Waste water from gas fields could bail out Toowoomba ...

Premier Anna Bligh: "If the water can be treated effectively and then transported efficiently I would like to get this as drinking water to regional towns and Toowoomba."

Excerpt from the Chronicle:

Waste water from gas fields could bail out Toowoomba

22 April 2008

Waste water from coal-seam gas fields in the Surat Basin is again being touted as a solution to Toowoomba's water woes.

While the Garden City's dams sunk to 12% of capacity yesterday, Queensland Gas Company (QGC) drew 20 megalitres out of the ground near Chinchilla.

In five years time, QGC's managing director Richard Cottee said it could be as much as 110 megalitres daily the same amount of water produced by the $1.1 billion desalination plant being built at Tugun on the Gold Coast.

Engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff explained underground gas was buried by water and pressure and that the water must be released in order to get gas flowing.

"We are a gas producer," Mr Cottee said. "The water will be our waste product. It's ridiculous, isn't it in the driest continent on Earth, water will be waste."

In November, 2005, Mr Cottee visited Toowoomba, but canned his drought-proofing idea due to its expense.

"Back in 2006, the water was not being produced in sufficient volumes, but it is a different story now and as we move towards full production for our liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. We will be producing more than 110 megalitres a day and probably significantly more for several decades so with such enormous volumes of water the pipeline and delivery costs are relatively easy to justify," Mr Cottee said.

Mr Cottee estimated a waste water pipeline to Toowoomba would cost around $300 million, even without QGC desiring to profit from the water.

"Water is not where our profits will be made," Mr Cottee said.

"We want to see some beneficial use of our water, and we would want to have some cost recovery."

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday said: "If there is one thing we have learnt in the last few years it is that water is precious. It is liquid gold and we cannot waste any of it.

"But we need to be sure that issues with the appropriate use for the water are worked through. If the water can be treated effectively and then transported efficiently I would like to get this as drinking water to regional towns and Toowoomba," Ms Bligh said.

See - Waste water from gas fields could bail out Toowoomba.