Toowoomba Regional Council still lying about Toowoomba water supplies ...

"According to Toowoomba Regional Council modelling, Toowoomba will run out of water by the second half of 2010 unless significant inflow is received."

See - Qld Treasurer's press release - Vital Toowoomba pipeline project nearly complete.

So, all bore water and GAB supplies as well as dam water will now run out by July 2010?

And yet year on year (August 2009 compared to August 2008), dam levels have only reduced from 10.4% to 10.2%.

Is this the same modelling that said that Toowoomba would run out of water by Christmas 2005 ...

The non-existent recycled water barrier one - checks deficient on hospital waste ...

Worth revisiting.

The Australian:

Checks deficient on hospital waste

7 April 2009

Hospital waste in southeast Queensland was to be recycled as drinking water without the necessary approvals in place to ensure the water was not contaminated.

An audit by Queensland Health has found deficiences in the approvals for the disposal of wastes to the sewer in Brisbane's three biggest hospitals. A fourth, Ipswich Hospital, did not have an approval in place for its wastes.

The Queensland Water Commission has repeatedly assured the public that all approvals were operating for the disposal of hospital wastes to the sewer.

The approvals were designed to ensure that contaminants such as blood and cancer chemicals were prevented from being added to the mix to be recycled as drinking water.

The hospital approvals were faulty or non-existent at the time authorities planned to begin pumping recycled water to Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam in February. The Government deferred the plan after The Australian reported concerns by microbiologists that the seven-stage screening process may not be adequate to prevent contamination.

Premier Anna Bligh confirmed yesterday that the plan would proceed when dam levels dropped to 40 per cent; they are currently at 50 per cent.

The Government refused to release the Queensland Health audit report yesterday. However, a senior Queensland Health source said the audit raised serious concerns about the trade waste approval system at four major hospitals.

The audit covered Ipswich Hospital and, in Brisbane, the Prince Charles Hospital, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, and Princess Alexandra Hospital.

"Local councils are supposed to enforce these approvals but that has not been happening," the source said.

"Three hospitals did not have current trade waste contracts in place and one did not even have a trade waste approval.

"With recycled water on the way, this is the state of the management of hospital wastes. Nobody really knows what's being poured down the drains and it's not being monitored in any capacity."

Queensland Water Commission guidelines state that all hospitals must obtain a trade waste approval and have waste management plans in place. The guidelines say the safeguards would ensure contaminants such as unused pharmaceuticals, clinical waste, cytotoxic waste from cancer treatment, and radioactive wastes were disposed of appropriately and did not enter the sewer.

Queensland Health population health director Linda Selvey declined to be interviewed about the audit report but issued a statement to The Australian.

Dr Selvey admitted "shortcomings have been found" with waste approvals at the four hospitals and said action had been taken to deal with the situation.

"Despite some concern raised by the auditors in relation to possible inadequacies in the waste management practices in hospitals, the output from the advanced water treatment plant has consistently tested to be free of contaminants that could have come from hospitals," Dr Selvey said.

See - The Australian - Checks deficient on hospital waste.

Queensland - beautiful one day ...

Gladstone LNP plants = demand for CSG = more CSG water needing treatment and use ...

Brisbane Times:

Gladstone's liquified gas plans start to solidify

28 August 2009

Gladstone's potential liquified natural gas (LNG) industry, worth an estimated $40 billion, could create 18,000 jobs in the region over the next 10 years, the Premier says.

Anna Bligh today announced the next step for two project teams bidding for work in the region.

Several of the world's biggest natural gas producers have announced plans to generate liquified natural gas from coal seams in the nearby Surat and Bowen coal basins and pipe the gas to plants at Curtis Island at Gladstone.

Around 13,200 jobs could be created in the central Queensland cities of Mackay, Gladstone and Rockhampton, with 600 jobs in the southern coalfields around Roma and the Darling Downs.

Premier Bligh is under pressure to keep Queensland's rising unemployment rate at bay after promising to create 100,000 jobs over three years during the State election in March .

The draft terms of reference for the Australia Pacific LNG project - a 50:50 partnership between Origin Energy and ConcocoPhillips - were released today, outlining the background for the project.

Last week, the two joint partners released independent advice which showed their submission could create 10,300 jobs

The terms of reference for this project team outlines how it must prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for their proposed LNG processing plant on Curtis Island.

Ms Bligh also announced the next step for a second team submitting a bid for a LNG plant near Gladstone, consisting BG (British Gas) Queensland Curtis Liquified Natural Gas.

She released their EIS this morning for seven weeks' public consultation.

"This LNG project has the potential to deliver thousands of jobs from the Darling Downs to Gladstone and millions of dollars in economic benefits," Ms Bligh said.

