Level 3 water restrictions and fishermen

[Freeeedom]

(sorry fisherpersons) - The talk of level 3 water restrictions beginning in April if dam levels continue to fall is becoming louder and louder. I'm just wondering how you are supposed to wash your boat trailer down after a trip using a bucket filled from a tap? And worse still, how do you wash down the 4-wheel drive after a week on the beach? I do everything I can to conserve water, and I'd bet that my household water use is well below the average, since I don't have any lawn except the footpath, but when I bring my new 4-wheel drive back from a beach trip I'm certainly not going to try and wash it with a bucket of water! Any suggestions?
Cheers Freeeedom

[ShaneJ]

Mate, go down to car lovers and spend $6-7 and be happy knowing the water you are using is recylced!

I take my boat and trailer down there after most trips and I think I do the job for $5

[The_Walrus]

Have to agree, car lovers is the way to go. After I've been home and unloaded all the gear. ;D

High pressure hose does a great job on boat, trailer & ute but I don't think the rods, reels etc would take kindly to it. :P

All you then have to do is flush the engine. ;)

Luc

[chanquetas]

Freeeedom,
I was revelling in the wet roads today and splashing through all the puddles I could find to clean the underneath of the Suby after 2 days on Coochie.
Cheers,
Jake

[blaze]

couple of solutions
rain water tank
rainwater tank
rain watertank

shower with a friend (rods and reels)

cheers
blaze
ps
last time we had talk of water resrictions was 20 years ago

[Feral]

Note to self:
Dont go to car lovers - sounds like all the fisho's are filling the recycled water up with salt! ;D

[Vic1]

All I know is that if the Redland Shire follows Brisbane into level 3 restrictions, they may have a full scale revolt on their hands (our dams are at 98% capacity and any decent rainfall results in water flowing over the spillways). Residents are not happy..........

[iank]

Note to self:
Dont go to car lovers - sounds like all the fisho's are filling the recycled water up with salt! #;D
;D ;D ;D

[bungie]

Bite the bullet and buy a Karcher from bunnings. These units use less than 20% of the normal water you would use to wash can and boat. Council even suggest using them

Washing of
vehicle/house/windows/boat
(other than by a commercial service provider) # # # # #
washing permitted at any time with:
a hand-held hose with a trigger nozzle or twist nozzle
a high-pressure water cleaning unit with a trigger nozzle
buckets filled directly from a tap



http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/BCC:BRISWATER:1820279317:pc=PC_2028

[T-REX]

Don't know what you lot are complaining about, try being on level 4. No hoses, no washing cars, boats, houses, concrete or flushing motors. Level 5 coming in a couple of months. No buckets and a 30,000 litre rain water tank doesn't go far running a modern household.
Guess who wastes the most water in Brisbane. Residential ?? wrong. Commercial ?? spot on: Some of these new commercial buildings waste up to 7,000 litres a week just testing there fire systems. If you don't believe me ask your local Brisbane City councilor. If they say that they don"t know then they're telling lies as a mate of mine sent them all an E-MAIL and they went into fits of memory loss. David Hinchcliffe knows of this problem and is looking into it. Something like 7 million Kilo litres a year going down the drains. No wonder there is a water shortage.
Just ask the question..

[fish_outta_water]

nice one t- rex amazing how quickly the currupt can forget :-X when its in there favor >:(

[Custaro]

Bungie, those are the current Lvl 2 Water Restrictions.

On the boating page of yesterdays Sunday Mail was an article about some salt dissolving solution. Can't remember the name of it. For washing down boats and trailer with a bucket, it helps to remove the salt.

[Louis]

We have an ever increasing population.

South East Queensland's population in particular has grown dramatically in recent years.

The question is: Why haven't they been building dams to accommodate this large increase in population?

And further:

Now that we are in strife:

Isn't it time to start building some large dams to make sure that we don't wind up in a really bad way?



And of course:


I propose that these new dams be stocked with Bass etc. for our angling pleasure.






Louis

[Jitlands]

When they stop charging me the water portion of my rates bill I'll stop using it. Untill then its taps on and the council can shove it.

The real issue behind the water panic is the inability of local and/or state authorities to treat and pump water.

To be fed this crap that the percentage of water in one dam, Whivenhoe, dictates the supply to SEQ is crap.
With Whivenhoe at 30 % it is holding 700 days supply on current usage?

As for the other dams, the ones I know of currently,full or near full are
Hinze
Little Nerang
Clarrie Hall
Toondumba
Coolmunda
Baroon Pocket
Plus the one in Redlands

We are being given the old mushroom treatment
"keep em in the dark and feed em bullshit"

[snappa]

:D
"When they stop charging me the water portion of my rates bill I'll stop using it. Untill then its taps on and the council can shove it. "
ME TOO...

:-?
50K boat & 4x4 i think i will wash them at nite... no water evaporation[?]

thats doing the right thing ... ;D ;D

[Feral]

They announced a new dam down near Beaudesert the other day, but I did not get the name or any details.

