Bligh and Turnbull - no funding for a recycled water project in Toowoomba ...

Excerpt from the Chronicle:

Plan cause for concern

2 February 2007

Snow Manners says the planned pipeline to Wivenhoe is a sound long-term strategy, but is probably not Toowoomba's best solution.

The proposed pipeline, he says, has caused some concern because of Premier Peter Beattie's plan to put the recycled water into Wivenhoe Dam.

"We will drink recycled water if, after 2012, our dams run out of water - in which case Wivenhoe also would be out of water - and there is the Wivenhoe pipeline, if we choose to use it."

"It's a decision for a future council and it's that far out it doesn't matter."

"In the meantime, the report clearly indicates Toowoomba has a drought management plan and can survive on groundwater long after the dams run dry."

The chairman of council's Strategy and Governance committee says council will accept and discuss the report on Wednesday.

He says the report falls short on "triple bottom line assessment" which optimises economic, social and environmental values of the project.

"I'm satisfied Anna Bligh made the right decision, and Malcolm Turnbull has made the right decision - each of which has said there will be no funding for a recycled water project for Toowoomba - the community has said no to a recycled water project.

"I'm totally happy and comfortable with that position; what a future council does is up to a future council," he said.

Cr Manners says he still believes a deal with the farmers in the Condamine alluvium is the best regional option because "it is the west of us and it removes us from the Wivenhoe Dam catchment".