Tuesday 29 September 2009

Rates up, dodgy water, fluoride coming, now stop watering

Mossman and Port Douglas residents have been asked to stop using water by their southern masters, the Cairns Regional Council.

The call is due to "unprecedented low flows in Rex Creek which supplies water to both Port Douglas and Mossman, following reduced flows due to the extended dry period."

Council says that Douglas residents have experienced the driest winter on record, with only 25mm of rain in three months.

The catchment rate has dropped from 460 to 340 litres per second, with the demand for water is over 180 litres per second, on some days.

Watering of parks and open spaces has also been cut back as Cairns Regional Council introduces Level 1 restrictions to private gardens and commercial watering in Mossman, Port Douglas, Craigie, Mowbray, Newell Beach, Cooya Beach and Cassowary.

  • Level 1:
    ODD numbered houses Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
    EVEN numbered houses Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
    - permitted watering times between 6 - 8 am, and 6 - 8 pm.
    - Hand-held hoses with trigger nozzle and buckets may be used at any time

There are contingency plans to extract water directly out of the Mossman River just in case their is a crisis of supply.

Interestingly, restrictions are applicable in Cairns, as the trigger point applies when Copperlode Dam reaches 80% capacity. The dam is currently just over 90%.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Is this the result of council's lack of foresight when it comes to water storage and pumping in and around Cairns?

CBD Warrior said...

No Stinhambo, it's the result of the last dysfunctional Douglas Shire council's failure to adequately build the infrastructure to support the massive number of (mostly vacant) units and other projects in town. CRC should raise rates in Port Douglas to Cairns levels to pay to get this infrastructure back to normal levels. The rest of us should have to pay for these cretins!

Northern Beaches Warrior said...

Irrespective of the cause CBD Warrior, it would seem that if the ratepayers of the City of Cairns have to pick up the tab for water infrastructure, that is one thing that we can possibly live with.

What makes us ratepayers mad is paying $300,000 for some scam boat named the Dufyken that sails into port once a year and paying for a basketball team named the Taipans to keep playing after they have already gone broke, and no doubt a number of other stupid projects that Councillors including your good self vote for, that have little or nothing to do with the efficient running this City or that bring direct benefit to ratepayers.

Get real! Just goes to show how out of touch you are.

Maximinus the 3rd said...

Northern Beaches Warrior, I note with some amusement that you draw a link between CBD Warrior and Blake.

If accurate he does read the Cairns Blog and then makes a 'chip on the shoulder' type statement.

Does not have the intestinal fortitude (guts), to write under his name.

It shows to me that as a public figure he is a wimp and a weasel. Has the propensity to drop his name and position when wanting something, like paying a visit to the Developer of approved developments making them aware that he/his identity is involved with furniture!!!!!!

This nexus must be broken.
It's time for the CMC to show an interest in his activities.

Lillian at Yorkeys said...

Why doesn't everyone (who can) just get bloody water tanks, which are more than filled during the Wet, & stop whingeing. Councils around other parts of Oz give rates rebates to residents who have water tanks, & other environmentally friendly measures. Why not ours?

Why is our Council acquiescing to the State Government's mandate about fluoridating water, at the estimated cost of $2 million start-up, & a further $500,000 a year in maintenence (at this year's prices) forever after. For potentially poisonous stuff in our water supply. How many fluoride tablets supplied to those parents who are worried about their childrens' dental health will $500,000 supply? A lot, I would assume. Must ask my local chemist.

Whether or not you agree with the fluoride issue, $500,000 is a lot of rates, campers. The point has also been made that only about 2 to 5% of our water is used as drinking water - most of the other 95 per cent is used on gardens, baths & showers, wahing cars, industry, washing boats etc etc etc.

The most ironic point is that those people whose children are most at risk for dental caries in childhood, are those least likely to encourage their children to drink plain old water. Yep, their kids will be drinking Coke & the like, & fanging Cheezels or Big Macs or packets of Tim Tams or whatever is going. Their parents are not going to be standing over them demanding they drink more water.

The bad dental health in Tasmania, which has long been fluoridated, is damning of this issue. The major point is - if you don't feed your kids healthy food, NO amount of fluoride is gunna fix their teeth.

Northern Beaches Warrior - the Duyfken deal was done by Byrne - it's under contract, & I think is in the last year of the contract. Actually, if it had been promoted adequately, even by the current council, it would have scores of Cairnsites & their kids crawling all over it, & learning to sail on a replica 17th century vessel, rather than just being seen as a money drain.

Also NBW - the Council is NOT paying the Taipans - they are putting in to place a GUARANTEE: ie. that if the Taipans stuff up hugely, & are bankrupt again in a few years, then the Council will pay that out. Apparently a couple of councillors ( including Val) are going to be on the managing board of the Taipans, & let's all hope it keeps going on.

I reckon the prominence of African-American US basketball players, possibly being role models, is great, especially for our indigenous kids. It's one way out of poverty, being a good sportsman these days.

Considering the CRC has a budget of about $203 million p.a. currently, I don't think a guarantee of $1 mill is ridiculous.

I do not give a rat's arse about sport - however, many of the masses do, & as the Taipans are centred around Cairns, & I believe have some following, then with good management, perhaps they can prosper. So, let's keep an open mind on that one.

However, now, that Ms. Hull has been ousted from Council, it really is up to Council to appoint a Council-friendly PR person. We DON'T want a spin-doctor, just someone, simply, in this day & age, who can give us INFORMATION. We can all hear spin 30-miles off now - we are an educated population - enough spin. we just want simplicity & information to make our own decision by. that's all.

Werner Schmidlin said...

Lillian of Yorkeys Knob, I agree with your sentiments, but I would not drink water from water tanks. With the thousands of flying foxes defecating on our roofs, yuck! That would be even worse than drinking fluoridated water.

What you said about the waste of money that will be spent on fluoride, that only about 1% of water is drunk the rest goes down the drain and into the ocean, the bad dental record of Tasmania, despite 50 years of fluoridation etc, I have been saying for a long time.

Unfortunately we have very pathetic and lethargic and ignorant people in our region; they just sit there meekly and take everything this totalitarian government in Brisbane is dishing out to them. Peter Beattie wouldn’t have a bar of fluoridation. Bob Quinn and Langbroek, then member of the Liberal party, introduced a private members bill in parliament in 2005 to force fluoridation on the population of Queensland. It was defeated, 83 against 5 (I think), then two years later the Labour party under “Cook” Bligh made a somersault and made fluoridation mandatory.

I could go on and on, but we have to fight this tooth and nail, but in the open, so why not see me sometimes to discuss this matter and perhaps you could help our anti fluoride committee to fight, we need people power, comments in blogs or the paper alone will not help much and the politicians ignore it.