Beyond the Edge: Australia's First National Peri-urban Conference La Trobe University Oct 2013

1. The Closure of Melbourne’s North-South
Pipeline: A Case of Hydraulic Autarky
Professor Lin Crase
Director
Centre for Water Policy and Management
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2. Introduction
Why the pipeline matters
Past choices = future prices
Current choices = close off options for planning water supplies
History of pipeline (briefly)
Water entitlements and customers’ bills
Melbourne’s Water Future (includes peri-urban Melbourne)
Concluding remarks
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3. The historical context
Dry in early 2000s
The ‘once in a century’ deal
Pipeline @ $625m
Infrastructure ‘upgrades’ in return for water entitlements
$300m from Melbourne
225 Gigalitres with 75 for Melbourne
Commonwealth funded stage 2 (another $1b)
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4. But
Nov 2011 pipeline plugged
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5. Cost?
$625m passed through to customers in Melbourne
$100m per retailer also passed through
But 75 Gigalitres by 2010 = 52 Gigalitres by 2012/13
Hard to genuinely ‘save’ water
Entitlement less 5% for evaporation and first to spill
Can sell allocation (circa $1m wit h approval and buyers) but less
$700k bulk water fees + $500k Urban Storage Fee
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6. Future choices – Living Victoria and Melbourne's Water Future
By accessing all water resources available in Melbourne,
we can reduce our reliance on using water from other
parts of the State where it’s also needed, like in our
farming and regional communities. This would also
reduce pressure on our stressed river systems (DEPI
2013, p. 1).
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7. Melbourne’s Water Future – OLV
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8. Benefits and Costs of Melbourne’s Water Future???
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9. Concluding remarks
Hard to reverse infrastructure choices
Too easy to get it wrong
Apparently easy to perpetuate mistakes and mistruths
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10. Thank you
latrobe.edu.au
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