Inquiry call for recycling ...

Excerpt from Gold Coast Sun:

Inquiry call for recycling

4 June 2008

By Brent Melville

An international water researcher and consultant says Gold Coast people should call for a royal commission of inquiry into the use of recycled sewage water.

Canberra man David Tipping, who advises governments and is a former consultant for the World Health Organisation, says Gold Coast people face a ‘serious risk’ to their health from so-called ‘purified recycled wastewater’.

He has called for a royal commission into wastewater recycling plans in Canberra.

The State Government plans to release ‘recycled wastewater’ into the southeast Queensland water grid from October.

Mr Tipping flatly rejected government assurances that recycled water would be safe and said the term ‘purified recycled water’ was propaganda.

“In all my research it’s always been called processed sewage and industrial wastewater,” he said.

Mr Tipping listed eight types of contaminants he said can’t be fully removed from wastewater.

These were pathogens, pharmaceuticals industrial chemical poisons, nerve, blister and choking agents, hallucinogens and nanoparticles, which could cause cancer.

“It is now recognised that low— level chronic doses that cannot be detected or removed, can have long-term effects on humans,” he said.

Mr Tipping said he had ‘no argument’ about re-using sewage and other wastewater but using it for drinking should be a last resort.

“I’m a registered plumber and I know first-hand how things can go wrong when pumps break down, with operator error, accidents and so on.

“I’ve seen the results of the technical faults of the people sitting at desks.
Mr Tipping said he had studied rivers where treated sewage was ‘recycled’ by multiple downstream communities, such as on the Murrumbidgee River.

“With rivers you get natural attenuation (reduction) and dilution of pollutants hut you still get the problem of disinfection byproducts from chlorine, which has been associated with bladder cancers and reproductive problems with women, he said.