Caloundra council and its recycled water dilemma ...

Excerpt from ABC News:

Caloundra council divided over recycled water

2 February 2007

Divisions are emerging within Caloundra City Council on the Sunshine Coast over the recycled water debate.

Caloundra councillor Andrew Champion is arguing that his region should not have to share its fresh dam supplies, nor drink other people's treated waste water.

Cr Danny O'Kearney disagrees.

"This issue is well and above one single councillor or one single council, this is crucial for the whole of south-east Queensland," he said.

"We've got to work with the State Government to make sure we have water supplies that connect right across."

Deputy Premier Anna Bligh says Caloundra cannot keep its dam water to itself.

"It is the intention that the state through the water grid will control water, so we will certainly be happy to talk to the Caloundra council, but we will not be having people opting in and opting out and having a parochial attitude to their own backyard," she said.

"Water belongs to everybody and we will move it around to where south-east Queensland citizens need it."

Meanwhile, Cr Champion says he is working on a new plan to ensure adequate water supplies for south-east Queensland without siphoning fresh water from the Sunshine Coast and building the Traveston Crossing dam.

A motion he put before the council yesterday, to express opposition to the State Government's plans to take dam water from the Sunshine Coast for Brisbane consumption, was deferred for a month.

Cr Champion says he is now developing a new strategy to put to the council and the State Government next month.

He says the Traveston Crossing dam is not the solution.

"Mark my words, the yields when they recalculate what's happening, the 'travesty' dam will not provide water," he said.

See - Recycled water dilemma.