Warning to humans: industry not willing to drink recycled water ...
Excerpt from the Australian:
Warning to cities: recycle effluent
By Selina Mitchell
28 November 2006
Cities should seriously consider drinking recycled effluent if they want a solution to increasing supply problems, water companies will warn today.
In a report to be released by Parliamentary Secretary for Water Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's peak urban water body says that unless people decide to drink recycled effluent in cities, its use to water parks and supply industry will do little to help solve growing shortages.
...
At a time of climatic uncertainty, it says, no water supply option should be ruled out, including putting treated effluent into drinking supplies.
Other options include seawater desalination in coastal cities, buying water from irrigators, and rainwater tanks in areas of high rainfall.
Each should be judged on its merits based on the local situation, the report says.
...
The WSAA report warns that if recycled wastewater is not blended back into drinking supplies, each city will need separate new and expensive distribution networks including pipes to send the water to industry and irrigators.
Sydney's current distribution network spans 22,000km.
If separate networks were built, recycled water would probably be limited to supplying willing commercial and industrial users - not enough to deal with declining inflows and rapidly growing populations.
See - Yet another report on recycled water.
Great justification - recycled water would be limited to supplying 'willing' commercial and industrial users.
Once again, it seems that the poor consumer must have recycled water thrust down their throat while industry and agriculture happily goes about its usual practices. Makes you wonder just how much industry and agricultural interests are behind the push to make us drink recycled water.
How about a bit of MP Turnbull's 'water pricing arrangements', like in Singapore, to make it more attractive for industry and commercial users to use recycled water.
Bet they'd be more willing to use it then ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 10:03 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting comment in the WSAA paper (page 17):
"[S]ome high water using industries face significant difficulties using recycled water. The food and beverage processing industries, for example, must meet international standards and have rigorous quality systems in place. For mainstream supply to these industries, recycled water quality would need to match drinking water quality. For export, international acceptance would be [sic] also be necessary as this is not current practice overseas."
Amazing.
When the No campaigners in Toowoomba said this, they were scare mongering.
When the WSAA says it, people will think it makes sense.
When the No campaigners said the practice was not used overseas, Yes campaigners said they were misleading the public and claimed it was done everywhere.
When the WSAA say recycled water is not the current practice overseas, people will think it makes sense.
Flaw in the WSAA argument though - at least in relation to Toowoomba. The food industries draw their water mainly from the town water supply. If people drink it, industries are drinking it and the same comment about international acceptance for exports applies.
12:08 PM, November 28, 2006
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