SEQ recycled water - Support for recycled water evaporates ...

Recycled water is such a political football.

Against it while campaigning, in favour of it when in office.

Support for recycled water evaporates

29 January 2009

The Liberal National Party's state election candidate for Redlands has distanced himself from his previous support for drinking recycled water.

Peter Dowling says he is concerned about the fact recycled water will be be sourced from a sewerage network that includes medical and hospital waste - a change of tone from his comments from two years ago that recycled water was "the smartest option for the future".

Cr Dowling, who will keep his job as a local councillor until a state election is called this year, voiced strong support for adding recycled water to dam storages during an interview with the Bayside Bulletin in 2006 when he declared it would "actually be cleaner than most of the water we have in the dam now".

The former deputy mayor made the comments on December 4, 2006, after the then-premier Peter Beattie announced he would ask South East Queensland voters to support recycled water through a referendum. The poll was later abandoned.

At the time, Cr Dowling said the addition of recycled water to dam storages would provide a more regular water source for the region and strong governments needed to make "tough decisions".

"I think it's a decision the State Government should make," he said during the interview.

Cr Dowling has since been named as an LNP election candidate and recently issued a "clarification" of his position - but insisted his views had not shifted because of his preselection.

He is critical of the Bligh Labor Government, which late last year was forced to back away from its plan to permanently top up Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam with purified recycled water. The government now says it will only do so if combined dam levels drop below 40 per cent of capacity.

Cr Dowling said while he had tried recycled water before and it tasted okay, he shared the concerns held by many residents and believed it should not be forced on them.

Recycled water "should be made available for use in activities such as power generation, specific non-food industries as well as in agricultural production activities" but should only be added to drinking water supplies as a last resort, he said.

MP happy to drink recycled water

Labor Member for Redlands John English says he would be happy to drink purified recycled water, but has downplayed the chances of it being supplied to local households.

The Bligh Labor Government performed a backflip late last year when it scrapped plans to add recycled water to Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam regardless of dam levels.

The government's new policy is to add treated effluent to that dam only if levels fall below 40 per cent.

Mr English said recycled water was safe, but it was not being added directly to Redland City water supplies.

He said the Redlands area did not yet need to draw on South East Queensland supplies anyway.

"Until our water needs are over and above what Straddie and Leslie Harrison Dam can source, then - and only then - will we start drinking water from the Eastern Pipeline Interconnector (via the water grid)," he said.

Mr English conceded the Redlands would also have to draw on regional supplies if there was some kind of emergency at a local water treatment plan, such as a fire.

See - The Redland Times - Support for recycled water evaporates.

Politicians will say anything to get elected or re-elected ...