Mayor Thorley - misleading the community to the bitter end ...

Comments in the Courier Mail, 29 April 2006 (annotated):

"It already costs the Darling Downs town $15 million to lift water 457m from its dams and if it is forced to draw from the already over-taxed Wivenhoe, it would have to be lifted 1.1km."

Where else in the world is anyone suggesting that you need to pump water around 500 metres into the air before pouring it into a dam. Perhaps it's a new form of hydro scheme to create electricity.

Even the Council's own somewhat rubbery figures don't exaggerate the required lift to this extreme.

"Cr Thorley said yesterday that Toowoomba could apply for state assistance for the pipeline to tap into Brisbane’s water but the Government was not supportive."

Premier Beattie's second proposed dam will provide water to Ipswich and Springfield, communities which currently draw water supplied from Wivenhoe. It then makes sense to link Wivenhoe to Cressbrook, particularly given that Wivenhoe will also be linked to the proposed desalination plant on the Gold Coast. Is the Wivenhoe/Cressbrook link the Plan B that Premier Beattie refuses to disclose?

"Cr Thorley said the pipeline to Perseverance Dam and associated works would be built only if Brisbane and surrounds had water to spare. It would push up rates and markedly increase the cost of water to Toowoomba residents, although the extent of rises had not yet been calculated."

Another example of Mayor Thorley's scare tactics and misleading information crusade.

No-one is suggesting that Perseverance dam be linked to Wivenhoe - Cressbrook is the logical dam to link. Once again, the Mayor makes statements about how rates will have to increase without giving any supporting evidence. The reality is that, under the Water Futures recycled sewage project, there is likely to be at least a $70 million cost blowout for the 600 hectares of evaporation ponds which Toowoomba ratepayers are going to need to repay as additional council debt. With Council debt expected to increase by over 75% based on Council's own rather rubbery figures, expect Mayor Thorley's legacy to be a debt burdened community.

“We’re doing figures on it now,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to borrow that much and I don’t want to put us in that level of debt but what do you do, where do you go? I have no idea."

Expect more biased figures from the Council. Everything published by the Council is prepared in such a way so as to support introducing recycled sewage for drinking in Toowoomba rather than providing an independent assessment.

Why is Toowoomba City Council too scared to allow a proper independent assessment of water source options?