Ghost water
On 14 July 2022, Stanthorpe Today reported on the pending roll-out of smart water technology in Stanthorpe in mid to late August.
This certainly is a very positive step forward by Council in the efficient and sustainable management of urban water resources. As Councillor Tancred said “Smart meters will help residents and Council get sharper and smarter about how we use and save water. This is a brilliant tool to help prepare for the next drought.”
A more interesting quote from Councillor Tancred was in relation to “ghost water”:
The smart meters will also minimise ‘ghost water’. Our water treatment plants currently store, treat and pump up to 25 per cent lost water that never goes through a residential or business meter because of underground leaks, possible unmetered supplies and illegal connections in our old distribution pipes.
While leaks are a component of “ghost water”, an analysis by the State Department of Water indicated that leakage losses in Stanthorpe had largely been addressed by 2020. So it looks like it would be more accurate to call this “stolen water” as we seem to be largely talking about unmetered supplies and illegal connections.
This “ghost water” might go a long way to explaining the mystery of how Storm King Dam went from full to empty in just 2 years, when in fact it should have represented a minimum of 3 years, and if managed wisely 4 years’ supply for Stanthorpe. Again based on the Department of Water’s November 2020 data, from January 2018 Storm King Dam lost almost 1,000 ML a year – double the 500 ML per year that Council says the town needs. This was a critical loss. A four year supply (at 500 ML per year) would have been sufficient to supply Stanthorpe through the drought without any need for water carting.
The good news is that having smart water technology installed should make it very easy for Council to pinpoint the places where water is being “lost” and take active steps to prevent further “loss”. A number of other questions come to mind:
Surely stopping this “loss” would cost much less than investing in a new dam to get additional town water?
With this new smart technology, paid for by Federal and State government grants, does Council even need to invest in Emu Swamp Dam?
Or at the least does Council need to invest at the same level? Potentially having an extra 25% available from Storm King Dam must mean the decision to buy a whopping 585 ML (the maximum any investor can buy) from Emu Swamp Dam should be reviewed, leaving some or all of this available to local irrigators. We are told that GBIP is over-subscribed.
It certainly seems that it’s worth considering. Because smart metering and reasonable permanent water usage restrictions would be a much more sensible policy from Council than investing in a project that does not drought-proof Stanthorpe and comes with significant risk, including cost overruns, to Council and ratepayers.