NSW commercial water users still guzzling ...

Excerpt from news.com.au:

Commercial water users still guzzling

24 July 2007

Some of Sydney's top commercial water users are guzzling more of the precious commodity than they were when household water restrictions commenced five years ago.

Last month's drenching of the NSW coast and metropolitan water catchments was a sigh of relief but the worst drought in 100 years is far from over.

Of the top 50 commercial users in the state, 14 have increased their water consumption since 2002, figures obtained by Fairfax newspapers reveal.

The Tahmoor coalmine, near Wollongong, is the eighth largest water user in NSW and has boosted water use by 35 per cent in five years.

The Port Kembla coal loader is using 15 per cent more, or 70 million litres, since the 2002 household restrictions took affect.

Fairfax obtained the figures from a freedom of information request but Sydney Water has refused to release the names of the companies in its top 50 list. But Fairfax has learned the identities of many of the biggest water users, including all of the top 10.

BlueScope Steel topped the list with an annual water usage level of 13.2 million kilolitres but managed to reduce its usage by 4.5 per cent over the five year period.

Going down the list, Qenos used 3.3 million kilolitres and also reduced its usage over the period while third-place Caltex used 2.2 million kilolitres, which represented an increase of 6.8 per cent in usage since 2002.

See - Commercial water guzzlers.