"The project could employ more than 4000 people during construction and around 1000 people during its operation," she said.

The two projects are among eight publicly announced for the east coast of Queensland. The first export of LNG could begin as early as 2012 with significant exports scheduled from 2014 onwards.

Santos/Petronas, Royal Dutch Shell and Arrow Energy have alslo announced plans for LNG projects in the region.

Santos/Petronas plan a 450 kilometre gas pipeline from Santos' gas fields in central Queensland to Gladstone.

Petronas is the largest LNG supplier in Asia and owns the world biggest fleet of LNG transport ships.

See - Brisbane Times - Gladstone's liquified gas plans start to solidify.

Perth residents not interested in recycled water for drinking ...

ABC News:

Perth slow to support drinking waste water

25 August 2009

Public reaction to a plan for the future of Perth's main water supply has shown a lack of support for using recycled waste water for drinking.

A draft strategy for the future of the Gnangara mound has been open for public comment for the last seven weeks.

Recommendations in the strategy include recharging the groundwater system with recycled water, and, in the longer term, sourcing water directly from a waste water treatment plant.

Strategy director Melanie Strawbridge says there have been more than 100 responses to the plan.

"People were fairly happy to have it treated and put back into the aquifer and then used for public water supply later, say in a decade or two's time, but there wasn't yet a lot of [support for] direct use for public drinking water," she said.

Ms Strawbridge is encouraging people to have their say.

"It's going to help shape the recommendations and, perhaps where recommendations don't get changed, it's going to provide a lot better context so that we can really point out the pros and cons of doing the sorts of things that they want.

The public comment period ends on Monday.

See - ABC News - Perth slow to support drinking water water.


Have your say at the Gnangara Sustainability Strategy website.

Down in the sewer for Queensland Labor mates ...

Something for everyone.

Alleged corruption.

Labor mates.

Confirmation that little is really known about industrial waste coming out of hospitals and the potential dangers to the community.

$2.1 million contract. $100,000 spent. Where's the $2 million?

The Australian:

Down in the sewer for Queensland Labor mates

26 August 2009

Young scientist Ben Kele had his first taste of the cut-throat world of business and politics when Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission came knocking.

A typically impoverished post-graduate student at Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Kele was waiting for officials to respond to his groundbreaking work in the bowels of the state's sewers, where he had spent months testing the toxicity of waste flowing from regional hospitals and remote health clinics.

The testing, commissioned by health minister Gordon Nuttall, had never been done before. It found that children in remote communities across the state were being made sick from leaky pipes and unsanitary practices in health facilities. But when the CMC investigators arrived, Kele was stunned to learn he may have been duped by a company of Labor-connected businessmen, including then senior Beattie government MP Gary Fenlon, and his work was about to go down the drain.

It all came to a head yesterday with the CMC announcing they would charge Nuttall - jailed last month for seven years for corruptly receiving $360,000 in secret payments from two mining executives - over the taxpayer-funded study that Kele had once hoped would be his legacy.

Nuttall will face court next month for allegedly taking $150,000 in bribes from long-time friend and Brisbane businessman Brendan McKennariey in relation to the wastewater study and a training program in indigenous communities.

McKennariey, whose daughter once worked in Nuttall's electorate office, has not been charged and is believed to have been offered indemnity to give evidence against the former health and industrial relations minister.

But for Kele - first courted in 2003 by McKennariey, Fenlon and former Labor staffer Graham Doyle to sell wastewater treatment technology he developed as a student - the experience has been a lesson in the hard world of business.

"It was like eating the apple in the Garden of Eden," he told The Australian yesterday.

All three were major shareholders in GBG Project Management Services, which convinced Kele to "commercialise" his new technology.

Kele says he has since lost money on the deal and his reputation has been damaged.

The first he knew there was trouble was when the CMC told him that the government had paid $2.1 million for the wastewater study.

Kele and his two colleagues were told there was only $100,000 available and they personally took pay cuts, receiving just $5400 each for four months work, so that the rest of the money could be spent on laboratory tests.

What they found was startling.

Their report details links between the sickness of indigenous children in remote Queensland communities and their coming into contact with wastewater laced with toxic chemicals produced by regional health facilities.

They also found antibiotic-resistant organisms were present in treated water outflow from other regional hospitals.

"We expected this to make a huge mark and for more work to be immediately done," he said.

"But once the CMC became involved with the corruption allegations, we heard nothing - it became political and no one wanted to touch it.

"I have no idea whether these problems have been fixed."

A spokeswoman for Queensland Health last night said all of the recommendations of the report had been implemented.

