Water stunt recycles on Debnam ...

Excerpt from the Daily Telegraph:

Water stunt recycles on Debnam

23 February 2007

An election campaign stunt to spruik recycled water backfired on Opposition Leader Peter Debnam yesterday after it was revealed he tried to pass town water off as recycled water.

Debnam set up a taste test between tap and "recycled" water at Manly.

"Of all the people we have tested only one has actually been able to say there is a difference," Debnam said. "The others said there is no difference."

That's because, according to the rest of the world, there is none.

Water Services Association of Australia president Ross Young said by international standards Debnam's taste test water was not recycled.

"That's not the recycling seen in Europe or the US," Mr Young said. "When people talk about the recycling water that is overseas, there is a deliberate system built for drinking or non-drinking purposes."

"This is where a lot of people get confused. There is a distinction between planned and unplanned recycled water."

The unlabelled water used in the test came from Sydney Water's North Richmond filtration plant on the Hawkesbury-Nepean river – the same water Debnam drank to launch his $955 million water recycling plan.

A Sydney Water spokesman confirmed the plant produced drinking water from run-off, not recycled water.

Its water is mostly compiled from agricultural run off. Only 2 per cent of water in the river has been released from the Penrith wastewater treatment plant before reaching the filtration plant.

Premier Morris Iemma said Mr Debnam's taste test stunt was nothing more than fraud.

"What he is passing off as recycled water is clearly not the water he intends to force on the people of Western Sydney," Mr Iemma said.

"What he is handing out is drinking water, produced from a river."

"His plan involves using 100 per cent wastewater, not the water he was passing around."

See - Water stunt recycles on Debnam.