Nursery has water security
From the October 2008 edition of Agriculture Today.
NSW North Coast nursery operator Paul Ueberdiek planned his plant business with water security upper most in his mind from the start.
The wholesale palm nursery’s system of capturing and re-using all irrigation water and rainfall on the 13,000 square metres of growing area makes the most of every drop.
But it was the location of the undeveloped 15 hectare property that interested Mr Ueberdiek the most when he was looking to purchase a nursery site in 2001 - and it turned out to be his most strategic decision.
"We bought the land with the likelihood of access to tertiary-treated reclaimed water from Alstonville’s sewage treatment facility in the foreseeable future," said Mr Ueberdiek.
"That access has now come through and we no longer have to rely on a ground water bore alone we have established on the nursery.
"Water is the lifeblood of our business, our most precious commodity.
"We’ve managed to drought-proof our nursery."
The Tropical Link nursery has a plastic membrane under all gravel growing areas with a drainage system capturing run-off in four sealed 170,000 litre tanks.
Mr Ueberdiek estimates that 38 millimetres of rainfall will yield 500,000 litre of water.
"The enclosed tanks and other efforts to keep light out of the water system minimises any algal problems," Mr Ueberdiek said.
"We’re also capturing and re-using any nutrient rich water from the potted plants, so the local streams are better off too.
"We know we can expand the nursery area if we want to and we have the water to do it without any impact on the environment."
He said developing an irrigation and drainage management plan (IDMP) for the nursery was a critical step in improving water security and efficiency.
"It was important in managing development and is regularly used for irrigation and business management."
The irrigation developments at the Ueberdieks’ have been supported by the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (CMA), in conjunction with NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) because they meet the catchment action plan objective to protect the riverine environment, by reducing stress on the rivers.
Organiser of the project, NSW DPI irrigation officer Gary Creighton, said irrigators needed to adapt in order to maintain their businesses with lower than normal flows in the rivers and to achieve the environmental objectives of the water plans.
This CMA-DPI project, called Irrigators - Caring for the Rivers, is demonstrating to irrigators ways to meet these challenges, Mr Creighton said.
NSW DPI resource management officer, Richard Swinton, said two basic options available to irrigators are to increase irrigation efficiency as much as possible and to reduce dependence on low flows by seeking alternate water supplies or by extracting when flows are high.
"Increasing irrigation efficiency means less water is extracted for the same plant demand - which also reduces operating costs for irrigators," he said.
"Seeking alternative water supplies means looking for groundwater, or water from an opportunity supply such as town sewerage or a stormwater system.
"These are a relatively untapped source of secure irrigation water, and with the benefit of useful nutrients included.
"It can also be done by extracting when river flows are high and storing the water in a dam for use when river flows are low and crop demand is high.
"These options, used alone or together, are ways to help irrigators maintain their viability and make a profit and reduce their impact on the river system at the same time."
Contact Gary Creighton, Grafton, (02) 6640 1600 or Richard Swinton, Wollongbar, (02) 6626 1200.
