fawkes wrote on Mar 29
th, 2010 at 6:36pm:
Are there enough applied scientists in this group to advance the following idea into a feasible project?
It's been proposed before with variations, but the main idea is to use natural forces and some clever engineering to provide abundant quantities of fresh water to inland Australia... hopefully producing a small inland sea in the Lake Eyre area that would, over sufficient time, produce a local climate change over the region and make it attractive for human development.
Apparently Lake Eyre is below sea level, so if a pipeline could be run from somewhere in Spencer's Gulf through to Lake Eyre, costs of pumping water through it should be minimal. We need fresh water at Lake Eyre, not more salt, so at a suitable place along the length of pipeline a big desalination plant will be needed. Hopefully the salt it produces can be sold to offset the costs of this plant and it's continual operation.
Careful thought needs to be given to the matter of how big to make the project initially. It's possible to imagine an enormous scale producing the maximum benefits (for humans), but that is likely to destroy the habitat of numerous species adapted to the desert that exist in the region at present. Better I think, would be to start at the opposite end of the scale, with a demonstration or pilot project no bigger than the minimum that can be expected to produce observable benefits. A project of that size will no doubt show up problems that need overcoming before considering expansion of the scheme. Furthermore, if the demonstration size project is successful it will commence generating income from which future expansion can be financed.
Anyone interested in discussing this scheme further?
As you pointed out, the Lake Eyre is a salt lake, incapable of sustaining any life. The likelihood of seeing that lake being filled to capacity, but then drained in a desalinisation plant is remote. You would have to have a desalinisation plant working during the rain season, and then leave the desalinisation plant off when the season is dry, as well as the lake.
I don't know how desalinisation plants work, but to be effective in reverse osmosis with salt and water, it would take decades to draw enough salt water to make the salinity of the area low enough for habitation. To in fact dilute the salt content enough for habitation through constant replenishment of rain.
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