Agnes Water desal plant a major first for CQ

This made page 1 and 3 of this week's edition of the Queensland Telegraph here

http://www.queenslandtelegraph.com/read/    It follows on from the recent debate about the virtues of reverse osmosis plants as proposed for treating CSG excess contaminated water.

The pristine waters of Bustard Bay, home of  CQ's first ocean desalination plant at Agnes Water near the township of 1770.

By John Mikkelsen

CENTRAL Queensland now has its first ocean desalination plant, with taps soon to flow fresh water from the sea at Agnes Water.

The $40 million plant is in the final commissioning stages for Gladstone Regional Council, after five years of battling protestors and Mother Nature.

Initially it is expected to meet about half of the small community’s water needs in coming months, with cheaper existing underground supplies providing the remainder. 

Boasting Queensland’s most northern surf beach and a thriving tourism industry, Agnes Water overlooks the pristine waters  of Bustard Bay first explored by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770.

A section of the $40 million desal plant.

Gladstone Regional Council inherited the scheme from the former Miriam Vale Shire  in 2007 following the Beattie Labor government’s forced amalgamations. When it decided to press ahead with the desalination plant and sewerage treatment project rather than risk losing a $27 million State subsidy, a determined protest was launched based on environmental concerns and claimed exorbitant costs.

THE Community Over Desalination (COD) protest group fought the long campaign with the backing of former member for Burnett Rob Messenger, claiming the site between Agnes Water and Deepwater National Park would place a nesting beach for endangered loggerhead turtles at risk.

However this was denied by council and the Bligh government, with construction starting in January 2010 after studies ruled out alternative schemes including a costly pipeline from Gladstone’s Awoonga Dam..

It was claimed that dwindling underground supplies would be unable to meet the growing community’s needs. During the  desal plant’s planning stages, scientists including chief  climate change  commissioner Tim Flannery were warning Australia’s prevailing drought would never end and major rivers would cease flowing.

The same claims inspired the Bligh government to press ahead with the state’s other major multi- million dollar desal plant at Tugan on the Gold Coast, a recycling plant and hundreds of kilometers of pipelines linking storages in South East Queensland.

Irony prevailed when record floods occurred  in late 2010, 2011 and again this year, filling dams and replenishing underground supplies including those at Agnes Water.

Council CEO Stuart Randle yesterday said  the new desal plant was expected to meet the community’s needs for six months of the year, with cheaper underground supplies providing the remainder.

He told the Telegraph total cost of water and electricity when the plant was at full capacity was expected to be about $2 a kilolitre.

“The desal plant option was chosen by the Miriam Vale Council in 2007 when the existing town supply was under stress and population growth was very strong.

“Since that time the population growth has stalled and successive good wet seasons have replenished the aquifer.

“The result is that the town is currently able to be serviced from the much cheaper groundwater supplies. The next drought and renewed interest in the Agnes Water region will change that at some time”.

Mr Randle said the present commissioning process was “complex” and would include cleaning of the inlet lines using specialist contractors.

“ Once that is complete the process moves into the acceptance testing phase which will take a further month to complete”.

TRILITY, a water infrastructure management firm, will operate the plant on council’s behalf.

“ It will be paid for fixed and variable costs, much the same way that phone bills are separated into line rental and call charges. The fixed portion is shared across the service connections so, as the community grows, the plant will become more cost effective.

 “The variable cost of treating seawater at full capacity, excluding electricity, is about 24 cents per kilolitre. The cost of electricity at present equates to about 50 cents per kilolitre.Total cost of production at full capacity is expected to be around $2.00 per kilolitre”.

Cr Ren Lanzon told The Telegraph he had inspected a similar ocean desalination plant during a recent visit to his homeland of Malta, and he did not envisage environmental problems.

“The outflow of the plant fell from a cliff face into the sea, giving  the Maltese a rare sight, a waterfall.

“The famously Blue Mediterranean is about three times more salty than our blue Pacific. Oddly it's still a favourite fishing spot for the Maltese. Apparently the fish don't mind the mineral outflow from the plant,” Cr Lanzon said. 

The good earth series

by Robert Edis, Soil Scientist at University of Melbourne

 

Cross post under The Conversation Republishing guidelines.  

 

Australia has some of the world’s most ancient soils, many of which grow delicious produce. In this series, “The good earth”, soil scientist Robert Edis profiles some of those soils and the flavours they bring.

The good earth: peaty Black Vertosol and asparagus

The soil that grows the best asparagus in the world is the peaty Black Vertosol, in the Koo-Wee-Rup district 60km south-east of Melbourne. The most famous of these soils is the Dalmore clay – peaty phase. Many places renowned for their geo-culinary perfection are a happy mix of climate and soil factors. But in this case, it’s all about the soil.

