The need for independence and transparency ...

The latest edition of Waste Management and Enviroment (WME) contains some interesting comments.

An excerpt (with annotations):

The 117,000 residents of Queensland’s “garden city” are embroiled in a heated public debate after the council last year proposed cycling reclaimed effluent back into the drinking water supply.

“People just want information,” says associate professor Greg Leslie from the University of NSW.

[Dr Leslie is a consultant for the engineering firm CH2M Hill, which was engaged by the Toowoomba council for its recycling proposal - see Australian article - 24 February 2006.]

“In the absence of either the council, or people helping the council [so called "independent experts"], providing (the community) with that information, it becomes adversarial.

[No, it became adversarial because of Mayor Thorley's "drink it or buy bottled water campaign".]

You need that third party independence to come in.”

[An independent review of water source options is what is required.]

That’s where regulators come in, in this case Queensland Health. Rather than wait for a plan to be submitted, Leslie would like it to come out and say that recycling is internationally accepted, the risks can be managed and “we will make sure as good regulators that we have all the checks and balances in place”.

[You can trust the Qld Health Department to have all the checks and balances in place?]

People don't just want information. They want independent and unbiased information. If the Council won't give it to them, they'll go and look for it.

Given the Qld Government's involvement in the Toowoomba project, including their "quick and dirty" review of other options, it would be difficult to view them as independent.

One of the problems with Council's campaign is that it has been backed by "experts" who have a vested interest in seeing the Toowoomba project proceed.

And the Toowoomba City Council is only too happy to comply.

The National Water Commission application by the Toowoomba City Council states the following:

“Significant time and costs savings could be expected if the Wetalla Water Alliance is able to be extended.”

So, the Toowoomba City Council doesn't want to put its recycled sewage project out to open tender - it wants to let the companies working on the existing Wetalla upgrade (which includes CH2M Hill) get the contract.

How very transparent.

Many would also be very suspicious of the Qld Health Department's views - the same Department that presided over the Dr Death scandal and the scandalous downgrading of Qld health facilities.

And people are supposed to believe what they say?