Torrens Swamp...

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Gazeby
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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#31 Post by Gazeby » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:23 pm

I think its good that its had a flush out, I also think that we should leave it dry, its very Iconic of our state, and hopefully it will educate the young, greedy and elderly from watering their rose bushes, sports cars & concrete driveways. Let the visitors to our state know that yes our state is dry so preserve our water as much as possible.

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Pistol
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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#32 Post by Pistol » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:25 pm

I can see it sitting how it is with no clean up until April when we get some decent rain to fill it up again.

There will be bickering between the ACC and the government over who is responsible for the clean up and like everything else within this city, nothing will happen.

And unlike Talrok, Harbo you are going down at the next election...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#33 Post by bm7500 » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:31 pm

Harbo was a little too underwhelmed about this for my liking...

Anyway, all we need is for SA Water to have an 'accidental discharge' from Kangaroo Creek and whula, the torrens is re-filled lol
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Pistol
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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#34 Post by Pistol » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:40 pm

^^ Ha reminiscent of George W when he was told about the twin towers.

Besides this sort of shit happens every day down at the Adelaide City Council chambers.
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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#35 Post by Ben » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:24 pm

From The ACC:
Torrens Lake clean up to begin today

The Adelaide City Council has today begun the clean up of the Torrens Lake following Wednesday night’s weir malfunction that resulted in water levels dropping by two metres.

The clean up activities include:
  • A team of cleaning staff will today begin removing debris from the river bed and banks, with a crane available to remove larger items.
    The clean up work will continue over the weekend and into next week.

    Adelaide City Council is liaising with SAPOL regarding the removal of the abandoned car.

    A planning meeting was held this morning to identify and work through safety issues that will be confronting cleaning crews – with primary hazards being the presence of blue green algae, working in thick mud, and the risk posed to workers by submerged objects.

    Members of the public are advised not to enter or walk into the mud in the river bed to retrieve submerged items as this may cause injury, result in someone becoming stuck in the mud, or coming in contact with residual blue green algae.

    Adelaide City Council is using the incident as an opportunity to review its carp eradication program, and also the likelihood of planting of pond weed to improve the immediate eco-environment.
Council staff will continue to conduct daily patrols of the impacted area for distressed animals and will refer any issues to the RSPCA as a matter of priority.
A comprehensive investigation is underway as to why the weir gates malfunctioned. This investigation will include a review of the software used to operate the gates, broader systemic impacts, electrical malfunction, and the likelihood of foul play. To date, no obvious cause has been identified and the investigation continues.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#36 Post by rev » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:28 pm

Gazeby wrote:I think its good that its had a flush out, I also think that we should leave it dry, its very Iconic of our state, and hopefully it will educate the young, greedy and elderly from watering their rose bushes, sports cars & concrete driveways. Let the visitors to our state know that yes our state is dry so preserve our water as much as possible.
I agree good that it's been flushed so it can be properly cleaned, but I don't see how it is iconic. What's so iconic about it? Its algae outbreaks?

Would it be possible to turn this thing into an elegant canal style waterway? Am I dreaming and hoping for too much from our decision makers?



ps I'll have you know(as a greedy young person) I've cut back watering my concrete(well, paved areas) and cars. They just won't grow no matter how much water I feed them. The run off onto the grass had been good though, takes all the bird shit with it and fertilisers the grass, hey presto sorta green grass again, till the heat wave at least... :x

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#37 Post by Wayno » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:09 pm

Adelaide City Council is liaising with SAPOL regarding the removal of the abandoned car.
Ring-ring...ring-ring
RAA: Hello, this is RAA Roadside Assist - how may we help you!"
Caller: "Err, so i called a few weeks back, late on saturday night, to get my car towed - rego ABC123"
RAA: "Yes, that's right - i see that in our records, but your car was missing when we turned up"
Caller: "Err - yeah. Well, umm, i just found my car, it's only a couple of hundred metres from where i left it"
RAA: "Great! we'll be there in 15mins"
Caller "Err - good, actually can you arrive after dark tonight, and please bring your rubber boots and a looong tow rope"
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#38 Post by Wayno » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:30 pm

Disused Quarry to the rescue!!

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 01,00.html
WATER from a disused quarry in the Adelaide Hills could be used to refill Torrens Lake.

The State Government is considering taking about 600 megalitres of water from the Riverview Quarry and pumping it through a temporary pipeline to the River Torrens.

Premier Mike Rann said tests of the water would begin next week and if the water quality is satisfactory, pumping would begin as soon as possible.

Mr Rann earlier pledged that the Torrens Lake would be refilled – but not with drinking water.

"It would be massively damaging to our credibility with the new River Murray Authority if we suddenly used water during this once-in-a-lifetime drought to refill the lake," he said.

"It is simply outrageous to suggest that I said we should not refill the lake."

He said the Government would be "a national laughing stock" if it used drinking water to refill the lake.

