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| CLEVER PLAN: Accountant John Hodgkinson and Gold Coast retiree Trevor Herse want a little-known facility in the Mary Valley, Borumba Dam to be expanded. |
PROPONENTS of a mega-dam at Borumba near Imbil are confident the State Government will give their proposal due consideration after a meeting with the Water Supply Minister and department officials.
Grazier Ron McMah, accountant John Hodgkinson and Gold Coast retiree Trevor Herse want the little-known facility in the Mary Valley to be expanded to hold enough water to get southeast Queensland through times of drought.
They also believe water could be pumped from Wivenhoe and Somerset before the start of a La Nina wet season, alleviating the threat to Brisbane of a major flood by dropping Wivenhoe's level to near zero, expanding its flood storage capacity.
Mr Hodgkinson said the idea was given an excellent hearing at yesterday's meeting with Minister for Energy and Water Supply Mark McArdle, director general Jon Black and new Seqwater CEO Terri Benson.
"It was exactly what we wanted. They had an open mind on the whole deal and examined all aspects of the plan from top to bottom," Mr Hodgkinson said.
"We will now wait and see how things progress over coming months."
Mr Hodgkinson said that, if backed, the project would take three years to complete and cost an estimated $1.9 billion, comprising $1.4 billion for a 85m-high dam wall extension and $500 million for pipeline.
"This is cost effective when you consider one desalination plant costs $1.5b and three more would be considered if we get another drought."
Mr Hodgkinson said that as the dam already existed there would be no displacement of people and the state owned some of the land, while the remainder included national park.
There would not be the environmental concerns that stalled the nearby Traveston Dam.
But the civil engineer who supervised construction of Wivenhoe in the 1980s told The Courier-Mail he believed such a plan would be too costly and largely ineffective in mitigating flood damage.
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| Ian Chalmers |
He said he believed the capital costs would be too great.
"In my opinion, 60km is a long way to pump water and this takes more time than people think," he said.
"What you need to understand is that you fill dams with floods and you drain with controlled floods through spillways. You just can't pump the amount of water they are talking about through pipelines," he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr McArdle said Seqwater would look at the finer details and report back to the minister.
She said Mr McArdle had been very interested to hear from the three men and talk about their proposal.
www.CourierMail.com.au
18.1.13
