SEQ recycled water - extent of industrial and hospital waste revealed ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Extent of waste for drinking revealed

7 November 2008

More than 30 million litres a day of industrial and hospital waste will be recycled as drinking water for the residents of southeast Queensland.

The extent of the quantity of so-called "trade" waste that is dumped in the region's sewerage system emerged in figures provided to The Australian yesterday by the Brisbane City Council.

Recycled water will account for between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of the drinking water supply for the region from early next year.

The Australian reported yesterday that trade waste will constitute 12 per cent of the recycled water.

The Government insists the water will be free of contaminants after undergoing treatment in a seven-stage process.

The Brisbane City Council figures show that 10,700 megalitres of trade waste were dumped in the city's sewer in the 2007-08 financial year.

Just over one million of southeast Queensland's 2.6million residents live in Brisbane. The Brisbane and Ipswich city councils are parties to the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project. Ipswich, with 150,000 residents, has a similar trade waste disposal system to Brisbane's.

In Brisbane, 4147 businesses are licensed to discharge liquid industrial wastes into the city's sewerage system.

Eighteen hospitals are also allowed to dump waste in the sewer, with hospitals accounting for less than 1per cent of total dry weather flow in Brisbane's sewerage network in recent months.

A council spokesman said trade waste flowed into the same sewerage lines as regular household waste and was treated in the same way.

Trade waste licensees approved by the council must adhere strictly to guidelines set out in the National Water Quality Management Strategy, the National Wastewater Source Management Guidelines and the Water Safety Reliability Act.

After initial processing at sewage treatment plants, the effluent undergoes reverse osmosis and other filtering procedures at the western corridor project's advanced treatment plants at Bundamba, Luggage Point and Gibson Island.

Concentrated wastes at the advanced treatment plants are solidified and disposed of in landfills. Between 120 and 250 tonnes of waste a week from the three plants are disposed of.

The solid waste consists primarily of iron and phosphorus and accounts for less than 1 per cent of flows to the plants.

Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, who is responsible for the recycled water project, refused The Australian permission yesterday to photograph waste disposal at the Bundamba facility.

He said the newspaper had been given "more than enough access" in the past.

Queensland Water Commission chief executive John Bradley said there had been detailed analysis of trade waste and other effluent from sewage treatment plants.

The effluent had been found to be of "high quality", reflecting the benefits of recent investments in upgrading the treatment facilities.

Mr Bradley said substantial fines applied for breach of trade waste approvals.

The Australian reported this week a claim by Canberra Hospital microbiologist Peter Collignon that the sex of fish had been changed by hormones in river effluent in Europe, indicating a risk to people from recycled water.

Co-operative Research Centre for Water Quality researcher Heather Chapman said yesterday that while untreated waste water could change the reproductive systems of wildlife, there was little risk to people.

"The concentration of hormones in water sources is extremely low compared with the levels in medication," Dr Chapman said.

"Conventional waste water treatment processes remove 95 to 99 per cent of hormones.

"Any remaining traces are removed by the advanced treatment processes."

See - Extent of waste revealed.

Now the Bligh government is blocking access to their recycled water sites?

Presumably, these areas were not part of the recent open day for voters to inspect ...