Queensland Premier Anna Bligh tells water plan critics she will drink recycled sewage ...

And pigs will fly.

Flash forward to mid-2009 and bottled mineral water will be served in chilled glasses in State parliament and in the Executive offices.

Excerpt from the Australian:

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh tells water plan critics she will drink recycled sewage

31 October 2008

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has declared "absolutely" that she would drink recycled sewage in Queensland's tap water, after doubts were raised about the safety of the state's $2.5 billion water recycling project.

Ms Bligh's defence of the recycling project followed confirmation that the cost of water to the 2.6 million residents of southeast Queensland was set to triple.

In Queensland parliament yesterday, Ms Bligh challenged critics of the proposal to introduce recycled sewage into the drinking water supply of southeast Queensland, due to start in February next year, to make their complaints to the Queensland Water Commission.

The Australian reported claims this week by Australian National University experts Peter Collignon and Patrick Troy that it was not possible to ensure that potentially harmful microbes and viruses were filtered from the water supply.

Professor Collignon and Professor Troy said the southeast Queensland scheme had no parallels internationally and that recycled water should be used only as a last resort.

"To the best of my knowledge, these academics have not raised their concerns with the Government. I encourage Professor Troy to do that, because I think it is important that we hear all sides of the debate and that people actually raise their concerns," Ms Bligh said.

She said the decision of the Queensland Government to cancel a referendum on the introduction of recycled sewage to the drinking supply of southeast Queensland was "one of the single most popular things this Government ever did".

"I have never had so many letters and emails to my electorate office thanking me for cancelling the referendum. If people remember, everybody said: 'Just get on with the job. We just want you to build it. Just do it.' And that's what we did."

Ms Bligh also told the Cairns sitting of the Queensland parliament that Professor Collignon had falsely claimed to The Australian there was no real-time monitoring of water test results, and that Queensland would be the only place in the world where recycled water would be drunk.

However, Professor Collignon, an eminent microbiologist, made no such claims. He said that there was no real-time testing -- as opposed to monitoring -- in the scheme proposed for southeast Queensland and that recycled water schemes operating overseas were not the same as that proposed for Queensland.

An analysis of Queensland Water Commission figures shows the price for bulk water for Brisbane will rise from $902 per megalitre this financial year to $2755 in 2017-18.

The price was $628 per megalitre earlier this year. Bulk water accounts for less than half the average residential water bill. The cost hikes arise from the $9billion price tag on the Government's plan to drought-proof southeast Queensland.

The plan includes the $2.5billion Western Corridor Reycled Water Project, which will ensure that recycled sewage constitutes up to 25per cent of the region's drinking water next year.

University of NSW chemical scientist Greg Leslie said yesterday while it might be true there were no directly comparable schemes overseas, there were some that used substantial quantities of recycled water without encountering health problems.

Dr Leslie worked for seven years on water projects in Orange County, California, one of several overseas schemes cited by the Queensland Government in defence of the western corridor project.

Dr Leslie said that in Orange County underground aquifers were replenished with recycled water, while in Queensland water would be pumped into an open dam.

"The recycled water is as safe if not safer than water which would otherwise be available," Dr Leslie said. "In Richmond in NSW, 50,000 people are drinking water which has been dumped 17km upstream from the Penrith Sewage Treatment plant into the Nepean River."

See - Anna will drink recycled water for the cameras but not otherwise.

Might have known Dr Leslie would have to butt in.

It really is all the usual suspects.

Remember he said recycled water was so safe he'd let his 5 year old drink it. She must be 7 or 8 now. She was never going to drink it because Dr Leslie never intended to move to Toowoomba.

He beat a hasty retreat from the debate when his corporate connections were disclosed (although in fairness the Toowoomba City Council were the ones trumpeting his 'independence').

Just like old times ...