Weir Pool Lowering - Lock 6 Pump Survey Update and Detailed Costing

⁠⁠⁠DEW-F0001474 - Department for Environment and Water is looking to progress weir pool lowering on the River Murray as a tool for achieving environmental objectives in the SA section of the River Murray. A key consideration to progressing weir pool lowering are irrigation and stock & domestic pumps that are not configured in a way that enables them to continue operating under lowered water level conditions.

In 2007 a survey of pumps on the Lock 6 (and Lock 1) weir pool was undertaken to improve the Department’s understanding of these constraints. Given this survey was undertaken 11 years ago, it is prudent to undertake a new pump survey that establishes a new baseline that the Department can work with. A process of undertaking comprehensive pump surveys will allow the Department to understand risks relating to lowering water levels and the impacts on pumping infrastructure. Additionally this work will enable the Department to make more informed cost-benefit analysis of weir pool lowering ranges (on a weir pool by weir pool basis), which is required to assist in the development of appropriate policy and programs to assist with managing potential pumping infrastructure related constraints.

As a start to the investigations, Major Projects have prioritised the lowest risk weir pool (Lock 6 – 7) to progress the lowering investigations. It is considered likely that similar work will be undertaken at other weir pools of the SA River Murray in the near future, this will be undertaken via a separate tender process. As the weir pool with the least number of pumps, the Lock 6 weir pool presents as a suitable relatively small-scale testing ground for the delivery of these pump survey services.