Fires around Sydney

[NSWP]

About 2mm of rain yesterday, did nothing, no rain today, fires still smouldering around here.   We need some of the rain Sydney and North coast are getting currently.

[possum52]

59 minutes ago, NSWP said:

About 2mm of rain yesterday, did nothing, no rain today, fires still smouldering around here.   We need some of the rain Sydney and North coast are getting currently.

Thought that might have happened Les after looking at the radar over tha past few days. Is there any rain expected in the next week or so?

 

Leigh

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, NoWhiners said:

Happy to read all my mates in Australia may finally be getting some glorious rain! Hope it continues, steadily but not too much.

 

Go Swans!

wish we would get more than just 9mm, we need 190mm but over several days (not in a few hours)

[MicCanberra]

8 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Thought that might have happened Les after looking at the radar over tha past few days. Is there any rain expected in the next week or so?

 

Leigh

We may get some on Monday apparently, not sure if it makes it to the coast.

[possum52]

12 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

We may get some on Monday apparently, not sure if it makes it to the coast.

I hope you all get the much needed rain Mic, including the Victorian fire areas. Our rain gauge recorded just over 16 mm from late Wednesday into yesterday and it has made our lawns go berserk! We'll have to pay for the lawns to be mowed next week as it will take longer to do.

 

Leigh

[mr walker]

Total of 43.4 ml recorded here at Penrith for yesterday & today, with more predicted 🙂  So almost as much rain as the max temp here on Sat4th [48.9C] 😮

 

Hoping for rain for all.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Sydney Observatory weather station has recorded 28.4mm of rain so far today, and 24.6mm yesterday. That will have refreshed a few gardens! However it turned quite smoky this afternoon, presumably because smoke from the fires in areas surrounding Sydney has been trapped under the rain clouds with no wind to blow it away. Still, I'd rather have rain even if it does mean a bit more smoke.

[The_Big_M]

Was smoky in the morning as well. The rain certainly refreshed but it's still far from normal. I wonder how much will reach the rapidly emptying dams as well.

[MicCanberra]

The rain cleared the smoke for a while but it has been back for today.

[By The Bay]

5 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

Happy to read all my mates in Australia may finally be getting some glorious rain! Hope it continues, steadily but not too much.

 

Go Swans!

Go Pies, and more rain.🙂

[MicCanberra]

9 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

Go Pies, and more rain.🙂

Pies are in the other thread.😛

[By The Bay]

Ha Ha 😊

[in rod we trust]

its just a shame a lot of this rain is going out to sea  .. gov needs better ways to capture the rain water .. couple tbm machines under Sydney could store plenty water. pump it to the bush but I guess its to hard or they cannot sell it off to anyone ..

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, in rod we trust said:

its just a shame a lot of this rain is going out to sea  .. gov needs better ways to capture the rain water .. couple tbm machines under Sydney could store plenty water. pump it to the bush but I guess its to hard or they cannot sell it off to anyone ..

 

The reality is if we don't start building more desalination plants we will probably end up like Cape Town😟.

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

The reality is if we don't start building more desalination plants we will probably end up like Cape Town😟.

Like the decal plant in Sydney that took 8 months to reach full output after sitting 7 years idle and cost 2 billion to build, oh and will add about $30 to every water bill in the city.

[The_Big_M]

54 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

Like the decal plant in Sydney that took 8 months to reach full output after sitting 7 years idle and cost 2 billion to build, oh and will add about $30 to every water bill in the city.

 

Yeah, it's the old thing that prevention is better than cure.

 

Plus it was built way too early, adding a cost over all its underutilised life, and economically obsolete before it was put into operation. Had they waited capacity could have been around double for the same cost. What happens when governments go against their well devised plan and targets and just rush things through.

[possum52]

6 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Like the decal plant in Sydney that took 8 months to reach full output after sitting 7 years idle and cost 2 billion to build, oh and will add about $30 to every water bill in the city.

Similar to Victoria's! What's wrong with dams that at least are harnessing rain water?

 

Leigh

Edited January 17, 2020 by possum52

[Stickman1990]

2 minutes ago, possum52 said:

What's wrong with dams that at least are harnessing rain water?

Getting the rain to fall in sufficient quantities and in the catchment area for the dams has proven to be an issue - at least that’s the case in Sydney 

One other issue is that with growing metro populations the capacity of dams is insufficient to supply the required volumes of water 

[Docker123]

The broad heading of the topic is called Water Security. How do we ensure that there is the quantity and quality of water available for life, industry, agriculture etc..

 

Dams catch water, if the rain falls in the right places in the right ways. This has not been happening. They are not particularly secure, lose a lot to evaporation, and the water is unusable once the dams reach a certain level. About the last 5% or so. Dams also take up a lot of room, are costly, and have other downstream impacts.

