How Toowoomba City Council's errors are helping to sink the recycled water industry ...

A lot of the distrust of government and corporations over their attempts to introduce recycled water into Toowoomba (and elsewhere) began with this simple set of circumstances:

When Toowoomba City Council decided to introduce its recycled water scheme for Toowoomba, its adviser CH2M Hill copied brochures from Singapore's NEWater facility which showed that nothing but 'pure water' passed through the membranes.

These brochures were inaccurate.

Anyone who has visited the NEWater facility can tell you that the video that is shown on the tour shows small amounts of chemicals passing through the membranes.

It is not clear why the NEWater promotional material is so misleading - perhaps the brochures were widely distributed to Singaporean residents at the time of its media campaign with the video only shown on your visit to the NEWater facility.

Whatever the motivation, that lack of diligence on the part of Mayor Thorley, Deputy Mayor Ramia and Engineering Head Flanagan (and other employees and advisers) caused problems for their campaign.

They were adamant that nothing passed through the membranes except 'pure water'.

It was only once the NWC funding application was wrestled off the Council via a FOI request that those close to the debate saw the truth revealed - the Toowoomba City Council/NEWater promotional material was misleading.

No wonder the Council resisted so long to its disclosure.

Armed with this information, opponents of Mayor Thorley's scheme could let the truth be known - Toowoomba residents were being misled by the Council.

Fast forward almost 2 years and it remains an issue ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Twist in recycled sewage

29 May 2007

Small concentrations of antibiotics have the ability to pass through conventional wastewater treatment plants, according to a new study that will reignite the debate over the use of recycled sewage.

An article this month in the international journal Water Research found small concentrations of antibiotics passed through advanced wastewater treatment using microfiltration and reverse osmosis.

The National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology, the Co-operative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment and the National Measurement Institute assessed the removal of 28 human and veterinary antibiotics.

With the Beattie Government hoping to pump recycled sewage into Wivenhoe Dam before Brisbane's main water supply runs dry - in late 2008 or early 2009 - the Queensland Water Commission has gone to great lengths to emphasise the safety of the end product.

A panel of experts is guiding its regulatory processes, even as protest groups - angry at being denied a referendum on the use of recycled sewage - distribute leaflets warning of potential health risks.

Lead researcher Andrew Watkinson said last night the additional process in Brisbane's recycled water pipeline project, advanced oxidation, would almost certainly remove the remaining concentrations.

Mr Watkinson said the research had shown concentrations of antibioticsin many Brisbane rivers and waterways, flowing from conventional treatment plants.

Although there appeared little risk to human and animal health, further work was needed to determine whether the concentrations might contribute to bacterial resistance to the drugs.

See - What gets through the RO membranes.