Stormwater.
What is stormwater ?
Stormwater comes off house roofs, driveways, footpaths and roads. It then empties into creeks, rivers and eventually the sea or a lake. It is important we look after this water so our quality of life now and that of future Australians can be preserved and hopefully increased.
Stormwater

Terms & Germs
Explains some of the terms used in the industry and a few of the more common contaminants that are lurking about.
Go to: Terms & Germs

Formulas
How to calculate dam and tank capacities, Flow rates, Pressures and Volumes etc.
Formulas

An index of liquid terms
What's an acre foot?
How much champagne does a melchior hold?
NTU? psi? tablespoon? megalitre?
What's that?

Old ways & New ideas
Forgotten skills & new techniques
Here

Drinking Water Contamination
Contamination of water supplies is a real concern. Whether by deliberate terrorist attempts to poison a community, cross-connection where contaminated water is inadvertently linked to a drinking water supply - such as apparently happened at the Jabiru Uranium Mine, or simply by agricultural fertilisers or poisons being washed into above or below ground water supplies.
Here

Where's the Water?
Where is the Worlds water and what's in it?. This page simply shows the compounds in water and gives an inventory of where it is!
Give me the water!

Water use in Australia.
Some interesting information and links to data available on Australian water usage.
Australian statistics.


If you think things are bad now!
They might get a lot worse. Apparently Australia's so-called "Mediterranean" climate zones – where winters are wet and summers are dry – in the south-west and south-east face a further decline in winter rainfall of as much as 20% over the next two generations. The tropical north, however, may get more rain than at present.
A very interesting article in the Bulletin

Did you know?
*Australia receives about 3.3 million gigalitres of rainfall per year.
*The average Australian consumes about 1.2 million litres of water per person per year.
*Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that annual water consumption soared by 12% between 1996-97 and 2000-01
*That banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour!

Changing rainfall patterns
Climate researchers say global rainfall patterns may be changing.
Some areas will get less rain, and some will get more and heavier downpours. Although overall conditions will be drier in Australia, we will be more likely to get extreme weather conditions such as hail and rainstorms as well as droughts. Areas that receive more rain are likely to be prone to flooding. In dry areas, we will need to use water more wisely because it will be in shorter supply.
Rainfall patterns

Thermostatic mixing valves
We are working on building this new page.
Thermostatic mixing valves

Australian/American Society for Limnology
Scientific research into all aspects of freshwaters is called “limnology”. The leading Society for limnologists in Australia is the Australian Society for Limnology (ASL). Another excellent society for limnologists is the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). Both societies are involved in the publication of highly rated scientific journals for leading professional researchers and educators in the aquatic sciences. ASL is associated with the CSIRO publication “Marine and Freshwater Research” while ASLO’s key journal is “Limnology and Oceanography”. In addition, both Societies are well known for their interdisciplinary meetings and special symposia and their support of public education. Both the ASL and ASLO websites contain an excellent range of links for aquatic-related information.
asl.org.au
aslo aslo.org (America)

Why water quality is
such a big issue.
Who would have thought 20 years ago that so many Australians connected to mains water supplies would today be buying bottled water to take home? There are even industry projections that the bottled water market will exceed the soft drink market by 2010! Why? Most problems with our water either go unreported or undetected, and health authorities in Australia often have no proof an illness was contracted by drinking contaminated water.
Read all the article

All about water
* Pure water is colourless, odourless and tasteless
* Water expands by about 9% when it freezes, that's why pipes burst. Frozen water is lighter than water.
* According to NASA the natural rotation of the Earth has been altered by the 10 trillion tonnes of water stored in reservoirs over the last 40 years.
* Don't use the hot tap for drinking water.
* What we pour onto the ground ends up in our water. What we pump into the the sky ends up in our water.
Read More About Water  