 

Various state governments looked at the challenges of water security with the millennium drought (1996-2010). Desal plants have been built in Sydney, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Perth (2), and the Melbourne plant at Wonthaggi. Smaller plants operate in regional areas. They are expensive to run, use a lot of energy, and the highly salivated output has to be well managed to prevent damage when returned to the sea.
 

Perth plants operate, Adelaide and Sydney re-starting. The Wonthaggi plant is enormous, producing up to 150 gigalitres per year. In 2019, 100 gigalitres were used for Melbourne and 120 g ordered for 2020.
 

WA has gone a big step further in adopting a recycled water scheme called aquifer recharge.  Waste water is recycled and pumped into the underground water systems. Eventually drawn back out and added to the general water supply.

 

I used to do research on public acceptance of alternative water systems.

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by Docker123

[MMDown Under]

We received flooding rain on the Gold Coast, with the M1 cut both ways at Helensvale, as well as flooded at Oxenford.  More than 300mm flooding local parks and roads.  Triple monthly rainfall in 12 hours.

Gold Coast Bulletin 

Edited January 17, 2020 by MMDown Under

[Kiwi Kruzer]

12 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

We received flooding rain on the Gold Coast, with the M1 cut both ways at Helensvale, as well as flooded at Oxenford.  More than 300mm flooding local parks and roads.  Triple monthly rainfall in 12 hours.

Gold Coast Bulletin 

It’s either Feast or Famine. 😳

[Brisbane41]

12 minutes ago, Docker123 said:

The broad heading of the topic is called Water Security. How do we ensure that there is the quantity and quality of water available for life, industry, agriculture etc..

 

Dams catch water, if the rain falls in the right places in the right ways. This has not been happening. They are not particularly secure, lose a lot to evaporation, and the water is unusable once the dams reach a certain level. About the last 5% or so. Dams also take up a lot of room, are costly, and have other downstream impacts.

 

Various state governments looked at the challenges of water security with the millennium drought (1996-2010). Desal plants have been built in Sydney, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Perth (2), and the Melbourne plant at Wonthaggi. Smaller plants operate in regional areas. They are expensive to run, use a lot of energy, and the highly salivated output has to be well managed to prevent damage when returned to the sea.
 

Perth plants operate, Adelaide and Sydney re-starting. The Wonthaggi plant is enormous, producing up to 150 gigalitres per year. In 2019, 100 gigalitres were used for Melbourne and 120 g ordered for 2020.
 

WA has gone a big step further in adopting a recycled water scheme called aquifer recharge.  Waste water is recycled and pumped into the underground water systems. Eventually drawn back out and added to the general water supply.

 

I used to do research on public acceptance of alternative water systems.

 

 

 

The problem with water is there are too many dams holding off water from our river systems which keep feed the land and allow natural evaporation and precipitation along their path. These rivers no longer exist due to massive dams that are feeding cotton farms or macadamia farms which are foreign owned and can afford to have the water redirected to them. Now I have seen the Darling River. Its almost dry and is dry in some areas. The lack of a river has totally destroyed the environment and ecosystem in some areas.

 

The above farms need water. Desalination and pumping the water to them would be the answer. If these farms are big cash cows for the government and can afford water in a drought then it stands to reason they can afford to pay the desalination bill and let the rivers return to flowing and repair the land.

 

People keep saying its too expensive, well what price do you put on saving the environment. I am no greenie and always put those extremist groups last on my ballot papers but I can see that our water system is being mismanaged.

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

It’s either Feast or Famine. 😳

Yes, being used to tropical rainfall, with bush fires rare, this is why Queenslanders were shocked to have bad Spring bush fires, due to the drought. 

[NSWP]

Down on fire ravaged Far South Coast of NSW, we had 15mm of rain yesterday afternoon and evening. Quietened the fires down a bit.  More needed.  The Gold Coast is copping it currently, flooded up there, send a bit down, not 300mm though, 50mm would be nice.

[ilikeanswers]

9 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Like the decal plant in Sydney that took 8 months to reach full output after sitting 7 years idle and cost 2 billion to build, oh and will add about $30 to every water bill in the city.

 

That argument might have worked in the days when rain was guaranteed but the reality is the weather has changed and we need to start planning for the future. Our dams have not been able to reach full capacity in years, we have towns at level 5 water restrictions, yes there is mismanagement of our current systems that needs to be addressed but it still is not going to fix the fact the rains aren't falling. Cape Town, Yemen and Texas are all places that just kept hoping it will rain next year now you have a city where citizens are given quotas on how much water they can use, a country in civil war fighting for the last full wells and towns that are completely abandoned because there is no water to supply them. As they say adapt or die.