ALTERNATIVE WATER SOURCES: THE PIMPAMA-COOMERA SCHEME

摘要

In his oral presentation Shaun Cox discussed aspects of the Gold Coast's plans not covered in the written paper. Bob Swinton reports them here as an addition to this important paper. He said "The driver for our development of alternative water sources is twofold, firstly a lack of water and secondly keeping effluent out of our waterways. We are also aiming to reduce the amount of stormwater and associated nutrient runoff from new developments. We have to find alternative means of managing our water resources in light of the considerable population growth we face. "The yields of our current dams are diminishing (from a maximum of 440 ML/d before the drought to our current yield of only 190 ML/d. but we will not be able to develop more dams. Yet we are asked to provide higher levels of service because our community is not responding to restrictions. It seems that we will need some 465 ML/d. Even with an intensive water use efficiency and leakage reduction campaign and possible seawater desalination, we will still be short of water. On the other hand, volumes of effluent will grow and stormwater run-off will increase as more and more impermeable surfaces are constructed. "The MasterPlan adopted by the Gold Coast Council schedules a number of greenfield developments, the first being the Pimpama Coomera region. Our Waterfuture Masterplan for this development, described in the paper, has been adopted by Council. Happily we have less institutional barriers than other organisations because the Gold Coast Council controls all services, including water supply, stormwater and wastewater. However, we can foresee some problems.