The 4350water Blog highlights some of the issues relating to proposals for potable reuse in Toowoomba and South East Qld. 4350water blog looks at related political issues as well.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 7:06 AM
For many years, the 4350water blog has informed readers of plans by the Toowoomba City Council (now Toowoomba Regional Council) and the Qld government to introduce recycled water for drinking in Toowoomba. It has also looked at the issue from a State and Federal perspective and dealt with related State and Federal political issues. There continues to be a need for the Toowoomba Regional Council to be completely transparent in its dealings with the ratepayers and residents of Toowoomba. There also continues to be a need for open debate on the benefits and risks of potable reuse and long-term studies on the effects on humans of drinking recycled water. Coal seam gas water is emerging as a possible alternate water source for some uses for the region. The 4350water blog is a collective effort and thanks go to its many contributors.
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6 Comments:
Also the population growth of Singapore has taken a nose-dive since they started putting 1% recycled effluent into there drinking water. I would hate to think what 25% will do to this city!
3:28 PM, July 28, 2006
And lets not forget that Singapore does not recycle its industrial or hospital waste either! Water Futures will do this and for the life of me I cannot see how Water Futures is 25+ times better then the Singapore recycling plant! Vote no and force a sensible solution to our so called water problem!
3:39 PM, July 28, 2006
And remember Singapore has the ocean to dipserse there brine stream into, we have no such thing here, it will go straight back into our local environment at a concentration rate 3 to 4 times more higher then tertiary treated effluent(what we are doing now)!
3:45 PM, July 28, 2006
From ABC News:
Water vote bigger than Toowoomba's woes
28 July 2006
Like many Australian towns and cities, Toowoomba residents are becoming accustomed to living with water shortages.
But unlike their counterparts, their council is offering them a controversial solution: recycling waste water for drinking.
The prospect has split the town firmly in two, and it is uncertain which side might win a referendum on the issue.
But regardless of how the residents vote, one thing is clear: there is more at stake than the future of the town's supply.
"I'm sure there's people out there that would absolutely hate me for what's going on," Toowoomba Mayor Di Thorley said.
When Ms Thorley took the helm of the Toowoomba City Council, the Darling Downs town was best-known for its spring flower carnival.
Its fame - or infamy - now springs from the council's radical plan to solve the town's increasing water woes: recycling sewage for drinking water.
"Everybody is going to have to look at water differently," Ms Thorley said.
"I don't think we can wait until there's nothing left before we start to look at what we're going to do."
Under the plan, wastewater would be collected and put through a series of purifying treatments including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and oxidation.
The treated water would be pumped into a dam, where it would rest for three to five years before reaching residents' taps.
The technology is already used in California and Singapore but has met fierce opposition in Toowoomba.
Residents there have cited everything from health to tourism as reasons for shelving the proposal.
"We agree with the yuk factor - Yet Unknown Khemicals," Rosemary Morely, of Citizens Against Drinking Sewage, said.
"We have examples where experts have told us thalidomide was safe, teflon was a recent one and the asbestos debate.
"We all thought those things were safe and went along that road and we're paying enormous prices now."
Ms Morely she and other 'no' vote proponents believe Toowoomba has plenty of other options.
"It's just something that in Australia we should never have to consider," she said.
Pivotal vote
The plan is to be put to a referendum on July 29.
If a 'yes' vote prevails, Toowoomba will become the first Australian city to adopt the recycling technology.
"I think Toowoomba is as ready as anywhere else in Australia," Ms Thorley said.
"I believe communities all over the world are looking at what they're going to have to do, because we're seeing a global change.
"This doesn't just apply to Toowoomba."
That is the one point in the debate on which the two sides agree.
Snow Manners, who is campaigning for a 'no' vote, agrees there is more than Toowoomba's water supply at stake.
"This is the crossroads of the potable reuse debate Australia-wide," she said.
"This is not only all around Australia, this is all around the world.
