SEQ recycled water - Sniff of Queensland election damns recycling ...

Excerpt from the Australian:

Sniff of Queensland election damns recycling

26 November 2008

The Queensland Government was yesterday forced into an election-driven backdown on two fronts: recycling sewage in the state's southeast and the flooding of a valley to create a dam in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Premier Anna Bligh yesterday renewed speculation of a New Year election campaign by ordering a review of the $2.5 billion recycled sewage plan and announcing the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam would be shelved for up to four years.

Ms Bligh said the co-ordinator-general had advised that the dam site, near Gympie, had been badly degraded by decades of farming and would need mitigation work before the project was ready to go before the federal Government for approval.

...

Ms Bligh, who yesterday claimed she would go full term before calling an election late next year, conceded the reversal from her previous hardline stance to pump recycled water into the drinking supply - when the southeast corner's combined levels hit 40 per cent - had been made after Labor polling last week showed falling support on the issue.

The polling, obtained by The Australian, asked: "Do you support or oppose recycled water being added to your water system for general use, including drinking?" The results showed 56 per cent in support and 38 per cent opposed.

Ms Bligh denied the review was a political decision, saying that while there was a small majority in support of recycled water, most people only wanted it as an insurance policy if Queensland was hit with another drought. "Clearly this, I think, is something that needs people to have a broad consensus about," she told reporters.

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

The shift by Ms Bligh follows a series of reports by The Australian in recent months, which has highlighted concerns by experts about whether viruses and other contaminants would be blocked by the planned seven-stage screening process.

Ms Bligh said that public opinion had changed in the face of rising dam levels after they fell to 22 per cent when the recycled water plan was announced in January last year.

"As circumstances change, people's attitudes change and they expect the Government to change when necessary," she said.

The decision defies Ms Bligh's statement on November 11 when she said that the only thing that would stop recycled water was if the dams were overflowing.

Earlier yesterday, Ms Bligh told state parliament she had written to the Queensland Water Commission seeking urgent advice on whether the 40 per cent trigger for recycled water should be retained. The commission will meet today to discuss a new trigger for the combined water levels of the Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams.

But Ms Bligh said the 40 per cent trigger might remain, depending on the advice from the water commission. "I do want it to be based on a very good analysis of possible changes to the water balance and I do want it to be scientifically solid before we lock into that," she said.

See - Bligh backflip.

Why is it that independent polling consistently shows around 70:30 against but government polling shows the opposite ...