The Border Watch: March 25, 2009

KEEPING THE SOUTH EAST INFORMED SINCE 1861

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

dairy focus 2009

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Water heaven BY ANELIA BLACKIE Email: [email protected]

“LIKE heaven” is how a new migrant to Mount Gambier described the taste of the city’s tap water. “Our borehole water in Portugal tasted like tomato soup and it stained my white washing and made my hair orange, and the pressure on the council’s tap water was very low at certain times as the council turned down the pressure to save water,” Nikki Archdale told The Border Watch. “In Cornwall in England, the tap water was not too bad, but occasionally it tasted like chlorine.” Ms Archdale responded to a panel of experts who rated Mount Gambier’s tap water as having the top taste in the state. The judges, an Adelaide restaurant manager, a wine cellar head sommelier and the director of water treatment company Ecovortak, were asked to blind-test eight samples of tap water in the Sunday Mail office last week. They rated each sample out of 10 and after coming up with comments such as “children’s sick, swimming pools or rotten wood,” they described Mount Gambier’s tap water as “fresh, clean

WEATHER

and bright”. Behind Mount Gambier, Plympton rated second best, with a sample from southern Adelaide suburb Morphett Vale coming third. Samples from Klemzig, in the northeast, and Burnside - which was likened to the smell of rotten wood - were voted joint fourth. The three testers were not told of the origin of each sample until the end of the experiment. L i f e l i n e We l c o m e Program for Skilled Migrants coordinator Louise Waters said she had not heard of any new migrants complaining about Mount Gambier’s tap water. “Our water is the best,” she said. “I remember as a child when we ran tap water in the bath in Adelaide, we were scared to get in, let alone drink it.” However, Catherine Pye, a Mount Gambier climate change activist and secretary for the Community Action for Sustainability (CAS) group, was slightly more critical. “It took me a while to get used to the taste when I moved here,” she said. “The water was a bit hard after being used to rain water, but compared to Adelaide’s tap water, it’s a lot better.”

BW491057

Tarpeena milestone TARPEENA Tennis Club held successful 50th birthday celebrations on Sunday. Cricket, social doubles and a picnic lunch were among the activities. Five flowering gums were planted near the courts to mark the anniversary and a commemorative plaque was unveiled. Merle Judd delivered a speech on the club’s history. The club currently fields two junior teams and four senior teams in the Mount Gambier Tennis Association. President Jamie Irving said tennis was vital for community spirit. pGrant District Councillor Shirley Little (left) and Tarpeena Tennis Club life members Bill Medhurst and Merle Judd plant one of five trees marking each decade of the club’s history.

•Full report and more pictures, page 23.

Geothermal project powers ahead BY JASON WALLACE Email: [email protected]

INVESTIGATIONS into Panax Geothermal’s potential power generation from the South East’s underground hot water resources have found base-load electricity could be generated at a highly competitive cost. Results of an independently reviewed pre-feasibility study were announced to the Australian Stock Exchange this week, showing continued confidence for the company’s Penola project. The report found zero emission baseload power could be generated at a total cost of $63 per megawatt hour. “This cost is highly competitive with other forms of alternative energy and is similar to that of gas fired power generation,” managing director Bertus de Graaf said in the statement. He said the combination of a com-

Mount Gambier Today - Morning shower or two. 24o – page 27

petitive cost per MWh and presence of substantial geothermal resources measured at 11000 Peta Joules indicated the project had the scope to sustain generation of hundreds of megawatts of low cost, zero emission, base-load power. “The fact that the project is located within sight of the national grid adds further to the potential,” Mr de Graaf said. Pre-feasibility studies have been based on well temperatures of 145 degrees for use in readily available binary geothermal power plants. The pre-feasibility study is based on a three-stage development, starting with a demonstration plant based on one production well and one injection well. A second phase plant could then be added, based on 10 production wells and eight injection wells. Drilling of the first production well (Salamander-1) is scheduled to start in

KID’S PAGE

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COMICS

September and lead to development of the grid-connected demonstration plant by the end of 2011. Mineral Resources Development Minister Paul Holloway welcomed progress on the Panax project, which he said had potential to contribute to clean, base-load power supplies for the state. He said South Australia’s Otway Basin represented an area of anomalously high heat flows close to the national electricity transmission grid and an extensive database of petroleum well and seismic data to define rock targets. “Panax has gained a significant advantage from the easily accessible and comprehensive seismic and well information databases managed by Primary Industries and Resources SA,” Mr Holloway said. He said the state was leading the geothermal sector.

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