Pipeline plugged

By Kath Gannaway
THE north-south pipeline has been plugged.
Water Minister Peter Walsh and Plug the Pipe campaigner Jan Beer were at Sugarloaf Reservoir on Tuesday 15 November, to officially close off the pipe which became the focus of a bitter and prolonged campaign against the then Labor Government.
“Water from the $750 million north-south pipeline will only be considered as a last resort for use during extremely dry conditions or for fire-fighting purposes,” Mr Walsh said.
He said Melbourne’s water would be stored in Eildon as an insurance policy for Melbourne against Stage 4 water restrictions in the future.
Mrs Beer said she and others who had fought against the construction of the pipeline had been vindicated by Mr Walsh’s description of the decision to build the pipeline as short-sighted and ill-conceived.
“Historical data shows in most years Sugarloaf Reservoir will not be able to store the extra 75 gigalitres (Gl) of water from the north-south pipeline,” Mr Walsh said.
He said between 1981 and 2009 inflows into Sugarloaf from the Yarra River and Maroondah aqueduct averaged 86.9 Gl, but the dam has only been able to supply an average of 83.3 Gl. He said with Sugarloaf Reservoir almost full, the pipeline could not be used without allowing water from upstream storages to go to waste.
“Sugarloaf is downstream of all the other Yarra storages, which means water cannot be transferred to other dams,” he said.
Mrs Beer hit out at comments by Opposition water spokesman John Lenders that the present government was acting on an ideological opposition to the pipeline and was denying Melbourne access to cheap water.
“Water pumped to Melbourne through the pipeline is not cheap, it’s very expensive water,” she said.
“It has to be pumped from the Goulburn River over the Great Divide down to Sugarloaf. Even with the hydro power at the other end, there is a substantial cost for electricity, and it’s expensive water if you are taking it away from food production.”
Melbourne Water, which defended the project throughout the construction process, has said it would operate according to the new rules.
“The pipeline will continue to remain part of our insurance against reaching the likes of the record low storage levels we saw in mid-2009,” Melbourne Water spokesman Nicolas McGay said.