Radio 4BC takes on the Bligh government over recycled water ...

Excerpt from 4BC website:

Drinking Recycled Sewerage (sic)
Posted by: Michael Smith

5 November 2008

Why are we putting treated sewerage into our water?

The dams are over 40% and rising.

There is no armageddon. And there is no plan to put recycled water first into industrial applications before its in the drinking supply.

But there are real risks.

In 1998 high levels of the pathogens cryptosporidium and giardia were discovered in Sydney's water supply. Sydneysiders had been promised a safe drinking supply. But it wasn't safe. Things went wrong because as with even the best designed systems - stuff happens. Things can and do go wrong. Between July and September 1998 Sydneysiders were ordered to boil all drinking water and were advised to boil water used in bathing very small children.

Giardia is a pathogen that can survive for weeks to months in cold water. It also occurs in city reservoirs and can persist after water treatment, as the Giardia cysts are resistant to conventional water treatment methods such as chlorination and ozonolysis.

Cryptosporidium is a pathogen that can cause gastro-intestinal illness with in humans. It can be life threatening in young children and those whose immune systems are compromised. Cryptosporidium is the organism most commonly isolated in HIV positive patients presenting with diarrhea. Diarrhea which makes its way into the sewerage system.

Sydneysiders had to boil all their drinking water because a water treatment plant failed and no one knew about it until it was too late. His Honour PL Stein of the Supreme Court in Sydney wrote a book about it, The Great Sydney Water Crisis of 1998.

"Water treatment plant equipment failures have been a cause of water supply contamination. The most significant Australian incident, which occurred during the Sydney water crisis in 1998, was due to failure of the water treatment process ."

Here is a quote from the NSW parliament at the time, from the then opposition leader Mr Hannaford:-

"Australia has held itself out to be a First World country and Australians travelling the world have confidently said that it was safe to drink the water in Sydney, whereas travellers to South-east Asia, parts of Europe, the Middle East and even parts of the United States have had to be careful about drinking the water." I feel the same way about my water and my children's water here in Brisbane.

Sydneysiders were put at risk because a treatment plant failed. It can happen.

Why are we racing to put recycled sewerage into our water? Why not deliver the recycled water to industry first? Even if the pipes are in place, why turn on the taps? What is the rush?

Now we learn that Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was not called on to approve the adding of recycled sewerage to your water. Our chief health bureaucrat charged with protecting your health. Not consulted on putting recycled sewerage in your water. Out of the loop. No approval from our Chief Health Officer.

And Dr Young and her department have admitted they do not know how much hospital waste flows into the sewerage system and will be recycled. What fluids will flow from hospitals into the sewers and then to the tap in your kitchen courtesy of Anna Bligh's recycling system. Queensland Health can't tell you.

Recycled sewage will make up to 25% of your drinking water. Why?

We don't know how much waste comes from hospitals into the sewers.

This is deadly serious. Deadly. Why the rush?

The head of microbiology at the Australian National University, Peter Collignon has this to say on the issue "Hospitals have a high concentration of toxins and bacteria so there is a bigger potential for contamination." He said recycled water in rivers had resulted in elevated levels of hormones which had changed the sex of fish. "We don't know what the effects on people are but the changes in fish suggest it is not a good idea."

And the senior director of the population health department in Queensland Health says the quantity of hospital waste that was dumped into the sewage system was not known. Linda Selvey - the senior director - can't tell you what hospitals dump into the sewers. Today - can't tell you.

There are so many details we just don't know. Anna Bligh I have a piece of advice to you about recycled sewerage in my children's drinking water.

IF IN DOUBT - LEAVE IT OUT.

See - 4BC - Drinking recycled sewage.

The same question keeps coming up - why the great rush ...