Orange - Australian Town Of 40,000 - Developing Stormwater Recovery Systems As Drought Continues

[hatrack]

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Harvesting Stormwater as Drought Bites Hard
By Stephen de Tarczynski

Stormwater Harvesting Site.

Credit:Orange City Council

MELBOURNE, Nov 12 (IPS) - With large parts of southern and eastern Australia enduring an ongoing drought, the regional centre of Orange -- some 260 km west of the nation’s largest city, Sydney -- is developing Australia’s first scheme to harvest stormwater in order to service the town’s requirements. "It’s designed initially as an emergency response because there was no other alternative source of water for us that we could get access to quickly," says Orange council’s director of technical services, Chris Devitt.

He told IPS that while the Blackmans Swamp Creek Stormwater Harvesting project offers a "fairly quick solution" to Orange’s water crisis -- the town’s two reservoirs are currently at 40.5 percent capacity, up from a low of 27 percent in early September following seasonal rains -- the council wants the program to become a permanent fixture to help drought-proof the town. And such provisions may well be required, with Orange hitherto relying solely on surface water run-off to rural catchments.

A statement on the drought issued Nov.5 by the Bureau of Meteorology’s National Climate Centre (NCC) implied that drought-like conditions will become the norm rather than the exception as the effects of climate change take hold. "The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to ten years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change," said the NCC. Orange’s plan involves trapping water from Blackmans Swamp Creek northeast of the town, extracting and treating it before the water is eventually added to the town’s main drinking water dam.

But while Orange’s roughly 40,000 residents may soon have more water available for use with the first harvesting planned for March 2009 -- the town is currently under level 5 water restrictions which severely limit water-use by private households, with fines of up to AUD 2,000 (1,351 US dollars) for those who fail to comply -- concerns have been raised regarding the water quality.

EDIT

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44664

[kestrel91316]

1. What a novel concept - USING RAIN.

[here_is_to_hope]

2. Crazy, aint it?

I have been harvesting rainwater for years, both in Montana and even here n water-rich Oregon.
In Montana, one decent thunderstorm would give s enough water for two months, usually filling a 2800 gallon tank with just three good afternoon thunderstorms, enough for the year.
I utilized our flat roofs and rain gutters to put the water where I wanted it, cheap and efficient.