DROWNING RURAL TOWNS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA – THE NEVER ENDING RESEARCH PROJECTS
Fragmented and piecemeal is how salinity funding has been described in Western Australia. Frustrated farmers and community leaders in the eastern Wheatbelt town of Merredin held a meeting today, concerned at what they believe it repetitious funding of pilot salinity control programs that ultimately fail. As an example, the meeting was held at the Merredin salinity evaporation ponds, which was a pilot project, set up in 2001 to assist in controlling salinity under the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Towns program. Farmers are worried that the 11 projects that recently received funding are going to be "more of the same". A group of farmers have thrown their support behind a project in the Quairading area to aggregate water before it gets to the Avon River, but the funders have not supported the initiative. The group will now be taking their concerns to the government. Ref: Farmers slam salinity projects and funding - Rose Crane ABC Rural Home Page 06/01/2004
The farming communities are really frustrated; all they see is more studies, more experiments and more failures. This was attributed by many as the result of the fact that the experiments were carried out by scientists and technocrats who are barely specialised in the subject with little or no experience, without proper analysis of data and results, and most crucial is the intentional overlooking of previous published research results to justify their experiments and their existence.
Are there really some doable solutions to the rising water levels in rural towns? I believe, it is possible, but not with the bureaucrats and scientists who are meddling with the issues and getting lost in a maze of non related problems. The solutions are feasible but it needs determination and perseverance from the farmers. They are the ones, who can do it if they want and without the hindrance of the bureaucrats.
Before explaining how it will be done, let us have a look at how millions of dollars were wasted by the bureaucrats and scientists and see how they were squandering the money to keep their jobs and build their empires.
Read soon in this site the full analysis of the never ending research projects and some examples of the stark failures:
The first Rural Towns Chronicle
The second Rural Towns Narrative
Merredin misfortune and Department of Agriculture association
Katanning never ending experiment and CSIRO involvement
The blue sky initiatives and Healthy Country
The Brookton Connection
Back to reality and down to earth solutions
THE FIRST RURAL TOWNS CHRONICLE
It is common knowledge to all that there is a rising water level problem in the cleared areas of the wheat belt caused by removing the native vegetation and replacement with modern agriculture which uses less water and only in winter. The rate of rise is variable and depends on many hydrological and hydrogeological parameters. Most of rural towns were established in low lying areas along streams and rivers for water supply and some along the railway line which was following the low lands. Due to the change in the hydrological regime and the rising water levels some of these towns are now facing associated problems of salinity, erosion and roads deterioration.
Is there a real threat to rural towns, are they really drowning or are they just browning?
Due to the dampness caused by the rising saline water which left its marks on some buildings, the flooding of few pubs cellars, the browning of few playing grounds and the complaint of few farmers, the drowning of rural towns’ narrative started. Several agencies saw an opportunity of pinching a fistful of dollars from the State and Federal Agencies as well as from the councils to keep its coffers from emptying and to pay its scientists by creating this explosion of attention and the drowning of rural towns’ legend was created and the first rural towns’ project was produced and forty rural towns were selected for detailed dissection. The studies included drilling of boreholes, conducting short term aquifer test and groundwater modelling conducted by three agencies (CSIRO, AG WA and Water and Rivers Commission). Forty reports were produced by various authors and consultants.
So, what is the outcome of these reports?
Did any of the agencies looked at these reports in a critical way or made any use of it?
From what happened afterwards, the answer is definitely not.
The main question still remains to be answered:
Is this really a problem which requires all these detailed studies and blue skies solutions? Many towns and famous cities in the world are having high water levels in many areas; London, Genoa, Cairo, most of Holland cities and all of Bangladesh is living under water most of the monsoon season.
Is the problem so complicated that it requires a consortium of our leading research organisations in the country to tackle it?
Or is it just another revenue generating research project?
Is there really any research on what these organisations are doing, or is it application of last century imported technology?
It seems that the agencies believe that all the forty reports are useless, and as they were not happy with the results of the first rural towns project, they decided to redo it again and the second Rural Towns project was born and the Liquid assets sophisticated undertaking was created by the Water for a Healthy Country involvement.
