SEQ recycled water - Anna Bligh changes recycled water guidelines to cover up contamination ...

Courier Mail:

Goalposts moved on recycled water guidelines

9 May 2009

The Bligh Government is set to relax rules on the quality of recycled water produced by its $9 billion water grid, after a report found it contained levels of chemicals above legislated standards.

The report, by the Queensland Water Commission's advisory board on recycled water, said tests of samples produced out of the Western Corridor Recycled Water project had detected bromodichloromethane, a byproduct of chlorination that is known to cause liver cancer in animals. The levels were above the standard set out in state public health regulations, which dictate the quality of recycled water deemed fit to drink.

But the board has urged the Government to "revise" the regulations to reflect new research suggesting the chemical did not cause cancer if it was ingested in drinking water.

The recommendation is contained in a February letter to Queensland Water Commission chairwoman Elizabeth Nosworthy.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Queensland Health said the Government "always anticipated" that standards covering recycled water would be changed to reflect updated toxicological information.

"Queensland Health is now giving consideration to a range of amendments to a number of the Public Health Regulation standards," she said.

Other substances found in the recycled water samples included cadmium, paracetamol and insecticide. All were below levels set out in public health regulations.

No hormones were detected in the samples, which were taken from the Bundamba advanced water treatment plant between May and December last year and subjected to more than 8000 chemical and microbiological tests.

Premier Anna Bligh last year reversed the Government's policy on adding recycled water to south-east Queensland's drinking supply, saying it would only be used as a last resort.

But the advisory board, chaired by University of Queensland vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield, concluded that the recycled water produced was of sufficient quality to be added to drinking supplies.

See - Courier Mail - Goalposts moved on recycled water guidelines.

Hang on!

Nothing was supposed to get through the membranes.

And there's a 7 stage recycling process.

Yet there's still bromodichloromethane (a byproduct of chlorination that is known to cause liver cancer in animals), cadmium, paracetamol and insecticide (among other things) in the recycled water.

And so the government moves the goal posts to say that its 'purified' recycled water doesn't have to be so purified.

Trust us they say ...