melbourne water restrictions: exemption??

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by jackie, Jan 5, 2007.

  1. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    I feel frustrated at our stage three water restrictions that I can't choose how I use water. Feel our family should be able to have shallow baths, short showers and only flush the toilet when necessary. We have water efficient appliances and bucket the shower, kitchen and bath water to various trees. And uses the rest of our alocation to grow food. I am not after more water than enybody else. Even growing veges we probably use less water than most house holds. I just feel I have a right to grow food and would like to choose the hours and days that work with the weather. What do I do when the forcast is for rain tomorrow but I can only water today or in four days time. Do I gamble and hope the rain comes or water just in case it doesn't? (We can only water sat and tues)

    I was out last night illegally watering my veges between two 35 degree days wondening at the dictatorship I have found myself living in. What are others doing? Has anyone applied for an exemption based on the fact they are growing food?

    Have found out that domestic water is about the smallest user of the available town water, industry, market gardens and government agencies using much higher percentages of the pool. Yet these areas which have the most to save are not the targets. Must I plow my paddocks, install rows of sprinklers and become a comercial grower just to eat my own produce? How can we move forward into unknown times when at the first sign of things going bad the government makes it so very difficult. If we hit stage four restrictions there can be no water used outside. Some areas already have this. How are your gardens going???

    My thought is allow individuals a certain amount of water each. Let us be adult enough to chose how we use it. I'd shower less often and eat well thanks.

    Hi to all I haven't posted any messages in a while.
    Jackie
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day jackie,

    i doubt they will give you an excemption to water food plants as they don't differentiate between gardens types.

    only 2 days a week is pretty tough, we are in level 4 up here and expecting level 5 some time this year if flooding rains don't come maybe level 5 anyway???

    and we can still water on 3 days of the week so long as we use buckets/w-cans.

    use all your grey water is the only way you can keep the vege's going, we run our washing machine water to the veges, that keeps them growing and provides produce.

    currently running tank water so that helps.

    len
     
  3. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Hiya Jackie,

    I just had a week in Victoria [Mildura] and for the first time I walked head-first into the whole water thing. There are no shortages here in the Northern Territory.

    Anyone with half a brain could have foretold we cannot have exponential suburban growth with finite water resources. The drought has just brought that crisis down on us a lot quicker.

    What amazed me in this whole debate is that every house I have ever seen has a water meter out front. Why not use the bloody things. For example if your family were allocated 5000 litres per week then it would be up to you what you watered. I didnt see this suggested anywhere.

    I dont know if domestic water can be legally disconnected but here in the NT if you dont pay your water bill then the authorities will insert a reducer into your water line. You still get water but at about 20% of its current velocity and to have it re-connected you must pay a bond. Same thing punishment could be used if someone took too much water.

    I also ran into a piece of back-to-front logic. A guy I met runs his rainwater through his Hot Water Service and toilet cistern!!!. :shock: He then explained that every time he runs the kitchen hot tap he fills a water bottle. He also said it was to make sure he used all of his rainwater all of the time. When the tank is dry, and you would find out very quickly, he swapped back to mains water till it rained. The first couple of flushes went straight to his toilet cistern then he switched the HWS back over and yes - he lowered his HWS to facilitate this. It made his family very water careful.

    Cheers

    floot
     
  4. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    that's a good point floot,

    at first i thought hang on now we currently run our home using app' 300 litres per day [we are on the tank at the moment so all water is our own] (2100 litres per week) so i though whoa up here, but then i got to deep thinking and if each and every home was allocated that 5000 litres per week (we also need to restrict business and gov' facilities as well currently they have almost none) and then when the allocation ran out they could use no more outside of a medical emergency that could potentially save heaps of water and make those who we know are still blatantly wasting it to toe the line with the rest of us.

    hey something i just learnt in another group and this is reprehensable realy people with evaporative air conditioners are using something like 20 litres of water per hour and they aren't on any restrictions, so they not only suck up electricity they waste good quality water all to mask the inefficiencies of their homes and limit them thinking outside the square and consider other options ie.,. passive air cooling and there are other alternatives. but that is sheer waste of water.

    len
     
  5. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Yeah Len, and evaporative coolers in humid conditions are stupid anyway.

    It seems totally reasonable to me that water should metered out equally or on some sort of needs basis, and when you have used your share the valve shuts. You should definitely be allowed to decide how you use it.

    I feel for you poor Aussies. We just got an inch here last night. :?
     
