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.