The CMC and Director of Public Prosecutions have refused to detail the allegations or their investigation into the two contracts; a 2001 workplace health and safety program and a 2004 wastewater study.

The first contract was awarded by the Department of Industrial Relations, when Nuttall was minister, and the second was awarded by Queensland Health, just before Nuttall was dumped from that portfolio. Sources have told The Australian of the circumstances leading up to the $2.1m health contract, as well as the involvement of Labor-linked businessmen, former bureaucrats and the exploitation of some of the state's emerging scientists.

At the centre of the allegations is GBG Project Management Services. The company's name carries the first name initials of Fenlon (who retired from politics this year), Doyle and McKennariey. Unlike the other two, Fenlon did take a seat on the board despite his 13 per cent holding.

Fenlon has not responded to repeated approaches from The Australian. Doyle, who resigned as a director in December, and McKennariey have also refused to comment.

According to sources close to the CMC investigation, soon after Fenlon convinced Kele in 2003 to allow GBG to commercialise the technology the young scientist had developed, the company wrote a letter to Nuttall suggesting he launch a study into the toxic wastewater dumped by hospitals and clinics in regional and remote Queensland.

It is not known what discussions had been going on between Nuttall, then health minister, and GBG directors. A few months later, GBG approached John Gowdie to be project manager. No allegation of wrongdoing has been made against Gowdie.

Months later, expressions of interest were called and the GBG-led group is understood to have been the only tenderer.

Queensland Health capital works and asset management head Geoff Stevenson - who quit the public service to join GBG as chief executive - awarded the contract to GBG.

Stevenson has previously refused to discuss the contract with The Australian.

Kele jumped at the opportunity to be involved in the study because the area had long been neglected. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; little is really known about industrial waste coming out of hospitals and the potential dangers to the community," he said yesterday.

He wasn't surprised when Central Queensland University was told the budget was only $100,000. Two other scientists, Billy Sinclair and Barry Hood, were recruited.

"The three of us basically worked for nothing - we were paid $5400 each for about four months work of climbing down into sewers and drains to get samples," he said.

"Poor Billy - this guy is Scottish and he is afraid of creepy crawlies and down in the drains he was covered in some pretty big cockroaches. But we wanted to keep the wages down so that we could pay for the lab tests, because the samples need to be tested within 24 hours. We were sending samples off at four in the morning, I bribed the ladies in courier companies with chocolates."

Kele was gutted when the CMC told him GBG had been paid millions for their work. "It was a huge shock, and terribly disappointing," he said.

His involvement with the Labor mates, as he now calls them, started out innocently enough.

While he was developing his pioneering wastewater treatment system, Kele was buying stacks of bamboo - which is used in the process - from a local supplier.

Kele says the supplier told a friend, Fenlon, about the young scientist's breakthrough.

Soon after, Fenlon called Kele "out of the blue", saying he wanted to have a meeting to discuss commercialising the 33-year-old's technology.

"Obviously, it was a great opportunity, and Fenlon then introduced me to his mates, McKennariey and Doyle," he said. "They offered to top-up my scholarship, dollar for dollar, and gave me some shares in the company and signed over rights to the system.

"They gave me some money for my study, but not what was promised and over the years I have lost money and I can't get out of the deal without spending a lot of money on legal fees.

"But the worst part is the damage that has been done to my professional reputation with this investigation; it makes my work ugly and depressing if I dwell on it."

See - The Australian - Down in the sewer for Queensland Labor mates.

Also see - Gordon Nuttall faces charges over $150k 'bribes'.

Former Beattie Minister faces corruption charges over wastewater project ...

Courier Mail:

Gordon Nuttall faces fresh charges

25 August 2009

Fresh official corruption charges as well as five counts of perjury have been laid against jailed former Labor minister Gordon Nuttall.

Nuttall has been charged under section 87 of the Criminal Code with 5 counts of corruptly receiving payments totalling $152,700 from Queensland businessman Brendan McKennariey between December 2001 and April 2006.

He is also facing five counts of perjury in relation to evidence he gave during a CMC closed hearing.

Officials from the Crime and Misconduct Commission travelled to the Wolston Correctional Centre at Wacol this morning to serve him with a notice to appear in court.

Nuttall is currently serving a seven-year jail term after being convicted of receiving secret commissions in the form of $300,000 from businessmen Ken Talbot and Harold Shand.

The latest payments were allegedly made when Nuttall held three ministerial positions - in the industrial relations, health and the primary industries portfolios.

"The alleged payments from Mr McKennariey to Mr Nuttall were made during a period when Mr McKennariey was receiving funds (as a subcontractor) from two projects being undertaken with the Government,'' the CMC said in a statement.