  6. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    melb water restrictions

    Thanks for your imput every one. Len stage 4 or 5 sounds serious. Is there much water up there? Richard tanks sure sound the way to go. We're pricing them at the moment. When we built we went for the cheap option and conected the mains water. Was $2000 to run the pipes etc 400m up the drive to the house. Just costed the tanks we want at $8000 plus all the extras that come with it. It's a lot of money, but then you can live with out a lot of things but not water.
    Dreaming of a river through my property.
    Jackie
     
  7. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day jackie,

    the dams they are using for their scare tactics are not realy water storage dams they where built as flood mitigation dams so they are too shallow covered vast amounts of arrible land, so evaportation and soakage are main problems with them (keep in mind but the real issue is power and the contrived need for newclear units litteraly in peoples back yards), now the dams that where built as water storage dams they are not giving us any stat's on they don't even talk about them so we have 3 or 4 generations of constituants that have lost or don't know the plot.

    now as for tanks we just bouhgt a 25,000 litre tank and 4 tap on demans pump for $3100, shop around your rural manufacturers i'm sure you should get similar deals, with tanks always better not to have all your eggs in one basket.

    richard,

    surely these air-cons should be barred in australia unless you are going to provide your own water to run them, so they run them through the heat of the day to seemingly keep cool then due to all the humidiyt thye ahve added to their home air they run it in the evening to make that more comfortable, talk about catch 22.

    yes sad though it is unless we use the administrator to make the playing filed level ther will always be waste & inefficient practises.

    len
     
  8. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    len an interesting thought on redundancy. Not one we'd really thought about but not sure why. A big tank holds more water for you buck but you have to have the money to spend. Your thought on redundancy makes me think of if one tank got a hole, contaminated needed a clean etc.. We'd still have some in the other. Is this what you were refering to?
    We have redundancy in many other things.
    -mains power plus battery bank, generator and inverter
    -wood stove and gas stove
    -wood hot water with power back up
    -some preserves bottled others frozen
    -the list goes on when you begin to think about it so why not water???
    Food for thought. thanks.
    Jackie
     
  9. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    yes jackie,

    our thinking was to have 2 X 37,000 litre tanks but keeping in mind that if something went wrong and the cost variabnles aren't that different for volume of water held against setup cost we opted to then always install 25,000 litre tanks as they came in the best all round even in the handling at time of sighting the tank installing in other words. at one stage we even considered 45,000 litre capacity units.

    at this stage we had remained with ac power but had designed and built a home that needed no heating or cooling, and minimal lighting.

    len
     
  10. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    We were looking at a Pioneer tank Galaxy holds 110128 litres for $8300.
    They are a steel framed tank erected on site with a liner. Have a 9x18 m shed we'd put it off. Mind you still need rain. Our dam is empty for the first time since we dug it 6 years ago. So a tanks only going to be as good as the rain we need.
    jackie
     
  11. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day jackie,

    is the shed arbitory?

    a unit that size even still will take up some space that needs to factored into the costs, unless it can be set up outside as an option.

    we where told about those bladder type tanks but still opted for the poly way they are as food safe as polymers can possibly be and going on our experiences with water beds if bladders aren't installed crease free in areas where they get pressure then fractures can occur, not sure if this applies here though?

    still a lot of water to be affected if something should go wrong. if you have a look at our pic's of our setup we had the tanks inter connected but only used 1 tank at a given time so if a malfunction occured it only affected the live tank.

    len
     
  12. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    len, shed is already there and we figure it's a large roof for colecting water off. Bigger than the house and all down pipes are at one end. Have a leveled space at end of shed waiting for tanks.
    The linere folds sounds like a problem. Think you're onto something with the smaller tanks. Perhaps we could put one in each year for 3 or four years and then plenty of options.
    When we built the house we were remiss on the water. All grey water pipes go down into slab and off to septic. Storm water is all piped to one point below the house leading off to the dam (which is empty). So it's buckets in the sinks for now.
    think I'd better go and do the house work now thanks for your ideas.
    jackie
     
  13. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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    yeah, still need rain so no point having a dry tank sitting there.
    use the money to pay your mortgage if you have one, the only winners are the tank manufacturers.
    recycle drums for your backyard or build a dam for your farm.
    then sit in the dam and sunbake until the rains come.
    won't be too long, june/july it'll all be back to normal.
     
  14. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day jackie,

    for me septics in rural just don't mix and aren't needed. they have the capacity to pollute the sub-aquafa which cna affect that whole water shed. also being above a dam it has capacity to corrupt the dam.

    we used a composting dry box toilet that worked extremely well it needed no water and we got composted material for use in amending.

    all usirn was collected using bucket for men but for ladies better to have commode chair and bucket, this water then got mixed with fresh water each day (to make it go further) and used around food plants. in rural our av' water use was around 100 to 150 litres, we also found using a twin tub washer very helpfull in water management, and still use one.

    len
     
  15. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    Thanks for the positive thoughts and ideas. My thought has been to dig a decent size dam. Even more water storage for your buck. Perhaps a dam and a smaller tank rather than the big tank. thanks guys. Think I'll sew till the june july rains rather than sunbake though. Have been on property long enough now to judge when the dams should go. Maybe I should ask Santa for a dingy for next chrissy. Would be fun on a dam.
    Think optimism is hitting in. thanks
     
  16. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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  17. jackie

    jackie Junior Member

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    Would you believe that business is my old bosses and is based here in the same town as I live. Can't work out the benifits of it though.
     

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