MERREDIN MISFORTUNE AND DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATION
Water levels were rising in Merredin town as it was rising everywhere else in all the wheat belt catchments, although the rate of rise is much lower and slower than other rural towns, however, being the regional office of Agriculture W.A. and the centre of several hydrologists and to be hydrogeologists, they started meddling with the hydrological studies of Merredin, which is a convenient field site in the backyard of their homes and offices. Tens of monitoring wells were drilled and several reports were written and many recommendations were made.
The accelerated activity and hype pushed Merredin to the top of the drowning towns list. A feasibility study was prepared and the solution which included pumping schemes, evaporation ponds and desalination plant was approved and funding was miraculously provided.
Everything went ahead as planned in lightning speed; boreholes and pumps installed, ponds constructed, hired desalination plant erected and big signs highlighting the big achievements mounted along the Great Western Highway.
Thirteen months later, suddenly the site was abandoned and the activity quietened down. Pumps stopped, evaporation pond is empty and the desalination plant dismantled but the signs of the great project are not dismounted yet.
Let us now go over the story in a much slower pace to try and find out what went wrong.
The Facts
Merredin did not require this solution not even after 2020. In a detailed economic study (Dames and Moore/URS (2001)) it was stated that it will take 25 years for rising water levels to become a real problem in Merredin. As a matter of fact, if proper measures are taken from then, there will be no problem ever.
Although scores of previous reports indicated that pumping can lower water tables, yet in the case of the wheat belt, CSIRO detailed studies showed that the extent of the drawdown is limited due to the low hydraulic conductivity, the problems of discharging highly saline groundwater and that any pumping using energy is not economical hindered the application of this solution. Yet despite all that, and the fact that the there is no real problem, the prospective hydrogeologists suggested that Merredin rising water level alleged problems will be solved by pumping.
Several reports written by the hydrologists indicate that all drill sites within Merredin town are overlain by 5-14 m of fine grained sediments and kaolin clay which does not allow direct recharge in town. Although pumping can reduce water levels, due to the low hydraulic conductivity, non uniform presence and not connected permeable material, the pumping test results were not indicative of long term fall in water levels.
Researchers overlooked the possibility that the rising water levels are not the result of direct recharge in the town and in this case the solution is not by pumping in town and definitely not by constructing evaporation ponds at the down stream end of the town which will act as subsurface dams.
Geotechnical/soils investigations which were completed prior to the hydrogeological investigations and without reference to previous hydrological data showed the presence of sand lenses in the selected evaporation ponds site (Nott et al., 2004).
Due to all these facts and as expected, the ponds leaked and watertable rise was calculated at 2.46-3.10 m/yr below the basin. This rate of water level rise was deemed not acceptable for a site surrounded by high value infrastructure such as main roads, public buildings, fuel depots and railway lines and most important the rise under the Department of Agriculture grounds 80 m away from the ponds was over 0.6 m/yr, so the experiment was considered faulty and the site was abandoned.
The Post Mortem
The Dept of Agriculture commissioned a team of experts to conduct a technical post mortem to the Merredin experiment (Nott et al., 2004). Their report highlighted all what went wrong in the experiment and detailed more than 20 areas where they went amiss and enumerated the lessons which can be learnt from the failed experiment.
The most important points which can be picked from the report is that there was no proper analysis of the data, no proper technical design of the project and no qualified technical supervision.
Nott et al., 2004 report highlighted the fact that all the alleged studies and reports were not completed properly and there were many gaps in the research work which were not covered as well as required and very paltry non professional interpretation of the hydrological and hydrogeological facts.
As for the desalination debacle, although the pilot plant showed that small quantities of potable water could be produced from Merredin groundwater by desalination, there were many issues which were not taken care of during the experiment including the high feedwater temperatures to the RO plant; the poor mechanical performance of the pilot plant high-pressure pump; the high membrane fouling rates; high levels of SiO2 (50 ppm) in the bore water and the fact that the experiment was conducted with non trained personnel (Nott et al., 2004).
Despite all this, the experiment should not have been abandoned so hastily. Water levels rise under the pond is a very normal and natural phenomena which happens under every pond or dam constructed anywhere in the world. The rise rate might be a little bit high due to the high infiltration rate which is partly due to the silt free bore water. The rise under the Dept of Agriculture which was the main cause of closure of the experiment is also normal. Even if it was higher than expected, it would not have caused any problems even if the water level reached 2 m from the surface. The possibility that the monitoring bores inside the pond which were considered the main cause of accelerated leakage could have been easily fixed and repair and re-treatment of existing clay liner using a combination of soil conditioners, substitute clay material, water binding, compaction and care in filling the basin could also have easily been carried out.
