Pumps primed to fire up
HUGE pumps to deliver water to Townsville are being primed for a start some time in May.
Chairman of Townsville City Council’s water and waste committee Paul Jacob said yesterday he was satisfied the work needed to have the pumps operating was in hand and that all preparations were being made.
“I am extremely satisfied A MAN whose home was searched has told a court police came for a meth bust but must have had the “wrong intel”.
Andrew Raymund Mazoletti pleaded guilty in Townsville Magistrates Court yesterday to possessing marijuana and drug utensils. Prosecutor Subarna Raut said police found a gram of marijuana, a plastic bag, a cone piece and grinder when they searched Mazoletti’s West End home on March 23 last year.
Mazoletti, 47, represented himself in court. “Police turned up to do a methamphetamine search in my house ... I don’t understand that, wrong intel. I plead guilty, I’m not even going to bother wasting anyone’s time.”
Mazoletti said a baby had appeared on his doorstep on Christmas Day. “No one believes me but it’s true,” he said. He said the baby looked like him and turned out to be his child. He was now raising it, learning to change nappies and loving fatherhood.
“The first time I gave him back to the mother, I had ( the nappy) on back to front,” he said.
Magistrate Peter Smid said it was a “miracle from heaven”. He ordered a $ 400 fine, but Mazoletti asked if he could be given community service instead.
“I don’t have to pay SPER fees, community service is too easy, I jump on a bus every Friday, go and work on boats in Ayr,” he said.
Mr Smid there was “merit in that” and ordered he perform 40 hours of community service. ( the council and its contractors) have done the work,” Cr Jacob said yesterday.
A pump station and pipeline was developed south of the city in 1986 at the end of the Haughton irrigation channel to deliver water from the Burdekin Falls Dam to Townsville’s Ross Dam.
However partly because of the cost to operate the pumps – around $ 27,000 a day today – they have been used on only a few occasions since that time.
Cr Jacob said the pump station system comprised three 2.2- megawatt pumps and a 30km pipeline delivering water to Toonpan near the back of the Ross Dam. He said the pumps were operated from November 16 last year until January 15 this year when rain provided some relief by adding to supply in Ross Dam.
“The council staff have reported there were no issues during that time,” Cr Jacob said.
“For two months the three pumps were working well.”
Cr Jacob said all three pump motors had been taken apart, serviced and tested since Janu January 15. He said the pipeline had been visually inspected and pump station electricity connections checked.
The council has contracted utility service provider Trility to operate its pump stations and treatment plants including the Haughton Channel pump station.
Cr Jacob said the contractors had started preparations in anticipation of pumping restarting some time in May.
Ross Dam falling below 15 per cent capacity would be the trigger for the pumps to be started, Cr Jacob said.
The council has estimated the cost of pumping from May through to the end of the year to be about $ 11 million.
The Townsville Water Taskforce will hold two public meetings on Wednesday — between noon and 1.30pm at the Reid Park Pit Complex and from 6pm to 7.30pm at the Good Shepherd Community Centre.
A third meeting will be held on Thursday between 6pm and 7.30pm at St Anthony’s Catholic College Secondary Campus.
Registration is required at watersecuritytownsville. org. au