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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. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:44): I have a supplementary question. If there is an increase of six times the land harvesting area and component to the wetland and you are going to increase the capacity to recharge the aquifer six times to 1.2 gigalitres by bringing in water from the River Torrens and other associated catchment areas, can the minister assure the council that the capacity will be there to harvest and re-use all of the water that could potentially flow into that existing catchment area?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (14:45): The capacity of this scheme, as I understand it, is really a matter for the minister for—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: What I have done is re-zone the land. My responsibilities—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am not ducking at all. I am happy to debate water with you guys—anything—because, as I just showed with respect to the River Murray, you are so incompetent over there. I am happy to talk about water any day. It is fair enough that the honourable member should want to get some information about the details. As I said, this project has been announced today. I suggest that, if the honourable member wants to go into the intimate detail of this, he should discuss that issue—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am very well briefed on this. The honourable member should get a briefing from the experts in relation to the intimate detail. However, what I can say in relation to this matter is that my understanding is that there will be some capacity here. Because the new extended catchment area will go between Port Road and Torrens Road right up to the River Torrens, there is the potential to inject overflows from the River Torrens. If there is excess water there above what is needed to flush out the rest of the system, it can be injected into this aquifer.

Obviously, one can control the amount that is injected into the aquifer. The amount of water that is available will depend on quality and all sorts of things. Quite complex engineering issues are involved to inject it in there. There will also be the issue of how much one extracts from it. The idea is to put the water in there so it can be re-used and, clearly, some quite complex engineering issues are involved.

However, for the purposes of the question, I am pointing out that it is not the surface area of the wetlands that has been increased sixfold but the capacity of the scheme, because it will be designed, through aquifer injection, to handle 1.2 gigalitres.

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