A closing question? who is responsible for all this mess, how did it start, who designed, who executed, who supervised and who in the end stopped it and authorised the post mortem?
KATANNING NEVER ENDING EXPERIMENT AND CSIRO INVOLVEMENT
The problem:
Why there is a rising water table and salinity problem in Katanning?
Katanning town site is located in a topographical bowl; it is surrounded by high grounds on all sides, with a small outlet in the east where the surface water drainage is flowing. The relationship between the steep gradients on the sides and the bowl base created the optimum conditions for high water levels in the flat areas of the basin.
There are numerous farm dams scattered around the catchment, together with a larger number of water reservoirs, located to the north-west from Katanning. One large water dam (about 5.5ha) is operated by Water Corporation as the main water storage facility for town water supply. Two other nearby groups of water reservoirs are used by the Western Australian Meat Marketing Co-operative (WAMCO) meat processing facility. The approximate area of the storage of regionally imported water in these large supply dams is 9.6ha. These dams play a major role in raising water levels in the shallow aquifer and creating high pressures in the semi-confined and confined aquifers which cause it to discharge into the shallow aquifer and to the surface.
It has beautiful flashy gardens which uses large amounts of fresh treated water, most of it leaks back to the shallow aquifer.
Its sewage system is located in the downstream side and acts as a subsurface dam.
Its water supply grid, sewage pipes and the numerous septic tanks are major contributors of recharge to the shallow aquifer.
The storm drainage system is also a major contributor of recharge.
All these elements contribute to the retention of a large component of the surface water system within the town site, increasing recharge to the shallow aquifer, and escalating upward pressures in the deep aquifers.
If all this is not enough, the surface and groundwater outflow from the town site is choked by structural bottle neck which causes the retardation of surface water flow and damming of the groundwater flow.
The Fairy Tale Ambition
It is proposed to use pumping to reduce the water levels in Katanning and to desalinate the pumped groundwater. Desalination is still expensive to be used as a competitive means for producing fresh water but the research suggests the Katanning desalination plant will be successful since it integrates water management with salinity control and the development and support of new industries thanks to improved water supply and desalination by-products. The desalination by-products include salts and minerals separated from the saline water, which can be used in the manufacture of cattle licks and flame retardants. The exact nature of these by-products depends on local conditions but they could include gypsum and Epsom salts, as well as gourmet table salts!!!
CSIRO conducted detailed hydro-geological, hydro-chemical, and geophysical investigations in Katanning including a very long aquifer test which lasted for nearly 6 months (A similar test should have been conducted by the Water Corporation to determine the South West Yarragadee aquifers hydraulic parameters before declaring the connectivity or otherwise of the aquifers system!!!). These were followed by the construction of a groundwater model which simulated different scenarios of required production bores and pumping regimes (Barron, 2006).
Unfortunately after all these studies, there is no agreement on what should be done in Katanning and the way it should be conducted. I will not be surprised if a new study is commissioned to stumble on the mirage solution. The challenge now for Katanning lies not in the identification of the problem, or finding the solution or the technology behind the desalination plant but in finding the best way to select an optimum solution and implement an optimum plan. CSIRO was involved in the project since 2003 and contributed towards most of the technical work which was carried out in the site. CSIRO was confident along with continued community support, the project will go through to construction and beyond, but three years down the track nothing seems to be achieved except more reports and models. Can this be due to the fact that the solutions are not practical; or is it the fear of failure from Merredin phantom of applying new technologies and solutions?
Let me pose the following questions:
Did we really require all these sophisticated studies to know what is happening in Katanning?
Is pumping the only solution for lowering water levels?
Is desalination of highly saline groundwater economically feasible and the only alternative source for desalination?
Can we produce gourmet salts and industrial salts from the pumped groundwater?
Or are there some other doable and more feasible solutions?
See the Universal Solution for answer to these questions.
