SEQ water grid - pipes ready ...

From the Sunday Mail:

First Qld water grid pipes ready

24 September 2006

THE first steel pipes have been produced for the south-east Queensland water grid, Premier Peter Beattie says.

The grid will connect water storage facilities and treatment plants including Wivenhoe Dam, North Pine Dam, Somerset Dam and the Gold Coast desalination plant, to ease the region's water crisis.

Mr Beattie and his deputy Anna Bligh have inspected the initial rollout of the steel pipes needed to build the grid, at the Tyco Water factory near Ipswich, west of Brisbane.

The premier said more than 17,000 tonnes of pipe would be needed for the southern regional water pipeline and the western corridor recycled water pipeline.

"What is happening at this steel plant near Ipswich is history in the making. It's about producing the pipes to build the water grid that will ultimately keep water flowing around south-east Queensland," Mr Beattie said today.

The first pipes for both pipelines are expected to be laid in Ipswich next month.

See - First pipes ready.

Interestingly, the head of the Qld Water Commission commented on Stateline on the ABC on 22 September that the water grid would only be extended to Gatton.

Has the water grid been taken off the table of water options to be considered by the Toowoomba Water Task Force even before it has been assessed ...