SEQ recycled water - Qld Health kept in dark - DNRW gives thumbs up on health aspects ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Health chief out of loop on recycling

4 November 2008

The bureaucrat charged with safeguarding the health of Queenslanders was not called on to approve the adding of recycled sewage to the drinking water of the state's southeast.

The Bligh Government left Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young out of the approval loop on the Western Corridor Reycled Water Project.

Instead, the scheme was given a health clearance by the Office of the Water Supply Regulator, an arm of the state Department of Natural Resources and Water.

The revelation came as Dr Young's department admitted it did not know how much hospital waste would be recycled.

Queensland Health said yesterday it was now helping to conduct research to find out how much hospital waste would be in the 60 megalitres of treated sewage a day pumped into Brisbane's main storage, the Wivenhoe Dam, from February. The daily volume will rise to 230ML later next year.

Queensland Health population health senior director Linda Selvey said her department would be involved in monitoring recycled water to ensure it complied with national safety standards.
"Purified recycled water must meet strict water quality standards put in place by the Office of Water Supply Regulator and monitored by Queensland Health," Dr Selvey said.

Queensland Health had drawn up standards based on the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and the Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling.

Recycled sewage will comprise between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of the water supply for the 2.6 million residents of southeast Queensland.

Dr Selvey said the quantity of hospital waste that was dumped into the sewage system -- and would therefore be recycled as drinking water -- was not known.

Queensland Health was assisting research by the Urban Water Security Research Alliance -- a project run jointly by the Queensland Government, the CSIRO and two universities -- to determine the level of hospital wastewater discharge.

"These discharges are strictly regulated," Dr Selvey said.

She said the quantity of waste discharged into the sewage system by hospitals varied daily.

The nature of substances that could be discharged was a matter between each hospital and its sewerage service provider. "Generally speaking", clinical waste such as cytotox drugs, blood and human tissues could not be poured down the drain.

Australian National University microbiology head Peter Collignon said hospital wastes should not be included in recycled water.

"Hospitals have a high concentration of toxins and bacteria so there is a bigger potential for contamination," said Professor Collignon, also Canberra Hospital's infectious diseases director.
He said recycled water in rivers in Europe 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."

National guidelines for recycled water stipulate that some hospital contaminants including radionuclides and veterinary and laboratory wastes should not be discharged into sewage that is to be recycled.

See - The Australian - Health chief out of loop on recycling.