THE SECOND RURAL TOWN NARRATIVE; THE BLUE SKY INITIATIVES AND HEALTHY COUNTRY
Rural towns — liquid assets
The results of the first Rural Towns project were considered obsolete by Ag WA and a new Rural Towns – Liquid Assets project was created, this is a major multi-party initiative convened by WA Dept of Ag. The major initiative is aimed to contribute to effective salinity control and shows how locally sourced saline groundwater may be treated and turned into a resource. The project is run by a consortium of partners including CRC LEME, CUT, CSIRO including Water for a Healthy Country, Department of Agriculture WA, WA Chemistry Centre and UWA, Water Corporation and the 16 Shires with a budget of 6 millions dollars. As in the case of Katanning, CSIRO is coordinating the project’s technical components which include Groundwater modelling: Groundwater quality investigation; Water balance estimation; Social and economic research; Geophysical investigations; Urban water management and modelling; Engineering options; and Data management: collation of data, GIS (Geographic Information System) modelling and maps development.
The project aims to develop a water management plan for each of the 16 towns (Merredin and Katanning (Again??), Pingelly, Wongan Hills, Lake Grace, Brookton, Wagin, Cranbrook, Dowerin, Dumbleyung, Nyabing, York, Woodanilling, Perenjori, Moora, Morawa and Tambellup), monitoring and evaluating groundwater and salinity conditions and combining these data with information on the demand and supply of water resources in each town. The specific needs of each town will be assessed using the combined knowledge of shires, residents and local industry alongside the efforts of economists, social and biophysical scientists, providing strategies to take account of broader community needs. Four pilot towns, one from each of the Regional Catchment Councils in the agricultural area, will be selected for the partial implementation of integrated water management schemes. At the end of the three years, the project will have identified possible approaches to new water supplies and recycling schemes to reduce dependence on scheme water and to improve quality of life in rural towns by reducing salt damage and improving the freshwater supply.
Fantastic objectives, blue skies material, hopefully by the end of it, some one will be able to put it all together and come up with a realistic plan, and not end up with the same fate of what happened in Katanning; more than 100 boreholes, several reports and a paper in a Journal and in the background the ghost of Merredin trial.
BACK TO REALITY AND DOWN TO EARTH SOLUTIONS
Reading the list of the organisations involved in the research, the objectives of the projects, the research plans and the expected outcomes, it look as if by the end of these projects we will have detailed management plans for all these rural towns which will require millions of dollars to be completed and scores of technicians and scientists to run the projects.
The question still remains do we need all these studies to find the solutions, do we need to spend all these millions?
The answer is definitely not.
In reality, down to earth solutions, which can easily be applied without all these studies are available and can be applied with minimum cost and does not requires all these sophisticated traditional studies and blue skies solutions, it is based on reduce, reuse, recycle and redesign (see the Universal Solution).
The Brookton connection
Nearly fifteen years ago, the Brookton town shire contacted CSIRO to look into the rising water levels in the town. A two week desk top study was conducted, a report and a paper were produced and down to earth solutions were proposed (Salama et al., 1994). If these suggestions were implemented at that time, there would have been no problem in Brookton. Instead, more studies were conducted by several consultants and agencies and Brookton is still in the list of the proposed towns for detailed studies by the Liquid Assets project and the problem is today nearly the same as it was then.
Brookton Problem
The town is bordered by high grounds on the west and the Avon River in the east. The natural groundwater flow is towards the Avon River. Due to the damming effect of the Avon River especially during the wet season, the groundwater levels are higher and the downstream part of the town is flooded. In addition, the watering of lawns and gardens plus domestic effluent contributes to additional groundwater recharge during summer.
Brookton long term solution
The desk top study suggested several easily applicable management options for lowering and controlling the water table levels in Brookton:
To plant trees in strips (or belts) along each break of slope located by mapping the hydrogeomorphic units in the catchment and appropriately manage a cropping programme in areas between the trees. The recommended strategy is to plant trees at 6m spacing in four belts across the catchment on the western side of the town site. The belt nearest the town should be 50m wide and would contain twice as many trees (8000) as the upper three belts (24m wide with 4000 trees each). These belts will remove all groundwater flow of 550 m3d-1 entering through the western boundary of the townsite.
Design the cropping programme to maximise water output by using deep rooted crops, such as lupins, in rotation with wheat, and incorporating improved agronomic and soil cultural practices to promote good root growth.
Within the townsite, recharge generated by infiltration of rainfall, runoff from house roofs and roads, and from imported water used in the town for domestic needs and on lawns and gardens should be controlled by trees planted in a parkland style (7 500 trees at a density of 25 trees per hectare). Special attention ought to be given to the 50m wide riparian zone, with the planting of more salt tolerant species on 10m spacing. About 2 250 trees are required.
