Minister misleads the public on recycled water ...

Letter to the Editor, the Chronicle:

1 September 2008

Minister Misleads the Public

Mr Shine's response (TC 15/8) serves only to confirm that the Minister and the QWC are not interested in presenting all the facts to the people of South-East Queensland.

The State government's proposal to make people drink recycled sewage water is a world first. There is no other planned potable reuse example of the scale to be implemented by this government. Mr Shine used several examples which are easy to refute:

Los Angeles - recycled sewage water is not used for drinking. Toowoomba City Council thought people drank it at Disneyland!

Washington DC - Mr Shine is referring to neighbouring Virginia. This State is enacting regulations to ban the use of recycled sewage water in homes - even for flushing toilets.

Singapore - a maximum one percent is used for potable reuse. Most recycled sewage water is used for industry. The QWC is not advertising what percentage recycled sewage water it plans to pump into people's homes. Singapore operates South East Asia's largest seawater desalination plant. Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are all planning or building desalination plants. Perth's plant is already operating.

Orange County - the primary purpose of the newly commissioned plant is aquifer recharge to prevent seawater entering the aquifer. The old plant served a similar purpose.

Mr Shine also claims that Toowoomba's water supply will be empty by March 2010. He neglects to mention Toowoomba's bore supplies (which the Toowoomba Regional Council is so keen to regulate) and GAB water reserves.

The only way to try to force us to accept recycled sewage water in our homes, shops and restaurants is to use the 'drink it or die of thirst' approach. It's the same approach used by the Toowoomba City Council for their ill-fated campaign rejected by 62% of voters. Wasn't Toowoomba's water supposed to run out by December 2005?

If the State government really believes people support drinking recycled sewage water, why do they persist with their campaign of misleading half truths?

RM
Toowoomba