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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-03 Daily Xml
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MOUNT LOFTY RANGES WATER ALLOCATION PLANS

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:06): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, representing the Minister for Water, a question regarding the Mount Lofty Ranges water allocation plans.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY: Last year I attended a meeting at Strathalbyn where a hydrologist from the Department for Water explained the method by which they calculate the volume of water in a dam, using a formula based on a levelling staff reading at the foot of the dam, together with aerial photography. More recently, Department for Water staff visited a property in Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills to measure the height of a dam wall. After the exercise was completed, the owner was told that the calculated volume of the dam was approximately five million gallons.

The dam was constructed in 1961, and the volume at that stage was approximately two million gallons. There has been no work done on the dam since 1961, nor has it been cleaned out at any stage. My question to the minister is: how can the proposed Western Mount Lofty Ranges water allocation plan or the Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges water allocation plan be considered to be reliable in terms of dam capacities if the calculated volumes made by the Department for Water can have an error rate of at least 60 per cent or more?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:08): I thank the honourable member for his most important question on the Mount Lofty Ranges water allocation plans. I undertake to take the question to the Minister for Water and the River Murray in the other place and seek a response on his behalf.

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