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Bass River pump ‘minimal impact’: engineer Westernport Water used less than 3% of winter flows from the Bass River to help ensure customers will have enough water this summer, a senior engineer has said. By Susan Webster - 7th January 2008 - Back to News Pumping water from the river helped boost Candowie Reservoir’s capacity to more than 90% and had minimal impact on river flows, said Geoff Allum, Westernport Water’s senior engineer.
"The water pumped from the river comprised only about 25% of the dam fill," he said. "The rest came from good rainfall since mid-year."
Low flows in the river over summer were not due to pumping, but part of the river’s natural cycle, he said.
Mr Allum was attending the first meeting of Bass River environmental flows study, held at Bass Community Hall on December 18.
"We only take water over and above the environmental flow that provides for the river health," he said. "And we ended up not pumping as much water as we had been allocated."
The meeting heard that Westernport Water currently only has a seasonal permit to pump water from the river during times of high-flow.
Water flow data shows that the river is prone to sudden large volumes of water in winter. Big flows – up to 2000ML/day – are channelled into the river during peak flow. Of that figure, Westernport Water takes only 13ML/day.
"Quite literally, it is a drop in the ocean of all that water," Mr Allum said.
Pumping finished at the end of October and would not resume until July, he added. A fully-automated pumping station detects when river levels rise and cuts off pumping automatically when river flow falls below the trigger point.
Mr Allum is a member of the steering and advisory group convened by Melbourne Water to examine the ongoing health of the river.
The panel is one of a several looking at many waterways in different regions of Victoria.
A condition of the pumping licence has seen Westernport Water help restore part of the riverside environment.
Weeds have been removed, native trees, shrubs and grasses planted and the riverbank area refenced as part of the overall pumping station project.
The water corporation has already removed willows – a declared riverside weed. It also undertook landscaping works, involving 200 cubic metres … or about 40 truckloads … of rocks.
Westernport Water’s Managing Director, David Mawer said: "The works we undertook at Bass River will help secure water supplies for our customers; our revegetation work will help ensure sustainability of the riverbank environment.
"Bringing the Bass River pumping station online has notably increased our chances of harvesting more water for the Candowie reservoir. Revegetating the site after the groundworks were competed was part of the total process."
Melbourne Water has been a partner in the revegetation program.
The latest planting program extends Westernport Water’s environmental commitment to the region’s waterways. Landcare groups from Bass Valley, Phillip Island and the Tennant Creek Catchment Management Group were the most recent recipients of nearly $50,000 in support from Westernport Water.
Westernport Water is also helping to safeguard the river health through a series of surveys checking the waterway’s fish and bug populations. Surveys were conducted near the pumping site, 11km downstream and 45km upstream before works started, and repeated when construction finished and pumping was underway.
No detrimental impacts were recorded by the independent environmental auditors.
Mr Mawer added: "Also, we are currently investigating establishing a wetlands at Candowie Reservoir to help boost the natural filtration of run-off water, and to provide a permanent refuge for water birds and other native fauna during dry seasons."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: susanw@ptarmigan.com.au
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