These were a Workplace Health and Safety training program in Indigenous communities commissioned by the Department of Industrial Relations in 2001 and a study on waste water in hospitals commissioned by Queensland Health in 2004 and 2005.

Nuttall will appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 9 September 2009.

See - Courier Mail - Gordon Nuttall faces fresh charges.


Mr McKennariey is the managing director of GBG Wastewater Management, an Arana Hills-based company which specialises in water treatment.

Among its contracts, GBG claims to have installed the first school-based effluent waste water treatment system at Greenbank State School in December 2004.

The firm's CEO, Geoff Stevenson, previously worked as a government adviser, according to Mr McKennaiery's online business profile.

See - Brisbane Times - Disgraced Minister faces further corruption charges.

Coal seam gas water - dollars from dirty water ...

Australian Financial Review:

Dollars from Dirty Water

21 August 2009

Large quantities of often toxic underground water, hitherto a serious barrier to coal seam gas extraction, could become valuable in its own right with careful planning, according to water purification engineers.

Names such as Origin Energy and ConocoPhillips, Santos and Petronas, the UK's BG Group and China National Offshore Oil Corp, Arrow Energy, Shell and others are in a scramble to invest billions of dollars to extract underground methane gas from coal areas such as the Surat and Bowen Basins in Queensland or the Gunnedah Basin in NSW.

But to do this they have to extract and dispose of large amounts of often saline, sometimes quite toxic underground water.

On October 30 last year, the Queensland government barred the previous practice of simply dumping the water in large evaporation ponds, which could be the size of several football fields, It ordered coal seam gas producers to find less environmentally damaging disposal methods for the water, not to mention cleaning up the existing evaporation ponds within three years.

What is a nuisance now as toxic waste water could be converted into useable water for stock watering, irrigation, watering of forestry plantations or even town water augmentation, say water processing specialists.

The best solution would be to pipe the water to a small number of centrally located purification plants, according to water engineer Vaughan Pearce of the water planning and design division of engineers MWH. This would aggregate a steady flow of water from several individual bores over 20 to 30 years, for optimum processing of different grades of water over an economic amortisation period.

Uses could include agriculture and horticulture immediately around the processing plants, extending even to glasshouse crops.

"The blueprint should be set in the Surat Basin," Mr Pearce said. "We would have an emerging industry, be able to set the economies and refine the management."

"It would give greater certainty with environmental issues, you'd be more certain of supply and quality. The industry is on the verge of massive expansion."

On cue, Australian desalination plant proponent EES Tech has agreed to provide its thermal desalination technology to water purification group Impulse Hydro for application to coal seam gas projects, with one contract already signed. The contract provides that this plant will be available for inspection as a test site for other potential customers.

EES Tech chief executive Murray Railey said the company's JetWater thermal desalination would be added to reverse osmosis water purification systems to take the percentage of useable output water from less than 75%, from osmosis alone, up to 97 per cent from the combined application.

"This has widespread immediate application to the growing coal seam gas industry in Australia, as well as in other mines which will be required to clean their waste water before it can be discharged," he said.

EES Tech holds the rights to three environmentally sustainable technologies which could be applied in coal mining.

Impulse Hydro chief Earle Roberts said: "Because of the efficiency of the combined systems the eventual market for the units in the coal seam gas industry could exceed $50 million over the next three years."

From any individual bore, the flow of water is strongest over the first three years. Government co-ordination of individual industry projects, with waste water piped up to 50 kilometres or more to central plants, would allow varying flows from different sites to be averaged out, and lightly contaminated water segregated from toxic flows requiring more intensive processing.

One expedient to be treated with caution is simply reinjecting the water into the ground after extraction of the methane coal seam gas. In the United States, after some years of this practice, local communities are finding previously pure aquifers becoming contaminated with saline water and toxic waste products.

One possibility for the Queensland government might be to establish a centre of excellence for saline water management, MHW's Mr Pearce said.

See - AFR - Dollars from Dirty Water.

Qld scientists probing key water issues to ensure supply ...

Queensland scientists are leading research into the purification of our drinking water, researching community reactions to recycled waste and understanding how to influence people to see water conservation as a way of life.

See - UQ - Qld scientists probing key water issues to ensure supply.

More research needed? Thought they had solved everything. That's what the government told everyone ...

Ambre Energy seeks Ipswich recycled water for Felton mine ...

15 August 2009

Ambre Energy yesterday confirmed it was considering building a water pipeline from Ipswich to service its proposed open-cut coal mine and petrochemical plant in Felton.

The company is costing the project, which could supply 1000 megalitres a year to its thirsty operation, 20 minutes south of Toowoomba.

