Toowoomba hospital to sink bore ...

... but it doesn't mean that they won't take the city's recycled sewage.

From the Courier Mail (annotated):

No exemption for hospital

by Brendan O'Malley

25 July 2006

Hospital patients would not be exempted from a Toowoomba City Council plan to recycle purified water from the city's sewage treatment plant, Queensland Health confirmed yesterday.

Toowoomba Hospital formally announced on Saturday that it wanted to drill a large on-site bore which would deliver 80 million litres of water a year.

But Toowoomba Health Service district manager Chris Thorburn said that did not mean the hospital would refuse recycled water.

"Toowoomba Hospital will continue to always use water supplied by Toowoomba City Council," he said.

"The bore has been inactive for some time and the district is having assessments undertaken to determine if it can be brought back into use to supplement the water obtained from the Toowoomba City Council water supply."

[Interesting timing for bringing the bore back on line. Water Futures is supposed to provide more than enough recycled water for everyone in Toowoomba. Why then sink a bore? Unless you don't trust the water.]

Meanwhile, the Urban Development Institute of Australia has warned Toowoomba residents that a "no" vote in Saturday's referendum on recycling will push up the cost of housing.

UDIA regional president Ron Barclay said the organisation strongly supported the poll because it would conclusively reveal what the majority of ratepayers wanted.

But residents should be aware that the Water Futures recycling project was the most affordable water supply for the city, based on council and State Government costings.

[Note: none of the 'independent' reports of the Council or the State government have examined the costs of the Water Futures project itself. They all assume Acland Coal will take the water - they are "cool on the idea'. Without them, the project cost doubles.]

"If another and more expensive alternative needs to be implemented we see the additional costs to the ratepayer, either by way of rate increases or by reduction of services due to the costs of supporting increased TCC infrastructure borrowings, (will cause) a serious reduction in the affordability of home ownership to the Toowoomba residents," Mr Barclay said.

[With the true cost of the Water Futures project likely to be somewhere above $150 million, how much will rates skyrocket to pay for it?]

The UDIA released a study yesterday which showed government taxes and the property boom had already slashed affordability of homes during the past five years in Toowoomba and other parts of the state.

The UDIA believed a "no" vote would add to those costs, while a "yes" vote would not harm business opportunities despite claims food manufacturers would leave Toowoomba due to concerns about the health effects of recycled water.

[Why is Pixie Ice Cream applying to sink a bore?]

However, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce president Ian Andersen said he feared the bad image of recycled water would drive away food manufacturers, which were among the biggest employers in the city.

Source - Courier Mail - Toowoomba hospital to sink bore.