During the period (at least 10 years) while the recharge excess in the catchment is being brought under control by the re vegetation, a short term solution is required to limit rising water tables. The best option is discharge enhancement by aquifer pumping using windmills within the townsite (maximum of 3 wells to extract 150 m3d-1.
Reduce recharge from the storm runoff by improving the drainage system.
But nothing was done, and Brookton is still in the list of the drowning rural towns.
THE UNIVERSAL SOLUTION:
First, let us look at the problem, how it is caused and where?
The hydrology and hydrogeology of all affected town sites is practically and in most cases are similar and although may appear complicated to the novice scientist, it is very simple uncomplicated hydrology and hydrogeology.
In higher elevations of the catchment the bedrock is highly weathered and typically of relatively low hydraulic conductivity. Bedrock outcrops in several areas and is usually exposed along the eroded areas. Alluvial deposits extend along banks and channels of the streams and rivers. The regolith is of variable depth (0.5 to >30.0m deep) and origin, consisting mainly of colluvium and weathered bedrock of different types of rocks, or differential weathering of the regolith.
Groundwater usually follows the surface topography and flow from the high grounds towards the valleys. Before clearing, there was no groundwater flow as such, and due to the low hydraulic conductivity, there was no continuous flow regime but rather isolated pockets of saline water. Depth to water varies from tens of meters near the catchment divide to about 1-3 m in the central urban areas and possibly near the surface in the alluvial channels and in lower areas and depressions. Due to clearing and increase in recharge water levels started to rise and in low areas reached the surface. Water levels rise seasonally in the winter with a range of 0.5 to 2m producing a hydraulic head above the ground surface in lowlands and depressions.
The natural rise of water level is augmented by the man made structures including leaking sewage and water lines, wrongly placed waste ponds and water dams, raised roads which accumulate surface runoff and leaking lushy lawns.
The solution of all rising water level problems in the browning rural towns then becomes very simple and includes the four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Redesign:
Reduce:
Reduce pressures in the deep aquifers by:
Construction of pressure relief wells downstream of each of the surface water dams
Select a number of the many production wells to act as pressure relief wells in selected areas in town,
reduce recharge to the shallow aquifers by:
improving the surface water storm drainage system,
Increase the depth of storm drains to intercept shallow groundwater from the steep sides,
Decrease infiltration by sealing surface water streams within the town
reduce leakage from piped systems;
reduce retention of surface and groundwater in the town by increasing surface and ground water outflow from the town site;
reduce in-house water usage by toilets, showers washing machines etc..;
reduce use of imported water by harvesting rainwater into storage tanks (3-5 cubic meters). Research has shown that average family would not require more than 10 litres per day of fresh water for drinking and cooking. That means all domestic in house water consumption can be from rainwater. Bathrooms and gardens must use recycled water
Reuse:
Reuse all grey water from the household for irrigation of lawns and trees
Recycle:
All waste water from the sewerage system to be tertiary treated and recycled for bathrooms and for irrigation of public places and solids to be used as fertilisers.
Redesign:
Redesign all parklands, open spaces and roads with maximum number of trees to be replanted taking into consideration the hydrogeomorphic characteristics of each site (see Brookton example).
Redesign water systems in houses to separate grey water discharge into gardens instead of sewers.
Redesign sewage ponds so as not to cause damming to natural flow.
References
Dames and Moore (2001). The economics of predicted rising groundwater and salinity in Merredin townsite. Report for the Rural Towns Steering Committee and Agriculture Western Australia, Dames and Moore/URS.
Rosemary Nott, Mark Pridham, Juana Roe Jeff Ibbott and Alan Leeson. Merredin townsite groundwater pumping and desalination pilot project. Resource Management Technical Report 266. Department of Agriculture, Western Australia. March 2004
Salama, R.B., Williamson, D.R. and Farrington, P. (1994). Greenbelts, the best management option for saving wheatbelt country town from browning. In: Proceedings of the 1994 National Greening Australia Conference, A vision for a greener city, 159-163.
Barron, O., 2006. Evaluation of groundwater balance in the Western Australia rural towns affected by dry land salinity. CSIRO Internal Review.