He was still trying to find out "what the hell happened".

"If we are going to find a way of refilling it without using drinking water, then I don't want it to happen again," Mr Rann said.

A motor controlling a weir on the lower reaches of the Torrens River burnt out, opening the gates on Wednesday night and sending millions of litres of water flowing to the sea over a two-hour period.

The fault triggered an alarm but council workers had to manually close the gates to stem the flow.

By that time water levels in the lake had dropped by more than two metres, exposing the muddy bottom and large amounts of debris, including shopping trolleys, bikes and even an abandoned car.

In other developments:

THE Bureau of Meteorology says there is no rain on the way to replenish the lake with only the possibility of a very light shower in the middle of next week.

UNIVERSITY of Adelaide water expert Justin Brookes said it would take 400 megalitres of water to restore the lake and this could cost as much as $500,000.

Associate Professor Brookes said one of the options might be to truck in water from wastewater treatment plants at Glenelg and Bolivar but that was expensive and also posed problems because it was water full of nutrients.

He said water in the lake was already high in nutrients.

"As we move towards a drier environment, we need to look at our lakes such as the Lower Lakes and the Torrens Lake because we don't have enough water to keep them replenished," Professor Brookes said.

"Perhaps we should be looking at smaller lakes and make the Torrens a smaller lake below the bridge (on King William St) and turn upstream into more of a wetlands."
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#39 Post by skyliner » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:10 am

Well it's all over the news here in B'Bane - just like the tram mishap on the corner of Nth Tce and KWS during the trials on the line - don't they just grab onto everything negative. Anyway, as some have stated, opportunity for immediate cleanup, great. Also dredging the mess out could be usefull. Water from Riverview Quarry a good idea. I'm sure they'll do something in the face of the image Adelaide would leave behind with visitors - even though they might not go to Elder Pk. I know it affects me just knowing - ie. Reactions in the back of the mind.

However, compared to the victorian fires, we're doing OK.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#40 Post by crawf » Sun Feb 15, 2009 1:24 pm

Apparently the Torrens is slowly starting to fill up again which is good to hear. It was quite interesting walking along the Torrens and seeing what people have dumped. Saw a car, bike, office chair, outdoor chairs, bins and many other odd things.

Even saw people getting a scooter out! :lol:

In other news I can't wait for this Glenelg pipeline to be finished, the Torrens area, parklands and gardens are so dry at the moment its quite depressing to see.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#41 Post by peas_and_corn » Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:07 pm

crawf wrote:Apparently the Torrens is slowly starting to fill up again which is good to hear. It was quite interesting walking along the Torrens and seeing what people have dumped. Saw a car, bike, office chair, outdoor chairs, bins and many other odd things.

Even saw people getting a scooter out! :lol:

In other news I can't wait for this Glenelg pipeline to be finished, the Torrens area, parklands and gardens are so dry at the moment its quite depressing to see.
Is there any chance I can dump my stuff about now? :P

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#42 Post by jk1237 » Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:47 pm

no you may not dump rubbish. I hate rubbish.

Just on the thought of the Torrens area losing tourists caus of the lack of water, it appears that the opposite is true over the last few days. There are quite a lot of people coming in and taking photos of the mud. Its almost more of a tourist attraction without the water. Having said that, I wish they would fill it up.

Why doesn't it ever rain anymore. We may have to send some experts over to Pheonix, Las Vegas or Tucson in the USA to see what types of plants and trees thrive in desert cities, because that is what we seem to be becoming.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#43 Post by peas_and_corn » Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:14 pm

Has Australia done some serious investigation into the sort of cloud seeding research done in Israel?

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#44 Post by rev » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:12 pm

Honestly, and don't take this as a negative Adelaide bashing comment, but what freaking tourists?
Do people actually believe that our little lake with the ugly festival center behind it and even uglier Hyatt with exposed pipes at its highest points next to bare concrete, are major tourist attractions? Do you think people planning holidays to Australia look at a brochure of Adelaide and see our little water fountain in the lake and some 'paper boats' and think oooohh wooooww we definitely have to see that?
I mean lets be serious now, if it was the Sydney Harbour that was somehow drained, I could understand the commotion, but this is a little polluted lake with not much to do.


peas_and_corn, cloud seeding was done in the 'alpine' regions of Australia years ago. It increased snow fall by quite a bit.
The Russians have also done it successfully during one of those big WW2 memorial bashes they have with International leaders. They did the opposite though, clearing the skies ensuring in St Petersburg I think it was, there was nothing but sunshine.
The Chinese from what I know have been playing with this stuff too, but it's gone horribly wrong, aka the huge floods they had years ago.

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Re: Torrens Swamp...

#45 Post by crawf » Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:58 pm

Its not much of a tourist attraction, but it is still one of the main focal points of Adelaide.

But what makes thing worst, King William Street is the main entrance into the city and is quite picturesque.

Taken 2 years ago (during summer)
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