The Shire’s three-day Study Tour of swimming pools (Council Resolution 190811.5) took place in the last week of November. It was a punishing schedule for the Council Officers and DACCI members that took part. Leaving Denmark early on Monday 27th the first day plan was to visit Manjimup, Augusta (hydrotherapy) and Margaret River. However, the team decided that in view of the devastating bush fires in the region it would be appropriate to defer both coastal visits and substitute the South West Sports Centre in Bunbury instead. Day two included pools at Busselton, Donnybrook, Waroona and Pinjarra. The final day saw visits to metropolitan pools in Wanneroo, Inglewood and Belmont followed by the long drive home. The intense exchanges of information (Q&A on steroids!) at each location typically lasted for two hours – with lots to learn and lots of driving in between sites. We owe thanks to the three Shire Officers involved (Gregg, Garry and Damian) for their dedication: likewise DACCI’s President, Chris Randall. It was extremely valuable – but certainly no picnic!
The following day the team was joined by the CEO and five Councilors for the first part of the Risk Analysis seminar (Council Resolution 190811.3b). A smaller group reconvened a week later to continue the preliminary risk analysis. I hope to be able to report on the agreed outcomes of the Study Tour and the Risk Analysis process in future articles – but today, I’d like to tell you about an exciting recent development that I came across when preparing for the above tour.
At the end of October the Shire of Busselton gave the green light to a $435k geothermal project for the Geographe Leisure Centre [GLC] ... one of the pools we’d targeted to visit. There’s a handful of geothermal pools in Perth, the most recent at St Hilda’s School, but Busselton was the first ‘geothermal’ outside the metropolitan area that I had become aware of. With a claimed payback time of only six years, it seemed well worth close inspection. It wasn’t quite what I expected!
The GLC is adjacent to Busselton Water’s treatment plant. Here, drinking water is pumped from a depth of about 800m (St Hilda’s bore is 980m) and stored in an above ground holding tank. Typically the temperature of this water is between 32°C and 35°C … rather too warm to please the residents wanting to drink it. But an ideal heat source for a swimming pool … so why not run a long distance heat exchange loop (800m) between the tank and the aquatic centre? Why not indeed! It may not be the most conventional geothermal pool, but heat exchanger engineering should present few surprises, so reliability is likely to be good..
To quote the (Busselton) Shire President, Ian Stubbs “This a fantastic example of organisations working together for the benefit of the community and environment.”
Cyril Edwards, DACCI, denmarkpool@gmail.com and http://www.denmarkpool.blogspot.com. 
Busselton’s indoor six-lane 25m lap pool shares a common water circuit with its beach-entry leisure pool and learn-to-swim area. The proposed geothermal heating system, backed up by electric heat pumps, will save about $70,000 each year in energy costs at today’s prices.
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