Salt in Waterways – why should we care about modelling it?
Here we provide a simple explanation for why this project is important
[page_divider type=”ripple”]Broad Importance[/page_divider]
- Salt can be an issue
- Salt is naturally occuring
- Human activity can increase salt levels
- Increases in salt are often not an issue
- Increases in salt are only an issue when they annoy us…When is that?
- It’s an issue when:
- We taste it
- Our plants or crops suffer and die from it
- Our stock and pets wont drink it
- The fish, frogs and water bugs get sick or die from it
We need a salt model to help us to try and stop this occurring when humans are the cause and not nature.
[page_divider type=”deep”]Importance to the Coal Industry[/page_divider]
A good catchment scale salt model for the Fitzroy will help with all of the above plus:
- Provide mining operations with a tool to predict the relative contributions from each mine at different downstream points compared to natural sources, other mines and other human sources
- Provide mines and other users with open access to the base model. That way you can run your own scenarios to inform operational improvements that deliver production benefits and minimising the salt issues mentions above.
[page_divider type=”droplet”]Want more detail?[/page_divider]
Explore the other sections of the Salt Model project site.
If this hasn’t sated your appetite for a deeper understanding, then visit the site in March 2017.
We will provide the link to a really big technical research report including all the details of this project housed at the Australian Coal Association Research Program’s website.