Business development director Michael van Baarle said the option to pipe the recycled water was in “very early days”.

“We have a commercial negotiation going on in respect to another project and that’s how the idea (to access Ipswich supplies) came up,” he said.

“The concept of sending recycled water to Felton has been discussed internally rather than with relevant authorities.”

He said the company did not want to compete with other landholders for ground water.
...

See - The Chronicle - Miner probes pipeline plan.


A recycled water pipeline from Ipswich to Felton?

Has Ambre Energy really thought through the logistics ...

Landmark study declares recycled water safe ... for toilets and gardens ...

The Australian:

Treated effluent 'is safe'

13 August 2009

A pioneering Australian study has quietened years of controversy by declaring it safe to use treated effluent in loos and gardens.

The research, to be launched today, found no difference in rates of acute gastroenteritis, skin or respiratory conditions between people serviced by the nation's biggest residential recycled water scheme and those on conventional water systems.

Hawkesbury-Hills Division of General Practice chief executive Darren Carr said almost 36,000 patient records over two years were analysed to check how commonly residents of Sydney's Rouse Hill presented with the complaints, compared with those living nearby. "This is the first study of its kind in Australia or internationally to measure the health impacts of living in housing served by a dual-reticulation recycled water scheme," he said.

Rouse Hill in Sydney's northwest supplies up to 1.4 billion litres of recycled water a year to more than 18,000 homes for washing cars, flushing toilets, watering gardens and other outdoor uses.

The water has been used in bathrooms, laundries, kitchens and business operations, but is treated before being returned and is separated from drinking water pipes and taps.

Concerns about the health consequences of reusing water flushed down the cistern have slowed the take-up of water recycling by households and councils, despite falling dam levels.

See - The Australian - Treated effluent 'is safe' - for loos.

Anna Bligh to charge $20 million to move water down pipeline ...

The Chronicle:

$20 million water bill on cards

14th August 2009

$20 million — this could be the Toowoomba Regional Council’s water bill in the 18 months after the Wivenhoe Dam pipeline comes online.

The multi-million dollar figure is based on the State Government keeping its commitment to charge us $2250 a megalitre for its supply.

The council has already budgeted around this price which prompted a 100 per cent water rates rise last month.

The Chronicle worked out its figure based on Cressbrook Dam being about 8.7% capacity.

Once the pipeline is completed, pumps will operate non-stop for 12-18 months to raise the water level in Cressbrook to more than 20%.

Mayor Peter Taylor yesterday agreed the new water was “very expensive”.

But he said it was necessary to provide for the extra 71,000 people expected to move to the city by 2031.

“We just have to have water,” he said.

“We have to have water security or we can’t accommodate our future growth.”

He said the Wivenhoe connection would guarantee supplies until 2050.

“Other alternatives were even more expensive,” he said.

“There weren’t any other options that were viable.”

See - The Chronicle - $20 million water bill on cards.

$20 million to move water from Wivenhoe dam to Cressbrook dam where it will sit and start to evaporate ...

US thinks Toowoomba drinks recycled water ...

Another reason Toowoomba residents are grateful for the Di and Kevin sideshow of the past few years.

Their legacy!

In the US, they write articles about the people of Toowoomba drinking recycled water:

In fact, Toowoomba, a city in Australia, has applied that policy in a way that many would oppose: Residents have been drinking recycled sewage water. People in parts of Australia have become desperate because of recurring droughts in the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

See - Postbulletin.com - Bill Boyne: Effects of global water shortage can be averted.

Sorry Bill, you've got it wrong.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that these journalists do no homework.

Otherwise they'd realise that the recycled water proposal was defeated by 62% to 38% at the poll in 2006.

People still think of Toowoomba as Poowoomba.

And it will take some time for that image to fade.

Thank you Toowoomba City Council ...

Kevin Rudd's great carbon finance bubble ...

Herald Sun:

Kevin's carbon finance bubble

Terry McCrann

11 August 2009

Kevin Rudd wants to effectively increase the GST by a quarter to 12.5 per cent.

He also wants to deliver power blackouts across Australia and even perhaps permanent electricity rationing; and/or send billions of dollar overseas so we can 'have the right' to produce our own electricity.

He may even, as analysis from CEDA warns, help create a new "carbon finance bubble" that according to CEDA's research director Michael Porter, "could eventually dwarf the recent Global Financial Crisis problems".

"If Wall St's manipulation of debt and derivatives gave us the GFC, the emissions trading is certain to give us far worse," Porter added.

This is just part of what we would get if the government's Emissions Trading Scheme or ETS were to pass the Senate and become law.

