How does a salt interception scheme work?
A salt interception scheme works by preventing salty water from getting into a river. This involves pumping salty water away from the river or pumping fresh water into the river to dilute salty water. The Billabong Creek Salt Interception Scheme works by pumping water from deep within an aquifer that sits below the creek bed into the creek itself. The groundwater deep within the aquifer is of good quality; however the groundwater just below the creek bed near the surface of the aquifer is of poor quality and very salty. Pumping out the good quality groundwater from deep within the aquifer prevents the groundwater level rising high enough to push the poor quality groundwater near the top of the aquifer up into the creek bed. This prevents the salty groundwater from entering the creek and eventually the Murray River. The scheme also has a standpipe that enables local water users to fill up their water tanks with the good quality groundwater, provided that they only use this water for sto
