Page 30 - Tropic Magazine Issue 30

TROPIC • ENVIRONMENT

Running dry 38,400ML
Cairns / Copperlode Dam
WATER SECURITY Service population: 198,800
An alarming forecast that
Cairns’ growing population will 233,187ML
Townsville / Ross River Dam
outstrip the city’s water supply Service population: 211,700
within just five years has been Source: CRC
raised by council officers –
along with an ambitious plan to What do we currently have?
tackle the issue. Over 80 per cent of ratepayers’ water
With all the rain we get it is sourced from the 38,400 megalitre
Words: Annabel Bowles Copperlode Falls Dam.
may seem strange to talk In comparison, Townsville’s Ross River
Cairns Regional Council (CRC) is calling
on the state and federal governments to about water security, Dam has a capacity for 233,187 megalitres.
commit $215-million towards a major but with the relatively A run of river supply from Behana Creek
project to source additional water from forms a secondary source, which is
the Mulgrave River. small capacity of treated at the Tunnel Hill treatment plant
Recently made the Council’s top advocacy Copperlode Dam, most of in Brinsmead. It’s the Council’s only
priority, successful allocation of funding full-service facility to treat water.
would see the project become Cairns’ it drains away Copperlode Falls Dam was established in
single largest capital works initiative over Bob Manning, 1976 when the Cairns population
the next decade. Cairns Mayor was 58,000.
CRC officers say the new infrastructure Since then, the region has grown
– and plans to secure an extra 7,500 The Cairns Water Security – Stage 1 significantly, with the service population
megalitres each year – is needed to avoid project would see the construction of a (residents and visitors) now approaching
‘potentially catastrophic ramifications’. major river intake and pumping station, 200,000 people.
“Taking into account predicted long and large-diameter pipelines and a
population growth … Cairns’ demand treatment plant at Mt Peter. Why don’t we build another dam?
for urban water is expected to exceed The new infrastructure is expected to Cairns Mayor Bob Manning told Tropic a
existing supply capacity by 2026,” council support forecasted population dam would not be a viable solution to the
documents read. “This does not mean growth until 2033. city’s looming water shortage. “The need
Cairns will ‘run out of water’ on this Beyond that, additional funding would be to access an additional bulk water source
date, but it does mean the risk of water required to complete the project’s second is part of the long-term plan in the Cairns
demand exceeding supply reaches stage of increasing the Mulgrave Water Security Strategy, but this isn’t
unacceptable levels. Without investment River catchment. forecast to be required until the middle
in the infrastructure required to access Construction is to be undertaken over of this century (post 2050),” he said.
additional supply, Cairns faces the real two years to the end of June 2026, “Nullinga Dam and potential projects
possibility of a drinking water shortage in supporting an estimated 630 full-time that would increase the volume of water
five short years.” equivalent jobs. able to be drawn from Tinaroo Dam are
considerations in this regard, but they
do not address the immediate problem
we are facing in 2026. There are long
lead times, usually measured in decades
not years, in planning, constructing
and ‘filling’ dams. The capital cost of the
project ($215-million) is also a fraction of
that of a new dam. The nominal upfront
capital cost of Nullinga Dam was upwards
of $1-billion and that did not include the
infrastructure, such as mains pipelines
and a treatment plant needed to integrate
the project with the Cairns urban water
supply network.” Mr Manning said the
project would also have a significantly
lighter environmental footprint than
a dam.

MORE: cairns.qld.gov.au

30 • Tropic • Issue 30