Comments on: 19 January, 2010: 148 GL for the Lakes http://hurrysavethemurray.com/2010/01/19-january-2010-148-gl-for-the-lakes/ Calling All Australians Fri, 18 May 2012 23:37:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Dr Elizabeth Gordon-Mills http://hurrysavethemurray.com/2010/01/19-january-2010-148-gl-for-the-lakes/comment-page-1/#comment-718 Dr Elizabeth Gordon-Mills Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:10:05 +0000 http://hurrysavethemurray.com/?p=1207#comment-718 Prof Bell is completely wrong in saying that the 148GL will make the water levels in the Lakes rise. At best it will only arrest the decline which is happening already in this dry season due to evaporation. This has been acknowlegded by Karlene Maywald and Prof Mike Young. Salinity levels will almost certainly still increase. As for the fresh water being blown across the still exposed soils and keep them alive, I have news for her. The old lake sediments which were previously covered by water for thousands of years are pretty much completely dead, and will not regenerate vegetation like the band of soils which were first exposed as the levels went down. (The latter were covered with the higher water levels when the barrages were put in, and did not have time to form a huge reserve of sulphidic materials). The older soils are rapidly turning highly acidic and will not respond to revegetation unless they are dosed with enormous amounts of limestone - the amounts required are astronomical, and there is no way it could be done in the time required. The 148GL is a drop in the bucket, and has not diminished the need to return the Lakes to an estuarine condition. Please look up our website with an open mind, and stop clinging to the fresh water only "solution". It will only lead to devastation of the Lakes. What is no happening to Lake Albert is a precursor to what will become of Lake Alexandrina if present trends continue. So, I am sorry, there will be no silencing of calls to open the barrages. Prof Bell is completely wrong in saying that the 148GL will make the water levels in the Lakes rise. At best it will only arrest the decline which is happening already in this dry season due to evaporation. This has been acknowlegded by Karlene Maywald and Prof Mike Young. Salinity levels will almost certainly still increase. As for the fresh water being blown across the still exposed soils and keep them alive, I have news for her. The old lake sediments which were previously covered by water for thousands of years are pretty much completely dead, and will not regenerate vegetation like the band of soils which were first exposed as the levels went down. (The latter were covered with the higher water levels when the barrages were put in, and did not have time to form a huge reserve of sulphidic materials). The older soils are rapidly turning highly acidic and will not respond to revegetation unless they are dosed with enormous amounts of limestone - the amounts required are astronomical, and there is no way it could be done in the time required.

The 148GL is a drop in the bucket, and has not diminished the need to return the Lakes to an estuarine condition. Please look up our website with an open mind, and stop clinging to the fresh water only “solution”. It will only lead to devastation of the Lakes. What is no happening to Lake Albert is a precursor to what will become of Lake Alexandrina if present trends continue. So, I am sorry, there will be no silencing of calls to open the barrages.

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