The Opposition's failure to effectively oppose the ETS at its appalling absolute core, might be bad enough. Although Malcolm Turnbull does seem to have been dragged (silently) screaming and resisting, to finally vote against it. Not though for want of trying to 'do an ETS deal'.

But any failure by him and his colleagues pales into insignificance against the disgraceful performance of the bulk of the media and in particular the Canberra Press Gallery, which has given the government a complete pass on the dynamics if not the detail of the ETS.

Because, it has to be said, they mostly worship at the same church as Rudd - the entirely secular 'Earth Mother' one. And who could possibly be against - this form of - 'Motherhood?'

Evidence? Where has anyone in the Gallery or indeed the wider media held the government - Rudd and his climate minister Penny Wong in particular - to account for the 'Big (and very deliberate) Lie' that lies at the very heart of it all and envelopes everything?

That it's the 'Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme' - when it has got nothing to do with reducing carbon pollution in the only true sense, bits of particulate floating around. It is all and only about - purporting to - reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

Ah yes, but when we stop or reduce those 'dreadful polluters' in the La Trobe and Hunter valleys pumping out CO2, we'll also stop them pumping out 'carbon pollution' at the same time, won't we?

Short and total answer: no. The 'carbon pollution' in the CPRS is only carbon dioxide. Its deceptive use is designed to foster exactly that sort of sub-conscious impression.

The government is deliberately lying and the Press Gallery is utterly indifferent to, or indeed actually happy to broadcast, the lie.

And it works. In arguing the disastrous flaws of the proposed ETS yesterday, somebody who knows exactly what he's talking about, nevertheless drifted off into an observation about the "dreadful pollution" you saw and breathed on the way to Seoul airport.

The ETS will raise as much money as lifting the GST from 10 to 12.5 per cent. Just under $12 billion.

Indeed, if we get it, the impact would be very similar to doing exactly that - it is not an exaggeration to say it 'effectively' does raise the GST.

And then keeps raising it, automatically. That's the starting sum in 2012-13. It's specifically designed to keep going up to make carbon-based energy more expensive and less available by 'pricing it out of the market'.

We might be 'saved' because of what makes the greens unhappy. Under the Rudd-Wong ETS, we can buy permits from overseas. That's just wonderful -- we pay dodgy financial and other main-chancers billions to be allowed to continue to produce our own electricity.

It's all supposed to be OK. Because first it is designed to save the Barrier Reef if not the entire globe. Well it wouldn't, even if we did reduce our emissions. And if we buy in the right to 'pollute' we wouldn't even do that.

And because the government has promised to return 'every cent'. I'd suggest that's another, if somewhat smaller lie. Every cent.

But whatever, what would be, what should be, the media and opposition reaction if the government did propose lifting the actual GST from 10 to 12.5 per cent - and then to who knows what - on the promise of 'returning every cent'?

The massive uncertainty factor doesn't lie at Turnbull's feet but the government's. As the CEDA analysis shows only too clearly.

This will lead to power 'brown-outs' and blackouts; and perhaps permanent electricity rationing. As fellow commentator Bob Gottliebsen has shown, the disastrous long-term consequences are building right now.

There is no way coal-fired power stations - especially Victoria's - can commit hundreds of millions of dollars for vital maintenance. The prospect is that if we got the ETS many power stations would become unreliable and in some cases close.

This would be a disaster even if we had an 'alternative'. The only real one has been specifically prohibited by the Rudd Government. In any event even if a decision was taken today, the earliest we could get a nuclear power station is 2025.

The earliest we could expect to get significant amounts of base load power from nuclear is probably 2040. But only if we started right now.

Apart from the prohibition, nothing better captures the government's 'priorities' than pouring billions into pink batts rather than serious base load power generation.

To get any sort of significant power from nuclear we would have to commit right now to, say, a dozen stations

The so-called 'alternatives' are a joke. We could turn the entire south-eastern countryside into wind farms, and there would be times we would get zero or near enough to zero power from them all.

Back in 1914 the then British foreign secretary Lord Grey said: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Are we going to literally repeat it Down Under more or less exactly one hundred years later? Through our own, entirely modern, stupidity?

Grey was wrong about the latter: they were 'lit again' four years later. If Rudd and Wong succeed in turning them off, we should be so lucky.

See - Herald Sun - Kevin's carbon finance bubble.

Also see - The Australian - Emissions trading is a tax, no matter the name.

Toowoomba Regional Council's great Wivenhoe to Toowoomba pipeline fiasco ...

The Chronicle:

Council no wiser over contract

12 August 2009

The absence of a water-tight agreement with the State Government on the Wivenhoe Dam pipeline has left homeowners vulnerable to another rates rise.

