Victoria's north-south pipeline could be reversed to carry water from Melbourne to the country under long-term considerations being worked into the project.
The plan to pipe water 70 kilometres from the Goulburn River to Melbourne has enraged drought-stricken communities in northern Victoria, despite assurances that water would be taken only from "savings" generated in irrigation upgrades.
The pipe will increase Melbourne's supplies by up to 75 billion litres a year, but Victoria's top water officials believe the pipe's real significance — its ability to improve water trading around the state — has been overlooked.
Under long-term modelling being conducted by Melbourne Water's pipeline team, the north-south pipe could be reconfigured to send water from southern sources such as a desalination plant to northern regions.
Pipeline project director Rod Clifford said pumping water north would require significant expenditure because the major pumping stations for getting the water over the Great Dividing Range were located north of the divide near Yea.
Such a reversal of water flow is unlikely to occur in the short term.
Before opting to pump water north, Melbourne could effectively trade water to northern Victoria by not extracting its 75 billion-litre pipeline entitlement from the Goulburn River and Lake Eildon.
It could sell the unused entitlement to communities or organisations along the Goulburn River.
Water Minister Tim Holding said the Government was not planning to pump water north.
"If there is ever a point in time that we don't need this water we will simply store it in Lake Eildon," he said.
Government insiders expect there will be many years when Melbourne Water does not take its full 75 billion-litre entitlement through the pipe to Sugarloaf Reservoir, particularly once the desalination plant opens in 2011.
The pipe is the most crucial link so far in what the Government describes as its "water grid", a network of more than 10,000 kilometres of interconnected pipes and rivers.
The grid will enable water from many sources — the desalination plant, Melbourne reservoirs and northern reservoirs — to be connected into the one system.
Mr Holding queried new findings by systems scientist and microbiologist Professor Peter Coombes that the Government had underestimated the potential of rainwater tanks to supplement Melbourne's supply.
In confidential reports for the Government, Professor Coombes argues that previous studies of tanks had relied on readings from one of Melbourne's driest locations, Tullamarine.
He told The Age that tanks could capture 120 billion litres each year, more than twice that previously estimated by Melbourne Water.
But Mr Holding said the figure was between 20 billion and 110 billion litres, well short of the 150 billion litres to come from the desalination plant.
Mr Holding said tanks and desalination both had a role in Victoria's water plan.
But it is not yet clear whether tanks will remain a key part of the the Government's green building code, now being reviewed.
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