"There is no community on this planet that deliberately sources [as much of] its drinking water from a sewage treatment plant.
"Therefore it's a new technology, it's an experiment, and Toowoomba is the guinea pig."
Goulburn watches on
In New South Wales, the Goulburn Mulwaree Council has seen the level in its main water source, the Pejar Dam, fall below 9 per cent of its capacity.
The council also considering using recycled water and is waiting to see how receptive the Queensland public is to drinking recycled sewage.
The council's director of engineering services, Phil Hansen, says the council is embarking on its own community consultation.
"The job of this water management planning process is to identify all options," he said.
"They could be a whole range of things, they could be surface water options, they could be ground water options, they could be even conservation options with the water that we currently have.
"Certainly the recycled water options sits there as one of those options."
The Toowoomba vote will also influence the Queensland Government's policies.
Premier Peter Beattie says he is considering campaigning in the next election on a plan to pipe treated effluent into Brisbane's major water source, Wivenhoe Dam.
He says if Toowoomba residents vote to allow recycled water, he would still gauge the opinion of the rest of south-east Queensland.
But he says a strong 'no' vote would be discouraging.
"If there was a 5 per cent vote in favour in Toowoomba, for example, I think that's a pretty heavy indication," he said.
"If the will of the people was such it really wouldn't matter whether you discounted it for particular local reasons or not.
"If that was the vote I think that would be a pretty clear message I'd have to listen to."
Back in Toowoomba, there is little more to say.
The council has held more than 160 public forums, run an advertising campaign, organised taste tests and sent Ms Thorley on the water conference circuit.
'No' vote proponents have organised their own meetings, letterbox drops and television advertisements.
Only the referendum count will show whether residents still find the plan hard to swallow or whether science has prevailed.
5:51 PM, July 28, 2006
From ABC News:
Clarke sees better options than drinking treated effluent
Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke says there would be ratepayer resistance to the idea of pumping treated effluent into the city's drinking water.
The Queensland Premier says dwindling supplies mean recycled water will have to be added to water storages at some point in the future.
Toowoomba residents will vote on the issue this weekend.
Councillor Clarke says there are better ways to conserve water.
"The drinking water and the use for cooking and showering is only about 20 per cent of the water we use anyhow and we certainly have enough potable water for that," he said.
"There are other ways of doing it without actually endangering the health of people in case something goes wrong by feeding recycled water into our main holding water direct."
5:56 PM, July 28, 2006
Qld water to be 3 per cent recycled sewage
By 7News
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has revealed that under his new recycled water plan, a maximum of 3 per cent of southeast Queensland's drinking water will come from recycled sewage.
The Premier was responding to an exclusive 7News poll suggesting an overwhelming majority of people did not want treated effluent in Wivenhoe Dam.
Mr Beattie was not keen on the "s" word.
"We are actually talking about recycled water," Mr Beattie said.
But it seemed 12,000 Toowoomba residents do not care what it is called.
Ahead of Saturday's historic vote to decide whether the city's 100,000 residents would be the first in Australia to drink recycled sewage, they have signed a petition against putting it into their supply.
And more than 6,300 people responded to a 7News poll asking: "Do you support the Premier's plan to put recycled sewage into south east Queensland's drinking water?"
About 62 per cent said no, while 38 per cent voted yes. But Mr Beattie will push ahead for now.
"We will not do this unless people have a vote on it," he said. "Inevitably it will happen, as it happens around the world."
[Where exactly is that?]
When it does, Mr Beattie said that at most, 3 per cent of drinking water would be recycled sewage.
[But 25% is ok for Toowoomba?]
He remained confident the controversial issue would not affect his run for a fourth term.
The state Opposition, meanwhile, was happy to take the Premier on in a "dirty water" fight.
"The Labor Party has not delivered on water infrastructure in this state," Liberal Party leader Bob Quinn said.
6:09 PM, July 28, 2006
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