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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-05 Daily Xml
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CHELTENHAM PARK

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): I have a further supplementary in response to the last question. The capacity of the 4.5 hectares wetland—

The Hon. B.V. Finnigan interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Chuck him out.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I am in charge here. The Hon. Mr Ridgway has the call. If he wants to sit down, that is fine.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Can the minister please explain how the capacity is six times larger? Are the reeds six times thicker? Are the pumps six times faster at charging it? How can you increase the capacity by six times if the area is the same as before, or smaller?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:42): Because the catchment area has been greatly increased, and the volume of water that can be handled will be much larger. But the idea is aquifer injection. The wetlands on the surface are there to clean the water. The water will then be injected into the aquifer. The whole point is: why would you want six times the surface area, because it evaporates? Doesn't the honourable member understand what is happening at Goolwa at the moment?

No wonder the Liberals are in trouble. Let us reflect for a moment on what some of the Liberal members have been saying in relation to the Lower Lakes and evaporation. The evaporation down there is somewhere between 800 and 1,100 gigalitres a year. In hotter weather it is more, but with the lower surface areas it is probably actually less. But if it is 800 or 900 gigalitres a year, you divide by 365 days a year and it is about 2½ gigalitres a day, on average—more in the summer, obviously—of evaporation coming off the lakes. Yet, members opposite have been lecturing us on water and trying to tell us that 30 gigalitres will fix the problem. That is 15 days of evaporation. That is how crazy their thinking is.

I use the point that the idea of aquifer injection is that you do not want it evaporating. You want to clear up the water so you can re-use it, and then you inject it into the aquifer below the ground where it will not evaporate. That is what it is all about. If you are going to re-use the water, you do not want it evaporating on the surface.

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