Latest addition to water grid already storing water

The fact the newly completed Cedar Grove Weir was full and overflowing with water from the Logan River showed the value of constructing a diversified water grid, Acting Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Paul Lucas, said today.

Inspecting the $18.5 million project today, Mr Lucas said it was a small but significant part of the State Government’s $9 billion South East Queensland water grid.

“Cedar Grove Weir is full and will begin supplying water to the local Beaudesert region and into the grid by the end of this month,” Mr Lucas said.

“The weir has the capacity to yield 3000 mega litres (ML) a year, enough water for 20,000 people a day.

“When it’s operating in conjunction with the proposed Wyaralong Dam, the Cedar Grove Weir will yield 21,000 ML a year – enough water for more than 150,000 people.

“Work started in May last year and the weir is now structurally complete, with only minor works and final testing being undertaken as part of commissioning process.

“But it’s already doing its part for the grid by storing water that will help ensure the South East doesn’t run dry.

“During construction the builder the Water Infrastructure Solutions Alliance has spent 53,000 man hours, poured 4400 cubic metres of concrete, installed 400 tonnes of reinforcement and 1330 tonnes of sheet pile to complete the weir.

“Work also remains on track on the nearby Bromelton Offstream Storage site, scheduled for completion by mid 2008, well ahead of original schedule.”

Mr Lucas said the fact Cedar Grove was one of many sites around South East Queensland experiencing continued heavy rainfall and good stream flows showed the importance of constructing a diversified water grid.

“This is exactly why we’re building a water grid that can move water to and from different parts of South East Queensland as needed,” Mr Lucas said.

“On the Sunshine Coast, Baroon Pocket Dam is overflowing and levels in the Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast rose more than 6% to 72.32% overnight and are expected to continue to rise.

“There have been good inflows into our existing dams that has seen combined storage go from a low of 19.84% on December 30 to 21.13% today.

“But every 1% extra in combined dam storage provides around three-and-a-half weeks water supply to South East Queensland.”

Mr Lucas said heavy rain overnight in the Somerset catchment had caused stream rises with the Stanley River at Peachester rising 4.2m above yesterday’s level and reaching ‘minor’ flood level.

Somerset Dam may rise approximately 2.0m, (and extra 10% to 15% of its capacity) over the next week.

Mr Lucas said reports indicated the North Pine River is flowing at a slightly higher level than significant inflows it had last September and North Pine Dam may rise half a metre (an extra 2% of its capacity) but there is no significant flow in Brisbane River.

“On the Mary River at the site of the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam, however water is flowing at a rate of 13,000ML a day - that would fill more than 3.5 Olympic swimming pools every minute.

“The Traveston Crossing Dam catchment receives up to 55% more rainfall than the Wivenhoe Dam catchment due to its proximity to the coast.

“A dam at this site would have been full or near full since September 2007.

“The State Government’s $9 billion water grid is diversify the region’s water supply by constructing new surface storage options, commissioning non-climate dependant supplies such as the Gold Coast desalination plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project and linking them together with our connecting pipelines.”