Premier Beattie switches to recycled water for non-potable use ...

From Qld Business Review:

Companies, not people, should drink effluent

31 July 2006

Southeast Queensland would have enough drinking water if companies rather than people drank effluent, says Premier Peter Beattie.

He says the Brisbane City Council should finalise deals which would allow the major water using companies, such as fertilsier manufacturer Incitec, to use treated effluent rather than drinking quality water for their industrial processes.

Incitec, whose Brisbane plant is next door to Brisbane' s major effluent treatment plant, uses 6.5 million litres of drinking water a day while Caltex nearby uses 5.2 million and Brisbane Airport Corporation just across a fence uses 4.2 million.

If these three major water users in Brisbane used treated effluent, 16 million litres a day more drinking water would be available to southeast Queensland's burgeoning population, Premier Beattie said.

"It is a simple matter for the city council to make recycled water available for these three big industrial users," he said.

Incitec and Caltex have been trying for years at access the Council's recycled water, but Beattie says the Council wants to charge them more than for drinking water!

Currently Brisbane City Council sends the 170 million litres of treated effluent into Moreton Bay, rather than using the enviromnemntally treated water for other purposes, such as for major industrial users. This quantity is more than would come from the government's two proposed dams in southeast Queensland.

Premier Beattie says this would enable water to be saved from dams, while using recycled water for its best purpose, industrial use rather than for drinking as failed to impress Toowoomba residents in their Saturday referendum.

Source - Qld Business Review - Companies, not people, should drink effluent.