Re-cycled water
The second or third pipeline (depending on who's telling the story) is the relatively new concept of re-delivering treated water back to properties in urban areas.
The standards now require a Lilac pipeline, and fittings with a reverse thread to avoid and stop cross connections.
Read More About the Lilac pipeline  


Chlorine - Our deadly friend
Chlorine is widely used in the water treatment industry as a means of ensuring that the water supply into our houses is safe to drink. Without chlorine in our water many of us would get a lot sicker than just a stomach upset occasionally. However, there's enough evidence to suggest we should seriously consider removing it at the point of use. The following are just an indication of the concerns about chlorine that are out there if you scratch the surface.
Read all about our deadly friend

Fluoride
The fluoridation of our water supplies can be a very emotive subject. Read why some people are so opposed to it, and how you can remove it.
Read about fluoride

Tank Water Care
"Never look in the tank!" Is something shearers have been known to say when working on a property. This is probably because past experiences have shown when you do, you mightn't like what you see. It's easy to see why some people consider tank water to be better or "more pure" than mains water supplies however, care needs to be taken to ensure this water is at least as good as other available options.
The following is an outline of some of the ways to look after your tank and the water in it.
Go to tank water care

50 Ways to Save Water.
It looks like some parts of Australia are again going to have another very dry year. There are some simple ways to save water around the home, try some of these for starters.
Save Water.


Brainteaser ?
From when it seeps underground in Queensland, to when it wells up in South Australia, water takes approximately;
a) 10 years b) 500 years c) 1000 years
d) 1 million years,
to pass through the Great Artesian Basin?
( From CSIRO's Double Helix Science Club.)
The answer is d)
For decades, many of the bores that tapped into the vast underground reserves of the Great Artesian Basin were left uncapped, pouring out water that first fell as rain millions of years ago. Now this is being addressed, it's reported however (1) just 2% of all the water taken out of the basin was used – the rest was wasted.


According to scientists.
*By 2030, our mean temperature will increase by as much as 2°C. By 2100, this could reach 5.8°C, accompanied by a sea-level rise of almost a metre.
*Rising temperatures will increase demand for water but see more lost to evaporation.
*There will be a general decrease in rainfall over much of the continent, accompanied by stronger winds, higher temperatures and more clouds.
*Water quality will deteriorate as water temperatures rise and algal blooms flourish.
*Floods will become more severe and frequent; conversely, low flow events will be more extreme.
*The effects of all this will include a higher incidence of heat-related stress and deaths, more bushfires, decreases in crop yields, greater peak electricity demand for cooling, increases in vector-borne diseases, such as tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth disease, and coral bleaching.
www.greenhouse.gov.au

Links.
Links to interesting and informative water related sites
Links.

Who invented that?
Need to know who invented the toilet? What about toilet paper, or the hot water service. We might have the answer here.
The Inventors

Water & civilisation
Throughout history humanity has had to meet basic needs to ensure its survival. Water has of course always played its role in determing the success or otherwise of a community.
Waters in history

Water & religion
Is it any wonder that water became associated with religion when we consider how important it is to life. Water is fundamental in the rites, language and symbolism of all religions. Christians have baptisms and Hindus have sacred rivers. In Islam water is important for cleansing and purifying, and in Judaism ritual washing is intended to restore or maintain a state of ritual purity. Shinto is Japan's indigenous religion and waterfalls are held sacred and standing under them is believed to purify.
Water and religion

Global warming wrecking development progress
There will be 150 million environmental refugees by 2050, according to the Up In Smoke report by a coalition of 17 environmental groups, research organisations and aid agencies including the Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Oxfam.
It calls on industrialised countries to make huge 60 to 80 per cent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which would far outstrip the obligations of the Kyoto protocol.
Energy Saving Trust (off site)

Facts about sewage in the United States
- 1 million mile network
- 50 trillion gallons of raw sewage daily.
- About 850 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water are released from these systems each year.
- Between 1.8 million and 3.5 million people get sick each year
U.S Sewage