 

Vertosols are those big black clayey soils – in this case more than 60% clay – that swell when wet and shrink and crack when drying out

 

All plants grow well in this soil and are full of flavour and nutrition. But with asparagus, very special magical things happen as the spear of the asparagus pushes through the soil to emerge at the surface for harvest. The absence of sand grains, the slipperiness of the fine clay particles (less than a thousandth of mm across) and the soft buoyancy from the peat and self-mulching mean the asparagus spear slides through the soil like a wet tongue through fairy floss. The resulting spear has the softest skin and most flavour of any, and is most prized by asparagus connoisseurs throughout the world.

READ MORE [CLICK HERE]

 



The good earth: Jasmine rice and Leeton Red Sodosol

In the 1980s, it took around 3000 litres of water to grow one kilogram of rice in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, NSW. Now it takes about a third of that. A big part of this reduction is thanks to the use of Sodosol soils.
Premium, fragrant Jasmine rice production around Leeton is made possible by flat topography, access to water, and, most importantly, Red Sodosols.

If Ferrosols are the Kylie Minogue of soil types, Sodosols are the Eddie McGuire. They’re in loads of places, can be annoying from time to time, and aren’t that attractive. They are sometimes described as tractor-bogging, gumboot-sucking spew (Sodosols, not Eddie).

When the soil dries it sets hard like a brick; it’s impermeable.
This impermeability makes Sodosols problematic for almost everyone. But for Leeton rice growers these soils are great. The topsoils are quite fertile, but the subsoil is highly sodic. The sodic subsoil stops water leaking from the paddy while it’s flooded. It also stops the water table rising, which would otherwise cause salinity. The less clayey and sodic topsoil, compared to most rice paddy soils, ensures production of fully matured grains, jammed pack full of flavour, nutrition and aroma.
READ MORE [CLICK HERE]



The good earth: Green lentils and the Wimmera self-mulching Grey Vertosol 

Puy Lentils are little edible emeralds; their growers call them the “caviar of vegetables”.

Notwithstanding full respect and homage to the artisan cultivators of Le Puy, one cannot ignore the Wimmera, where the self-mulching Grey Vertosol soil steps up to the plate to produce Australia’s version of these premium green lentils.

 

Like all legumes, lentils provide their own nitrogen and even leave some in the soil, thanks to symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Bacteria live in nodules of the roots of legumes. These bacteria are able to take nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form usable by both the bacteria and the plant. This reduces the amount of fertiliser needed, for both for the lentils, and for wheat or canola planted afterwards

READ MORE [CLICK HERE]

 

The good earth – King Island cheese and Currie Yellow Kurosol

Milk is very strongly and immediately influenced by what the milk producer eats. Those who remember fresh fresh cows' milk will testify to the seasonality of milk flavour, the way it changes with pasture composition.

 

The geology of King Island, central to the story of agriculture, is dominated by the very old (Precambrian, at more than 541 million years old) and the very young (less than around 10,000 years old). The old rocks, many of them igneous, are the parent material for the best pasture soils on the island – Yellow Kurosols.

 

Cheese is a great integrator of Planet Earth, and everything has to be just right. The flavour and texture components are drawn from the hands of the cheese-maker and the micro-organisms they garden, the cattle and the grass they eat, the atmosphere and water these all share, and on King Island, a Yellow Kurosol. It’s a biome on a biscuit!

READ MORE [CLICK MORE]

 

The good earth: Kensington Pride mangoes and the Darwin lateritic Red Kandosol

The earliest mangoes in Australia are Kensington Pride from the Darwin lateritic Red Kandosol starting in September.
The soils of the top end are pretty infertile, as David Adamson pointed out last week, as did Bruce Davidson last century and several folk in between. But this is sol de rigueur for mangoes. Few soils that are not rock are lousier than lateritic Red Kandosols.
The evolution of mangoes is in the deeply weathered and depleted slopes of South Asia, many with a laterite layer. It’s not so much that they don’t like deep fertile soils, its just they go a bit wild, with irregular flowering and excessive growth leading to unreliable fruit set and reduced quality, particularly in Kensington Pride. Not to mention big and hard to manage trees. This is not a problem on lateritic Red Kandosols!
READ MORE [CLICK HERE]

 

The good earth: Buderim Red Ferrosol and ginger

As well as being attractive, Red Ferrosol soils produce many of Australia’s iconic foodstuffs.
One is ginger from Buderim on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Credited with curing everything from flatulence to nausea, ginger would be more a medicine than a food if it did not taste so delicious. The zing from ginger (it is after all in the genus Zingiber) comes from the volatile oils in the rhizome.
There is a strong regionality of ginger flavour and aroma, with the degree of pungency and lemony-ness controlled by the balance of the oils. This balance depends on the growing conditions – weather, management and, of course, soil
READ MORE [CLICK HERE]
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E10 FUEL BEING DISCONTINUED BY TABLELAND REGIONAL COUNCIL

This news item may be of interest to those who have ever considered using E10 Fuel. 