[deb]

Geta battery/bilge shower hose, from car outlets for $20. They come with a trigger grip, but it is a 'shower', I changed it to a regular hose trigger and got enough pressure. It was just a matter of tossing the bilge pump that comes with it into a bucket on the boat and then hosing the soapy suds off. Helps if boat is in the shade though. ;)

[webby]

I drive from the top end of Beaudesert Shire (where we have been on water restriction for a number of years, as our supply comes from Maroom Dam) to the north side every morning, and i can name two hotels and shopping centres whose automatic systems are pumping out water every morning, with no signs of Recycled Water anywhere to be read.
So how serious are they policing these restriction, when the above centres are pouring water onto there gardens and lawns every morning.
If they want the normal house hold to restrict their usuage and are fineing those they catch, why arent they enforcing it on some of these big business, or is it too early at 5am for the water inspectior to out of bed.
regards

[The_Walrus]

I remember a report on water usage where of the total water use in Australia, the amount used for domestic purposes was around 10% of total usesage.

So why are'nt the powers that be coming down heavily on comercial operation and fore them to use water more efficiently.

Mind you, from our point of view, sending water from the bathroom and laundry down the sewer is a complete waste.

Grey water systems should be the norm.

Luc

[allniter]

This topic caught my interest as i am self employed in the irrigation industry.
Level 3 restrictions WILL come into effect whether it rains or not.
It is only a matter of time, with any rainfall we recieve in the short term merely delaying the inevitable.
Only major flooding will cancel any new restrictions.
Most customers we meet to do a quote for, have the attitude
" it's my f#@king garden and i am not going to let thousands of dollars of plants and turf die". :-/
An attitude i'm sure many aussies agree with.
They simply program automatic controllers to water there garden late in the evening.
Geewhiz...... i wonder if this attitude might come from the fact that water is wasted by government and commercial use on a daily basis.
So if they are not going to lead by example, why should we let our gardens die?,
can't flush our outboards or wash the salt off with a hose - pigs ring !.
and besides we pay for every kilolitre of water we use .
We also pay rates every year for councils to hopefully provide adequate infrastructure.
Be ready for a new "Water Upgrade Levy'" when they finally sort out a more substantial water supply for the future.
And those of you who can afford a bore, watchout because in the future that bore water in your own yard is going to be classed as "crown" water, so a meter will have to be installed so you can pay for that water too !
However about 15 years ago i remember a proposed dam was to be built at "Wolfdene" behind beenleigh/yatala near the bottom of tamborine mtn,
well.... the locals and treehuggers kicked up a storm and in the end no dam was ever built. :P
Is it true that one of the major dams has only ever been 80% full since new?
So at 40% capacity it is actually half full ?
Water restrictions affect a lot people and their income, not only the irrigation idustry.
Pool builders , landscape yards, nurseries, turf growers and more , will all feel a downturn in trade, with a lot of jobs lost.

[Tunzafun]

Is the drought responsible for our water shortage or is the government irresponsible in keeping up with demand as our population increases? The below link shows that over the last 36 months we are only 250mm down on average rainfall. Have a look.

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/rainmaps.cgi?page=map&variable=anomalies&period=36month&area=qld

Ok, so we are 250mm short but, lets take it in context. SE QLD has received between 2400mm and 4800mm in the last 36 months (dependant on location) The Gold Coast has recieved more! See link below.

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/rainmaps.cgi?page=map&variable=totals&period=36month&area=qld

So where is the water? As the previous posts correctly highlight, commercial usage is way above acceptable. Industry should be serious about recycling and grey water usage. Councils should be focussed on planning for new estates, not allowing single resident sites to be turned into apartment complexes that house multiple families rather than a singe family per site. That is without examining what the highrise developments are doing in water usage.

Pine Rivers Shire has (excuse the pun) hosed its residents over big time. From no meters, to meters and no charges, to annual charge and an excess water bill over a certain amount, to paying for every litre used all in a space of four years. #No consultation with residents..... suck it up or move.

I will still wash my boat/4WD as needed. Yes I have a pressure washer and I only water enough for things to survive. I am conservative but, I see red when I hear the blame put on below average rainfall when climatic averages should be planned for. We need rain but, we also need our infrastructure experts to get serious about looking ahead. They are voted in, they can be voted out. If you are a politician and you want to get serious, think about the impact the water shortage is having because of the lack of forward planning and the greed of taxes on building permits! I own a boat, a 4WD, I fish and I vote!

[The_Walrus]

We definitely have to be much more efficient in our water use. It's got to be used more han once before going down the drain.

Household grey water should be used to flush the toilets and water the yard.

Spray irrigation in windy conditions is extremely wastefull. Coming back from a salt trip, my mate & I came across a field being spray irrigated. The road was getting a good drenching on every pass so we parked on the wet road and got a free car & boat wash. ;D

Luc

[bungie]

As of today 1/3/06 "The Plumbing & Wastewater Code" came into being. Part of the regulations allows for the recycling of grey water to water lawn/plants.
Small catch. You will not be able to just dump your grey water onto the gardens and lawn as bacteria is being dumped to. Any descent rain and the back yard becomes a cesspool. So, you will need to treat the water, killing the bugs. Treatment plant $7-10 thousand dollars. Once you have treated the effluent, it gets sprinkled over your plants and lawn, but wait there’s more. Current regulations limit how close to fence lines, building, foot paths you can sprinkle.
Roughly. 2m from any house, fence, footpath, recreation areas. And 6m from any swimming pool. Remember the 4m diameter of the sprinkler in your calculation
Basically, the average Brisbane house block does not have enough lawn/gardens to be able to use this system.
The act does not force Councils to allow this system either, so don’t be surprised if your local Council says no.