November 26, 2014
A proposal to increase current water restrictions from Level 1 to Level 2 provoked energetic debate at today’s South Burnett Regional Council meeting.
Water Portfolio chair Cr Barry Green told fellow councillors the region’s dam storage levels were currently at 60 per cent.
But they were forecast to drop to 35 per cent in a year’s time if no significant rain fell and current restrictions remained in force.
He thought that given current dry conditions and with an El Nino drought cycle in play, it would be prudent to increase water restrictions a little bit now rather than wait until the situation became critical.
Current Level 1 water restrictions amounted to 215 litres per person per day (PPPD ), and Level 2 restrictions were equal to 185 litres PPPD.
“The difference really amounts to using sprinklers,” he said.
Moving from Level 1 to Level 2 would save 600,000 litres per week across the region.
And while Level 2 restrictions meant gardeners couldn’t use sprinklers, hand-held watering would still be allowed.
However, Crs Kathy Duff and Ros Heit disagreed.
Cr Duff said she was against banning the use of sprinklers “from a Parks and Gardens perspective”.
Not using sprinklers would make Council’s CBD upgrade projects brown off and risked losing the investment Council had aleready made in projects such as Wondai’s Village Green, Railway Park at Proston or Nanango’s streetscaping, she said.
It would also make the region’s cemeteries look unattractive at a time of year when many people visited them.
Hand-held watering of parks, gardens and cemeteries by Council staff was impractical.
Cr Heit agreed with Cr Duff.
With the region about to enter its summer storm season, she asked whether the matter could be laid on the table for a month so it could be reassesed.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said he didn’t think it was appropriate to defer this particular motion.
Cr Barry Green agreed, noting that if significant rain fell at any time, the restrictions could be removed or eased immediately.
Crs Campbell, Tessmann and Palmer said they also thought it would be responsible to increase water restrictions.
Cr Palmer said in her own experience, cemetery visitors were more concerned about the height of grass than its colour.
But Cr Duff was unwilling to be swayed.
She asked if some intermediate system could be adopted – perhaps one which would allow the use of sprinklers for a few hours each morning.
Council’s Infrastructure General Manager Russell Hood said councillors could implement any system of water restrictions they wanted to, but it would be difficult to enforce Shire-wide compliance if Council made one rule for itself and another for residents.
Mayor Kratzmann said he thought it would be dispiriting for farmers if they drove into their local town and saw green, well-watered lawns in each town’s CBD at a time when they were struggling to water their own stock.
In the end, the proposal to raise water restrictions from Level 1 to Level 2 was carried 5-2.
An announcement to this effect will be published in the coming week.
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UPDATE November 27: Level 2 water restrictions are now in place throughout the South Burnett Region. South Burnett Regional Council has advised residents that sprinklers are not to be used.
Hand held watering is permitted from 6:00am to 8:00am, and 5:00pm to 7:00pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for odd-numbered houses and Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for even-numbered houses.
No residential watering is permitted on Mondays.
More irony given the continuing drought conditions that are getting more frequent, severe and longer with Council considering water restrictions, yet the State LNP Government wants to allow mining industries to waste billions of litres of water.
Unfortunately the drought situation relates to more than just the Sth Burnett area, with a large portion of rural Queensland in the same situation. No food for stock, no water for stock and no immediate financial assistance even to help keep a family with basic food or services. Just the likes of Council and Banks coming in to ‘steal’ your assets because you are unable to pay their bill.
The mental stress and angst caused by these conditions are chronic and have dire consequences. An increase in suicide rates in an area that already has a higher than average is already happening. This silent epidemic topic very rarely make mainstream media, it’s just a hidden fact
The Mayor is worried about what rural people might think if the see a patch of green grass in town (and rightly so), but the bigger picture includes what will everyone think when they see severe drought conditions Queensland wide all while water is being turned into a toxic waste byproduct by coal and gas companies.
At least you can tell the State Government not to allow unlimited water waste in these dire times by a failing fossil fuel industry. Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet.
I was going to let this one go by, but I was in town this morning and guess what? The SBRC are paying wages (rate money!) to have workers holding piddly little sprinklers washing the dust off of the grass. How inefficient is this! There are other ways of watering. Where are the “smarts” in this council to organize something better than this prior to the laying of the expensive turf. It would cost a bit but would save wages and water far in excess of the initial cost, very quickly indeed.
I must commend Cr Duff for her very sensible and practical and common sense debate on the resolution and also Cr Heit for her support of Kathy. Are these two Crs the only sensible ones we have representing us?
At this time of the calender year and also the”regulated water year” this resolution is only a Fluffy Feel Good one on the behalf of the council which in fact achieves almost nothing at all but more hassle.
Now some real facts! The news item states a 600,000 litre weekly saving across the whole region. This saving would have to go on for 83.3 weeks to equal the pumping capacity of just one pump for one day in the irrigation area. Get that 1 pump 1 day = 83 weeks save.
Now evaporation! On a real bad day I think there is about 200 megs lost from the BP Dam only. {Using the .6 meg saving comment, this goes out to 333 weeks, nearly 6 1/2 yrs.}
All users of the BP Dam water have a “nominal allocation”. The old councils of Murgon and Wondai also had a considerable one (I would guess that these towns would not be using currently any more than half that.) Then there is the “Announced allocation” which goes for 12 months ending June,then the figures are done again and the next year’s allocation is announced.
Now this current one goes for another 7 months. Introducing the referred to water savings here now will achieve very, very little but will increase wages and the drying out, making it harder for recovery when the rains do come which I hope is soon.
At the very least the council could have waited till the end of the school holidays or failing that, the next meeting.
Don’t get me wrong. I have greatest respect and sympathy for the people doing it real tough in these very dry times. I used to do it once and I do know how they all feel. These restrictions will not allow any cows to drink but it will surely allow a few fuzzy feel good feelings amongst a few! And also raise wages costs, too.
Perhaps time for a notice of motion to rescind the the troublesome motion.
I am not advocating waste, though. I concur with most of what Grant Newson says in his comments, too.
Hey I meant to add that the current announced allocation is at 100%, still for another seven months from now. On the above comment I could be wrong but I think not. Anyway someone will correct me if I am, no doubt.