If the cash-strapped State Government fails to honour a previous agreement on the cost of bulk water, Toowoomba ratepayers will face further increases next year.

Householders are already reeling from a 100 per cent increase in water charges announced in last month’s budget.

Mayor Peter Taylor said yesterday that he did not have a signed contract with the government on what it would charge the council for each megalitre of water out of Wivenhoe Dam.

He said that staff based this year’s budget on a commitment by Deputy Premier Paul Lucas to keep prices to about $2250 a megalitre (equal to the 2013-14 price of water in Brisbane).

“We need confirmation on that price. We’re yet to get (that),” Cr Taylor said.

Without a contract, the Queensland Water Commission (QWC) could increase the cost of bulk water. Council will have to pass on any rise to ratepayers.

“We have spoken to (Infrastructure Minister) Stirling Hinchliffe and (Natural Resources Minister) Stephen Robertson about the ongoing water costs,” Cr Taylor said.

A QWC spokeswoman said negotiations would be completed by the end of the year. She said the council initiated negotiations of an agreement reached in October.

See - The Chronicle - Council no wiser over contract.


No idea who will own the pipeline.

No idea how much the water will cost.

Yet Toowoomba Regional Council has already doubled water rates ...

Wivenhoe to Toowoomba pipeline gets its pumps ...

FluidHandling.com.au:

Toowoomba pipeline pumps on the way

10 August 2009

Work has begun on a new Wivenhoe Dam pump station that will deliver water to the drought-stricken Toowoomba region, Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Stirling Hinchliffe announced.

Mr Hinchliffe said when complete the station will pump water to Toowoomba at a rate of 490 litres per second.

He said two remote-controlled pumps will move water through the 38-kilometre pipeline at a force roughly 12.5 times the normal household water pressure.

“We are right on track to securing the water supply future for Toowoomba on time and on budget,” Minister Hinchliffe said.

“Without this pipeline, the situation is grim. Despite the passing of an extraordinary wet season for much of South East Queensland, there is currently less water in the three dams which feed Toowoomba than the previous year.

“Part of our response, as a government, is this pipeline. I’m delighted with progress.

"Not only are we delivering on our commitment to jobs but we are delivering vital infrastructure projects for the State on budget and on time."

The smaller of the pumps will be housed on a 45 metre-long jetty suspended over Wivenhoe Dam. It will extract water from the dam and deliver it over a short distance to the bigger pump, powered by an 1850 kilowatt motor.

The larger pump will deliver the water over the length of the pipeline, traversing challenging terrain, including a hill 265 metres above sea level.

Member for Toowoomba North Kerry Shine said the pumps will operate non-stop for 12-18 months after the pipeline is commissioned early in 2010 to raise the water level in Cressbrook Dam to more than 20 per cent. Cressbrook is currently the lowest of the three Toowoomba dam levels at 8.7 per cent of its capacity (as at 4 August 2009).

"Work on the intake jetty and its supporting pylons requires a large barge to be positioned in Wivenhoe Dam, where scuba divers will carry out any underwater activities," Mr Shine said.

"Close to 90 per cent of pipe is now in the ground with around five kilometres left to be laid."

"The Toowoomba Pipeline Alliance is on track for the pipeline to be operational for January 2010."

See - Toowoomba pipeline pumps on the way.

4350water blog - looking back at the cartoons ...

For a clearer view of the cartoons click here - 4350water blog cartoons - apologies for the ad, slide.com has to pay the bills ...

Anna Bligh runs short of money for Toowoomba pipeline ...

ABC News:

Pipeline agreement 'long way off'

5 August 2009

The Mayor of the Toowoomba Regional Council says there is still a long way to go before a financial agreement is reached with the Queensland Government over a water pipeline.

The State Government has agreed to pay about $40 million of the $185 million bill for a pipeline linking Wivenhoe and Cressbrook dams in southern Queensland.

The council has increased its water access charge for ratepayers to $640 a year, expecting it will have to pay the rest.

Mayor Peter Taylor says there was no agreement reached at yesterday's meeting with Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Sterling Hinchliffe.

"We both agreed there will be further meetings required to work through this," he said.

"We still haven't agreed on the ownership of the pipeline or the alternative of some other financial arrangement with the State Government, so those negotiations are ongoing and we certainly don't have a successful outcome."

See - ABC News - Pipeline agreement 'long way off'.

If no-one has agreed who will own the pipeline nor how the pipeline will be paid for, isn't a bit premature to double the Toowoomba water connection charge ...

Pee in the shower and save the rainforests ...

