mar 21
CLICK HERE to read the Bass Coast Shire Council’s Media Release - Bass Coast walks from Desal
Dear Minister,
Maybe you find it would be not only a nice gesture but showing our community and our local Goverment the well deserved respect!
So again, when exactly did you clearly explain the need of this desalination plant to our community?
At those 4 community information sessions? Those that were rather neglectful advertised, those at which we were never really told any proper information. The only valuable comment made was the one by your Project Manager, when he truthfully said that recycling would be a way to go?
Or are you talking about the very short noticed visit of the Premier Minister to open the DSE office? When everything was done to avoid any contact with the community.
Or about the 30 minute audience that Representatives of our Council and YWYS AG were granted, were again no questions were answered.
Yes, you did go out of your way and came to a meeting with the Council and members of our group but we never got “the greater and continued opportunity to communicate that the magnitude of this project deserved.” ( Meeting with our Minister for Water, Tim Holding, Wednesday 25 September )
Just wondering 8 months into this project …
Anne Busch
Ben Doherty
March 21, 2008
THE council on whose land Victoria’s desalination plant is supposed to be built is now refusing to co-operate with the State Government on the project, arguing Spring Street’s approach to building the $3.1 billion plant has been “shambolic” and the need for desalination has never been proved.
The seven-member Bass Coast Shire Council said the Government’s current process lacked transparency and genuine community consultation, and voted four-three to “withdraw from all discussions” with the State Government.
But Water Minister Tim Holding said he was “puzzled” by the motion, and said that he had written to the council on February 8 offering further consultation, but had not received a reply.
The council resolved on Wednesday night to cease all co-operation with the State Government. “The lack of transparency, consultative processes, and numerous unresolved issues leave the council with no alternative,” it said. “Until a memorandum of understanding is signed, which is based upon transparency, and factual knowledge, council believes that this approach of withdrawal is a better option than continuing with the shambolic process that currently exists.”
Read on in The Age - Bass Coast council drops support for desalination
Mar 20
Suzanne Carbone and Lawrence Money
March 20, 2008
LIKE many lightning-bolt ideas, this one arose by chance. Kingsbury local Andrew Dawson wondered why, with wife and two kids, his water consumption bill was lower than the average posted on his Yarra Valley Water bill. Turned out that rust had partially choked his supply pipe, cutting the flow.
That’s when that cerebral light globe went on. “I experimented with the tap at the meter,” he told us yesterday, “and cut down the flow further until it took a minute to fill a six-litre container from the household taps.” Result: the latest Dawson bill shows an average 172 litres a day. According to Yarra Valley Water, the average four-person household goes through 525 litres a day and even the “efficient” household, employing water-saving techniques, uses 434 litres.
The Dawsons have been doing this for two years, saving heaps of water and piles of money, but here’s the crunch: when Andrew Dawson took this simple idea to Spring Street (including runaway minister Thwaites), Yarra Valley Water and other administrative paper-shufflers they just yawned. Not interested.
Remember, Thwaites was from the Spring Street bozos who are now spending $4 billion on desalination and pipelines. And the same bozos are spending further millions of your money lecturing (and threatening) you on restrictions and how to not waste water.
“The only positive result was from the CSIRO,” Dawson said. “They were interested in doing a study using a larger population sample — still are — but need public support. I’ve checked with the plumbing trade. They can’t see any long-term problem doing this. It’s easy, costs nothing.”
But of course less water use would mean less revenue for water authorities. That couldn’t be the problem, could it? Diary checked with Yarra Valley Water: was there some technical problem with cutting back the flow? YVW emailed a reply very late yesterday but “recalled” it a minute later so we still don’t know.
Well, the beauty of this one is you don’t need a bureaucrat to give you the nod. Just go out front and turn down your mains. You might even save on plumbing costs. “If the truth be known,” says Andrew Dawson, “we haven’t fixed that rust in the pipes. We’re quite happy with the flow!”
The Age - Water-saver! So why is nobody interested?
Mar 19
Professor Grafton (ANU) - Public Submission on ‘Draft Scoping Requirements’ of the Environment
No Comments »Please follow link to download this public submission by
R. Quentin Grafton★
Crawford School of Economics and Government
The Australian National University
Tom Kompas
Crawford School of Economics and Government
The Australian National University
Michael Ward
Crawford School of Economics and Government
The Australian National University
★contact author:
J.G Crawford Building (13), Ellery Crescent, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
quentin.grafton@anu.edu.au, fax +61-2-6125-5570, tel: +61-2-6125-6558.
Public Submission on ‘Draft Scoping Requirements’ of the Environment
In the news ...
Community Consultation & Information
Environmental Effects Study
Watch our youtube videos, Listen to the radio links and get interested!
- youtube - Desal Protest - My Tribute To Those That Care Higher Quality
- Transcript of Friday’s (20 June 08) ABC Stateline Victoria - Kathy Bowlen interviews Councilor Garteh Barlow
- ABC Gippsland - Camping out for a cause
- ABC - 7:30 Report - Tim Flannery reflects on 2007
- Bob Brown -youtube video from Kilcunda
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