Brisbane - yet another water source option ...

Extra desalination plant one day, water from northern NSW the next.

The SEQ water options keep expanding.

(Remember drinking recycled water is apparently the option of last resort - the 'Armageddon solution' according to Premier Beattie.)

Excerpt from Courier Mail:

Bold water solution for Qld

12 April 2007

A plan to pump water from NSW to help supply a parched southeast Queensland will be strongly backed in a report to be released today.

Federal Water Minister Malcolm Turnbull will unveil in Brisbane a study that concludes a cross-border pipeline would be a cost-effective option.

The study comes just days after the introduction of tough level 5 restrictions in Brisbane and the emergence of a State Government report recommending construction of the world's biggest desalination plant north of Brisbane to tackle the region's water crisis.

The new report argues that major rivers could be dammed in NSW and water transported north to southeast Queensland.

Mr Turnbull says the project would have been built years ago but for interstate rivalries.

It is understood the Federal Government would pump hundred of millions of dollars into the plan if it gets off the ground.

The Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation report, commissioned by the National Water Commission, outlines five key options for further investigation, but warns co-operation between governments is essential.

Four of the options involve damming NSW's Clarence River and piping water north to the Logan River in Queensland.

A fifth option is to dam the Tweed River and pump water to the Nerang River. This plan would produce 20,000ML a year at the cost of $1.42 for every 1000 litres.

But the report argues that the best long-term solution would be a dam on the Clarence, above Duck Creek, that would yield 100,000ML each year.

Under level 5 restrictions, southeast Queensland consumption is expected to fall to 630 million litres a day.

The Federal Government will argue cost estimates make the project cheaper than recycling or desalinating water or building the Traveston Crossing Dam.

It is likely the report will get a luke-warm reception from the Queensland Government, which maintains it is too far to pump water from NSW. But the report indicates the biggest hurdles might not come from Queensland – but from NSW.

"The rivers of Northern NSW are subject to a number of legislative and policy requirements that would need to be addressed in a more detailed assessment," it warns.

Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has promised a Labor Government would deliver $408 million for the western-corridor recycled water pipeline.

See - More water options for SEQ.