Brazilians urged to pee in the shower to save rainforests

5 August 2009

Brazilians are being encouraged to "Pee in the shower! Save the Atlantic rainforest!" in a bold new water saving campaign.

The ad campaign, by Brazilian environment group SOS Mata Atlantica, encourages people to cut water use by urinating in the shower, The Associated Press reports.

The environment group, which is running the cheeky ads playing on several television stations, says if households avoid one flush a day more than 4,300 litres of water will be saved each year.
...

See - Brazilians urged to pee in the shower to save rainforests.

When will newater be complete in Toowoomba ...

This was a Google search term which brought the reader in Singapore to the 4350water blog.

Answer: NEVER.

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Peter Taylor is visiting Singapore from 6 to 10 August (see - Mayor Taylor - I'm off on a boondoggle).

Wonder if he'll be doing the NEWater tour?

Will there be any photos of him relaxing in Singapore with a nice cold bottle of ... NEWater ...

PM Kevin Rudd to Turnbull - sign up to global warming laws or Opera House goes ...

The Federal Government has warned that Australian icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, the Tasmanian wilderness, Carlton Gardens and the Sydney Opera House could be damaged irreparably if the Coalition fails to support Labor’s emissions trading scheme.
...

... temperatures in Australia were likely to rise by up to 5 degrees by 2070 under a high emissions scenario, with a 10 per cent fall in average rainfall, lower stream flows, worsening water security and quality and more cyclones. By 2030, sea levels were likely to rise by about 17 centimetres.

...

See - The Age - Climate threat to heritage sites.


Sound familiar?

If you don't drink recycled water, you'll die.

We didn't.

If you don't pass our global warming legislation, the country will be destroyed.

It won't.

Clearly the message is not working because the warnings are becoming more dire, more threatening - 5% temperature increase, 17cm increase in sea levels in 20 years. Far beyond anything global warming scientists themselves believe and pure science fiction.

As a journalist said on ABC TV yesterday: pure bullsh*t.

And with China still building a couple of coal fired power stations a week, any climate initiative of the Australian government is the environmental equivalent of spitting on a raging bush fire.

Do politicians really think everyone is that stupid?

With all Anna Bligh's problems in Qld and Kevin Rudd needing Qld for an re-election win, perhaps Malcolm Turnbull will call Rudd's ETS double dissolution bluff ...

Anna Bligh's woes over Labor mates corruption ...

Claims about Labor mates and business relations have been a festering sore that Bligh and her predecessor Peter Beattie have ignored and it has now turned cancerous.

Just how entrenched and influential Labor-aligned lobbyists are in government decision-making will be pored over by the media and may require a CMC investigation, if not its own royal commission.

...

See - Courier Mail - Mates rates back to haunt Anna Bligh.

Also see - The Australian - Come off it, Anna, no one's buying it.

Toowoomba Regional Council - Rates skyrocket as ratepayers slugged ...

The Chronicle:

Rates skyrocket in budget grab

1 August 2009

A large number of Toowoomba ratepayers will be slugged with a total rate rise of nearly 30 per cent.

Council trumpeted a general rate rise of 7% when it handed down its budget on Tuesday, but the actual yearly rates bill will be increased by much more.

Calculations made by The Chronicle yesterday showed a typical Centenary Heights household’s total rates bill would increase by 26% under the new rates structure released this week.

On top of an average general rate rise of 7%, ratepayers are facing a 100% hike in water access charges and a significant increase in water consumption charges.

A typical Newtown ratepayer is also facing an increase of about 26%.

The calculations also included increased sewerage and waste collection charges.

It means many average households in Toowoomba will have to find almost $3000 for rates this year.

Meanwhile at Millmerran, a typical ratepayer is facing a total rates increase of about 14%.

Toowoomba Regional Council mayor Peter Taylor yesterday apologised for the increased costs to ratepayers.

He said it was important to point out some rates bills in the region could actually go down under the new structure.

“We know it’s a large cost, but we have to do it,” Cr Taylor said. “This decision secures Toowoomba and the areas connected to the water supply for the next 50 years.”

Cr Taylor said the rates increases would “turn council’s finances upside down”.

“Last year, the council had an operating deficit of $19.1 million,” he said. “This year, we have budgeted for an operating surplus of $50,000.

“That is a massive turnaround.

“I acknowledge we’ve done it in one go and there is going to be a lot of pain. But this budget puts us in a self-sustainable position and a strong financial position for the future.”

Cr Taylor said the water access charge had been separated from the general rates notice to help spread the load on ratepayers.

“It’s not to hide the cost, it’s to spread it out.”

See - The Chronicle - Rates skyrocket in budget grab.

How soon before the Councillors want another pay rise ...