Tablelands Regional Council has tried it for five years but are not satisfied with its performance because of vehicle breakdowns due to moisture in the tank.

E10 attracts water, making it unreliable for the council's fleet of sedans.

From Tablelander Tuesday 9th July 2013:

Opiate of the masses

 

Television

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

Roald Dahl



Cockatoos smart enough

This is an international effort to study and report on what Australian farmers knew already that the cockatoo is reasonably smart, mischievous and can get into anything. Especially in grain growing areas some species of  cockatoo can reach plague proportions, outmanoeuvre a farmers efforts to stop feasting on their grain crops in the fields and the harvested grain in bulk storage sheds.

In my area there is the sulphur crested cockatoo who just loves being destructive with that powerful beak. Too many times they will snip off a head of sorghum only to drop it on the ground. A beady eye will give the fallen prize a momentary consideration before the bird decides its too much effort to go after it and simply snips off another.

A cockatoo named "Dolittle" figures out how to unlock the box for a treat. (Alice Auersperg / University of Vienna)

 

The cockatoo it this photo, the subject of study appears to me to be what is commonly known as a Little Corella. I'm open to anyone correcting or confirming this observation. The US news service, abcNEWS, in its article, Cockatoos Smart Enough to Undo Complicated Locks,  reports on a study conducted at the University of Vienna.

" A new study published in the journal PLoS One finds that cockatoos, members of the parrot family, can figure out how to break through several complicated locks to get to a treat. Alex Kacelnik, a professor of zoology at Oxford University and author of the study, said that the birds themselves were very playful and inquisitive. "They're particularly keen on exploring new things," he told ABC News.
Kacelnik and his colleagues, Alice Auersperg and Auguste von Bayern at the University of Vienna, placed a cashew nut behind a window fastened shut by a thin metal bar. The birds had to get through four additional locks that required them to pull a pin, turn a screw, remove a bolt, and rotate a wheel to reach the reward. More importantly, they had to do those actions in the correct order.         

            

If a cockatoo completed the first task, the scientists then rearranged the order of the four locks. They wanted to see whether the birds could modify their lock-picking behavior by doing the same four actions but in a different sequence.
They were surprised at the cockatoos' flexible problem-solving skills. Regardless of the order of the locks, the birds worked through them one by one to get to the prized nut. "They're sensitive to how the problem is organized," he said. "They do whatever they have to do in the new circumstances."

The researchers may have been surprised but not the Aussie grain farmer who has on many occasions witnessed the crazy antics that many types of cockatoos can get up too and often their ability to be destructive.

Need for carbon caution confirmed.

by Mick Keogh

This article was first published at Ag Forum and cross posted under Australian Farm Institute copyright conditions 

 

 Henbury Station, site of RM Williams Agricultural Holdings controversial carbon project

Image sourced from Beef Central

Developments over the past week have confirmed the need for farmers to approach the carbon market with caution, and to ensure they have a full legal understanding of the implications of any contracts they enter into. This is particularly the case at the present time, when there is active discussion occurring on both sides of politics about potential future changes to carbon policy post-election.

Over the past few years, there has been quite a lot of commentary about the potential implications of carbon markets for Australian farmers. Initial Treasury modelling downplayed potential negative cost impacts for agriculture, although modelling by both ABARES and the Australian Farm Institute highlighted that, particularly in the short-term, negative impacts were likely to be quite significant for some sub-sectors of agriculture, especially given the absence of similar policies for competitor agricultural exporting nations.

The 'flip side' to the additional costs associated with carbon policy is the Carbon Farming Initiative, a legislative framework which provides the opportunity for farmers to adopt approved project methodologies and 'sell' the resulting carbon credits to major emitters. Some suggested this was going to provide a major opportunity for landholders, but the two main areas of risk - trading rules and carbon price - need to be carefully considered in any project.

Announcements over the past week that R M Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH) - owners of the much-discussed Henbury Station carbon farming project - have gone into administration should serve as a caution to any landholders contemplating undertaking a carbon project, although reports have not yet clarified whether it was the carbon part of the operation that has caused the problems.

This blog has commented extensively on the Henbury project (see here, here, here and here), as the involvement of Australian Government funding (a reported $9 million), the inclusion of Henbury in the national conservation estate, and the absence of any obvious potential for the generation of carbon offsets that could be sold in the official carbon market made it very difficult to understand exactly how the project could generate revenue. There has been extensive reporting about the difficulties the business has encountered (see here, here and here), and no doubt the real reasons for the problems will emerge over time.

The fact that the Henbury project seems to have encountered difficulties should serve as a caution to landholders contemplating getting involved in a carbon project.

READ MORE [CLICK HERE]
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RUDDONOMICS

RUDDONOMICS:
Please read these pages. Remember this is the same Kevin Rudd who has taken second prize to become the most recently unelected (by the people) Prime Minister. These pages are still relevant today as they were before the 2007 election. Same Man, same Party, same, same. Don't be fooled!!!!!