SEQ recycled water - $2.2 billion wasted as Anna Bligh backflips on water ...

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$2.2 billion wasted as Anna Bligh backflips on water

26 November 2008

Up to $2.2 billion of taxpayers' money could have been wasted as the Bligh Government decided to back away from recycled water and delay the Traveston Dam.

Premier Anna Bligh on Tuesday said the Government would drop its previous position of adding recycled water into southeast Queensland's dams, regardless of their capacity.

Instead, the Government will revert to using recycled water as an option of last resort - a position that has long been advocated by the Opposition.

Ms Bligh also announced the Traveston Dam would be delayed by up to four years to ensure environmental mitigation works were completed before construction rather than after, as had been proposed.

The combined spending on the projects has been about $3 billion, with the 200km recycled water pipeline costing $2.5 billion and about $500 million spent on the proposed Traveston Dam.

With public confidence in recycled water likely to be undermined, industry could be the only users of the pipeline, which cost $1.7 billion more than a similar scheme proposed for Lockyer Valley farmers to ensure it was fit for drinking purposes.

The combined cost of having the two projects in limbo is about $2.2 billion.

Ms Bligh said she had listened to the concerns of southeast Queensland residents but insisted the recycled water pipeline was still a valuable "insurance policy".

"I think there is no shame in changing your position on something when circumstances change," she said.

Ms Bligh denied she had acted on Labor Party polling given to her late last week showing only 56 per cent of people supported recycled water.

"You would have to be living under a rock not to know that people would prefer that we think about this a lot harder," she said.

Ms Bligh and Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said the Government was expecting greater industrial use of the pipeline.

"We would expect over time that there may be more industry. We are currently in discussions with ... irrigators in the Lockyer Valley," she said.

The Queensland Water Commission board will meet today to discuss Ms Bligh's demand for urgent advice on what the dam levels should be for recycled water to be triggered, as well as the board's own polling on its popularity.

A trigger point of 40 per cent was set early last year. However that will have to be balanced against the Traveston delay and reduced water consumption.

Traveston's delay comes after repeated assurances the dam was environmentally sound.

"The dam is now dead," Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said.

$450 million spent on Traveston already

The State Government so far has committed more than $450 million to its controversial $1.7 billion Traveston Dam proposal.

Queensland Water Infrastructure, the Government-owned company in charge of the project, had spent close to $240 million by June 30 buying up land needed for the construction of the dam.

The rest has gone on preliminary dam designs and other studies including a comprehensive environmental impact assessment.

The Government's decision to postpone the project, which was originally due to be under way by April next year, followed advice from the Co-ordinator-General Colin Jensen that up to $150 million of rehabilitation work would need to be done on the Mary River near Gympie River before it could win state or federal approvals.

The decision to delay the project for "at least several years" will add potentially tens of millions of dollars to the dam's cost if if ever does proceed, thanks to still- soaring construction costs.

16km pipeline may never be used

Taxpayers are shelling out for a $2.5 billion water infrastructure project that is likely to deliver only a fraction of the purified recycled water it was designed to produce and includes a 16km pipeline that may never be used.

The Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, that part of the $9 billion water grid meant to deliver purified recycled water into Wivenhoe Dam, is all but complete.

It is ready to start pushing through up to 232 megalitres a day of recycled water.

But after Bligh's backflip, the 41 megalitres a day the project is currently delivering to the Swanbank and Tarong power stations may not increase substantially unless the Government is blessed with a surge in demand from other industry.

The already completed Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant has the capacity to meet current demand without any additional water being produced by the other treatment plants being built at the mouth of the Brisbane River.

Unless the Queensland Water Commission comes back to the Government insisting that the original plan to introduce purified recycled water into the drinking supply remain, about 200km of pipeline and three advanced water treatment plants will be operating well below capacity for the foreseeable future.

This is despite a Federal Government contribution of $408 million to the project through its Smart Water Australia program.

Included in the project is a 16km, 1.2m-diameter pipe that is meant to transport purified recycled water from Lowood to Wivenhoe Dam to supplement drinking supplies.

See - $2.2 billion wasted as Anna Bligh backflips on water.