Goulburn-Murray Water’s (GMW) aquatic weed treatment program is progressing quickly, with new innovations set to create further efficiencies.
GMW has significantly increased its weed treatment program in recent years, having supported the development of a new, environmentally friendly herbicide, and trialled various methods for effectively dispersing it.
The result has seen the amount of channel GMW treats for weeds surge from approximately 5km per year to about 250km per year.
GMW Environmental Maintenance Coordinator Dannielle McMillan said the winter weed treatment program was well underway.
“We get great results from treating our channels during the irrigation off-season,” she said.
“We have made really good progress treating the parts of our channel network we had identified as priority areas this winter, which will help improve flow rates for the season to come.”
Despite the successes of the current program, GMW is still looking for opportunities to further improve.
The weed treatment fleet of 10 trucks and five ute-mounted spray vehicles was beginning to require more maintenance and repairing due to age, and some equipment has been in service for more than 20 years.
GMW has worked with a local company to custom-design and assemble seven new truck-mounted spray bodies, with four due to be delivered in the next month.
Previously limited to 5kmp/h while spraying, the new trucks allow for increase speed while maintaining a constant spray pressure.
The new equipment will also support GMW collating data on its weed treatment via GPS technology.
“Our weed treatment program has developed rapidly in recent years, to the point where we are now industry leaders in how we manage aquatic weeds,” Ms McMillan said.
“The new equipment will help us to be even more efficient, and we will continue investigating further ways we can improve the program and give our customers the best service possible.”