QWC to SEQ - you must be stupid, stupid, stupid ...

Sounding like an excerpt from a John Grisham novel, Qld Government entity and QWC offshoot, Western Corridor Recycled Water, is whining to the Gold Coast Sun that it is misleading when it refers to 'treated wastewater' as 'sewage'.

People must be stupid, stupid, stupid.

It's amazing how far the debate hasn't progressed.

The QWC seems fixated on people using the correct terminology.

What goes into their recycled water plant isn't sewage, it's treated wastewater.

Just remember that.

Like that is suddenly going to change people's aversion to recycled water.

"Oh, it's treated wastewater, not sewage - well that's different."

But don't try to call the output from the recycled water plant 'recycled treated wastewater'.

No, it then suddenly becomes 'purified recycled water'.

The QWC terminology police will fine you if you call it something else.


Excerpt from Letter to the Editor, Gold Coast Sun:

Wastewater, not sewage for recycling in grid

9 April 2008

Your report `Liz poo-poos water expert' on March 26 that `recycled sewage water should only be used if there was nothing else to use' is misleading.

The Western Corridor Recycled Water (WCRW) Project will transport treated wastewater - not sewage - from existing wastewater treatment plants to three new advanced water treatment plants.

It will be purified to the highest standards through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation and disinfection to produce purified recycled water that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

The purified recycled water will then be piped to Swanbank and Tarong Power Stations to reduce their demand on SEQ's water supplies, and to Wivenhoe Dam to supplement our drinking water supply.

Our current drinking water supplies are very, very safe and the purified recycled water we produce will be even more pure than the water in Wivenhoe.

WCRW is a remarkable achievement - something that the people of South East Queensland can be proud of.

When completed, it will deliver up to 232 megalitres of purified recycled water a day to the SEQ water grid, providing for the needs of the region's growing population and economy and reducing our reliance on rainfall in a time of drought and climate change.

Keith Davies
Chief Executive Officer
Western Corridor Recycled Water


Perhaps someone should ask Mr Davies what percentage of recycled water Anna Bligh plans to dump into Wivenhoe Dam and pipe to people's homes.

That seems to be something of a State secret at present.

One could also ask if the State government will commit to Parliament House being stocked with bottles of Luggage Point Lager rather than Perrier when Parliament sits.

Everyone knows the answer to that one ...