Hi Everyone,
This issue was brought to my attention by Emeritus Professor Don Bradshaw, one
of the members of the lobby group opposing the WA Govt's proposed use of the
Yarragadee Aquifer. Don recently retired as Professor of Zoology at the
University of WA and he was my Ph.D supervisor in the early 1980s.
The WA Water Corporation is planning to extract 45 gigalitres of water/year
from an underground water aquifer, the Yarragadee Aquifer, near Augusta, about
300 km south of Perth, to supplement Perth's water supplies. South-west WA is
recognised in the scientific literature as one of the world's biodiversity
'hot-spots' and the extraction of such large quantities of underground water
has the potential to significantly lower the water table in parts of this
region. A lowered water table is likely to impact on the health of native
vegetation communities which will have all sorts of ecological consequences. It
will undoubtedly have major impacts on Scott River National Park which overlies
part of the aquifer. This has already been observed to some extent in the area
around the Gnangara Mound, about 80 km north of Perth which has been 'mined' of
its water for many years. One of the most obvious ecological impacts around the
Gnangara Mound is the extensive die-off of banksias. Last year was one of the
driest on record in South-west WA, so you can imagine what impact further
groundwater extraction is going to have on the ecology of that region.
I urge you to sign the petition using the links I've provided below. Background
information about the project is provided in the second link.
> http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Yaragade/petition.html
> www.yarragadee.org
Although this strictly isn't a bird matter, if vegetation communities are
affected in the long-term, so will bird populations in that region.
Kind regards,
Stephen
Dr Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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