Another Top Gun comes to town

The Toowoomba Chronicle today finds yet another expert to blast the critics of water recycling.

This time it's Adjunct Professor Charles Essery from the School of Engineering, Industrial Design, University of Western Sydney in an article entitled "Maverick water expert blasts critics of recycling".

Dr Essery believes in sustainable water management which is to be applauded.

However, he uses the "cow and possum poo in the dam" argument to promote recycled water. (Not a good argument and certainly not "visionary" advice.)

He also rejects desalination as an option for Toowoomba. (I didn't know it was seriously being considered as an option. Sea water desalination certainly wasn't among the options so quickly dismissed by the Qld Department of Natural Resources. Does Dr Essery know where Toowoomba is?)

He speaks of his independence and yet the term "Adjunct Professor" usually means "I have another job".

And he does:

Dr Essery runs Sustainable Water Solutions Pty Ltd, a company established in 2003 offering "strategic and visionary advice to senior managers who are faced with the increasingly complex regulatory, water resource and consumer driven environment". His company provides specialised experts who cover a range of areas including "integrated/sustainable water cycle management".

So yet another expert is presented who stands to gain financially from an expansion of the recycled water industry.

Interestingly, Dr Essery does not refer to the recently released draft National Guidelines for Recycled Water. Nor does he claim that the sections in the Guidelines which state that we need to do further research are wrong.