Qld government warned about recycled water - LNP will turn off the tap if elected ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Recycled sewage 'will have bugs', Queensland Government warned

29 October 2008

An authority on water infrastructure has claimed it is not possible to prevent potentially harmful organisms from entering southeast Queensland's water supply when recycled sewage is added to it in February.

Australian National University emeritus professor Patrick Troy said it was scandalous that the region's 2.6 million residents were not offered a vote in a referendum on recycled water.

In the first project of its kind in Australia, recycled water will soon account for up to 25 per cent of southeast Queensland's drinking water.

The first recycled water will be pumped to the Wivenhoe Dam, Brisbane's main water source, in February.

Under the $9 billion water grid being set up in southeast Queensland, the water storage systems of the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast will be combined so that water can be shuffled between the three cities.

At present, water can only go one way, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, an arrangement that started when the Gold Coast's main source, the Hinze Dam, ran dry four years ago.

Despite the fact the Hinze Dam, which generally receives more rain than those in the other areas, is almost 95 per cent full, Gold Coast residents could receive drinking water that contains recycled sewage when the Hinze Dam levels fall again.

Recycled sewage is already used to provide Singapore with extra drinking water.

Professor Troy said the safety of recycled water had not been proved in any long-term epidemiological studies.

"It will not be possible to remove all biologically active waste molecules from the system," Professor Troy said.

"The probability is that something like 8 per cent of these impurities will get through, and that is assuming the system is working properly."

Professor Troy said residents with allergies would be particularly at risk of infection. "What's happening here is that the authorities are playing Russian roulette with the health of the population," he said.

"It is a scandal that former premier Peter Beattie promised the people of southeast Queensland a say in a plebiscite and then backed away from that promise.

"The residents of Toowoomba rejected the notion of drinking recycled shit by a large margin in a 2006 referendum when they were given the opportunity."

Professor Troy said the "hugely expensive" recycled water project was unnecessary and a waste of public money.

"This is all being driven by a technological obsession that big engineering projects offer the only solutions to water shortages," he said.

"If everyone in Brisbane had rainwater tanks and grey water was recycled for the garden, there would be plenty of water."

State Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg signalled that the Liberal National Party would scrap the project if it won next year's election.

"I've always said that the useof recycled water should be a last resort," Mr Springborg said yesterday. "Recycled water should only go to industrial uses."

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said her Government would not back away for its support for the project.

Ms Bligh said recycling was a necessary part of the solution to providing for the needs of the rapidly growing population of southeast Queensland.

"Queensland is an economic powerhouse that will continue to expand," Ms Bligh said.

"To keep up with the population growth we need to use desalination plants, we need recycled water and we need to build the proposed dams."

Paul Greenfield, who heads an expert committee advising the Government on the safety of recycled water, rejected suggestions it was unsafe.

Professor Greenfield, vice-chancellor at the University of Queensland, said the seven-stage filtering process ensured harmful microbes were not drunk by the public. Advanced oxidation would be a further barrier to contamination.

"There is no higher risk than what is currently faced with the existing supply," he said.

See - Recycled sewage 'will have bugs', Queensland Government warned.