Water commission ready to tap recycled waste for residents of southeast Qld ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Water commission ready to tap recycled waste for residents of southeast Queensland

28 October 2008

A total of 2.6 million residents of southeast Queensland will become the first Australians to drink their own waste, as about 60 megalitres of recycled sewage a day will soon be pumped into their water supply.

The Queensland Water Commission said the recycling process would go through seven levels of purification, ensuring the water was safe to drink for the people of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and other centres in the region.

Opposition to the move has been surprisingly muted, given the furore that surrounded a 2006 referendum in Toowoomba, when 62 per cent of residents voted no to recycled water.

Even though they voted against the use of recycled water, Toowoomba will be forced to take it from the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project -- the largest scheme of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

The first recycled water will be pumped into Wivenhoe Dam, Brisbane's major water source, in February. Queensland Water Commission chief executive John Bradley said yesterday recycled water would initially account for about 10 per cent of the region's domestic supply.

Wivenhoe Dam was at 27 per cent capacity yesterday. Good rains this year in coastal southeast Queensland have done little to replenish the storage.

The region would depend on recycled water for as much as 25per cent of its needs if dam water returned to very low levels.

Mr Bradley said about 60ML a day of recycled water would initially be pumped into the dam, with a similar quantity being supplied to the Swanbank and Tarong North power stations.

The volume would rise to about 230ML a day next year, with much of it used either by the power stations or irrigators in the Brisbane and Lockyer valleys.

Mr Bradley said the plan for recycled water had wide community support.

"People are embracing sources of water that previously were not on the table," he said. "They understand this is necessary as a result of climate change and the uncertainty of rainfall."

Recycled water will be released when a management plan has been approved by the specially created Office of Water Supply Regulator.

A report submitted to the federal Department of Water by consultants Marsden Jacob Associates in June concluded that Queensland would be the only state to reach the commonwealth's target of recycling 30 per cent of water used by 2015.

NSW was the state most behind with the target.

The report said it was likely 24 per cent of water would be recycled nationally by 2015, mostly for industrial use.

In Victoria, a leading water academic has urged the Brumby Government to consider using recycled sewage for drinking water, and dismissed calls for extra dams for Melbourne.

Melbourne and Monash University specialist John Langford said using recycled sewage had helped provide Singapore with extra drinking water [at 1% only], and should also be done in Melbourne.

See - QWC ready to tap recycled waste for residents of southeast Qld.