This is the crap that is spread to the people that make the decisions. Members heard that Menindee Lakes were shallow (Menindee is just 4.5m deep when full), covered a large area and was subject to high evaporation creating very inefficient storages especially when partially full. When the Committee visited the Lakes in August 2008 most (including Menindee) were empty so evaporation was well below the 753.8GL/annum average when full (Menindee Lakes Storage Scheme fact sheet).Members heard from upstream cotton growers in St George and Dirranbandi (Cubbie Station) that measures such as constructing a new deeper storage, building a pipeline or dividing and deepening the main storages into cells should be implemented to reduce evaporation losses. Downstream growers pointed out that when full Cubbie Station has similar depth of stored water (5m) with similar evaporation and that criticising Menindee was hypocritical. (Cubbie’s figures cite Cubbie as having 25% more efficient storages when full than Menindee) (Grabbe 2008) brff.au/documents/mdbreportthefellowshipoftheriver.PDF
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 02:49:55 +0000