Sunday Mail, Feb 2009
Flood the Lower Lakes
I recently spent three days at Goolwa - the place needs water now. I measured the current level at around 1.8m below normal. Those people who think there is a fresh water solution have not checked the facts.
There is currently around 1850GL in active storage in the Murray Darling Basin. In July 2006 Lake Alexandrina held 1600GL and Lake Albert 280GL; now they hold 940GL and 100GL so just to return to 2006 levels would require 800GL. Most "experts" claim only 20 percent of upstream water released will reach the lakes, so 4200GL would need to be released but, wait, we only have 1850GL in all of our active storage.
Then another 1000GL a year is lost from the lakes to evaporation.
There is only one clear solution - flood the lakes with sea water and return them to their natural state.
They are artificial fresh water lakes, only around 70 years old anyway.
John Hall
Hallet Cove