The 4350water Blog highlights some of the issues relating to proposals for potable reuse in Toowoomba and South East Qld. 4350water blog looks at related political issues as well.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Yellow Is the New Green ...

Excerpt from New York Times:

Yellow Is the New Green

27 February 2009

In the far reaches of Shaanxi Province in northern China, in an apple-producing village named Ganquanfang, I recently visited a house belonging to two cheery primary-school teachers, Zhang Min Shu and his wife, Wu Zhaoxian. Their house wasn’t exceptional — a spacious yard, several rooms — except for the bathroom. There, up a few steps on a tiled platform, sat a toilet unlike any I’d seen. Its pan was divided in two: solid waste went in the back, and the front compartment collected urine. The liquids and solids can, after a decent period of storage and composting, be applied to the fields as pathogen-free, expense-free fertilizer.

From being unsure of wanting a toilet near the house in the first place — which is why the bathroom is at the far end of their courtyard — the couple had become so delighted with it that they regretted not putting it next to the kitchen after all.

What does this have to do with you? Mr. Zhang and Ms. Wu’s weird toilet — known as a “urine diversion,” or NoMix (after a Swedish brand), toilet — may have things to teach us all.

In the industrialized world, most of us (except those who have septic tanks) rely on wastewater-treatment plants to remove our excrement from the drinking-water supply, in great volumes. (Toilets can use up to 30 percent of a household’s water supply.) This paradigm is rarely questioned, and I understand why: flush toilets, sewers and wastewater-treatment plants do a fine job of separating us from our potentially toxic waste, and eliminating cholera and other waterborne diseases. Without them, cities wouldn’t work.

But the paradigm is flawed. For a start, cleaning sewage guzzles energy. Sewage treatment in Britain uses a quarter of the energy generated by the country’s largest coal-fired power station.

Then there is the nutrient problem: Human excrement is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which is why it has been a good fertilizer for millenniums and until surprisingly recently. (A 19th-century “sewage farm” in Pasadena, Calif., was renowned for its tasty walnuts.) But when sewage is dumped in the seas in great quantity, these nutrients can unbalance and sometimes suffocate life, contributing to dead zones (405 worldwide and counting, according to a recent study). Sewage, according to the United Nations Environment Program, is the biggest marine pollutant there is. Wastewater-treatment plants work to extract the nutrients before discharging sewage into water courses, but they can’t remove them all.

And there’s also the urine problem. Urine, like any liquid, is a headache for wastewater managers, because most sewer systems take water from street drains along with the toilet, shower and kitchen kind. Population growth is already taxing sewers. (London’s great network was built in the late 19th century with 25 percent extra capacity, but a system designed for three million people must now serve more than twice as many.) When a rainstorm suddenly sends millions of gallons of water into an already overloaded system, the extra must be stored or — if storage is lacking — discharged, untreated, into the nearest river or harbor. Each week, New York City sends about 800 Olympic-size swimming pools’ worth of sewage-polluted water into nearby waters because there’s nowhere else for it to go.

This probably won’t kill us, but it’s not ideal. Environmental scientists in California have calculated that sewage discharged near 28 Southern California beaches has contributed to up to 1.5 million excess gastrointestinal illnesses, costing as much as $51 million in health care. We can do better.

Urine might be one way forward. Before engineers scoff into their breakfast, consider that since at least 135,000 urine-diversion toilets are in use in Sweden and that a Swiss aquatic institute did a six-year study of urine separation that found in its favor. In Sweden, some of the collected urine — which contains 80 percent of the nutrients in excrement — is given to farmers, with little objection. “If they can use urine and it’s cheap, they’ll use it,” said Petter Jenssen, a professor at the Agricultural University of Norway.

The price of phosphorus fertilizers rose 50 percent in the past year in some parts of the world, as phosphate reserves, the largest of which are in Morocco and China, dwindle. (The gloomiest predictions suggest they’ll be gone in 100 years.) Although half of sewage sludge in the United States is already turned into cheap fertilizer known as “biosolids,” urine contains hardly any of the pathogens or heavy metals that critics of biosolids claim remain in mixed sewage, despite treatment.

The rest of Sweden’s collected urine goes to municipal wastewater plants, but in much smaller volume so it’s easier to deal with. Research by Jac Wilsenach, now a civil engineer in South Africa, found that removing even half of the nutrient-rich urine enables the bacteria in the aeration tanks to munch all the nitrogen and phosphate matter in solid waste in a single day rather than the usual 30. Urine diversion also makes for richer sludge and produces more methane, which can be turned into gas or electricity, Mr. Wilsenach said. In short, separating urine turns a guzzler of energy into a net producer.

Putting urine to use is not new. A friend’s grandmother remembers the man coming round for the buckets 60 years ago in Yorkshire, which were then sold to the tanning industry. The flush toilet ended that, and no one — my friend’s nan included — wants outside privies again. “Any innovation in the toilet that increases owner responsibility is probably seen as downwardly mobile,” said Carol Steinfeld, of New Bedford, Mass., who imports NoMix toilets into the United States.

Then there’s the sitting problem: in most urine-diversion toilets, a man must empty his bladder sitting down. This wouldn’t be a problem in some countries — Germany recently introduced a toilet-seat alarm that admonishes standers to sit — but it has been in others. Professor Jenssen was flummoxed by one participant at a training workshop in Cuba who said firmly, “If a man sits, he is homosexual.”

For now, “ecological sanitation” — or more sustainable sewage disposal — thrives mostly in fast-industrializing countries like China and India, which have money to invest in alternatives but few sewers. A subculture of composting toilets exists in the United States, but only a few hundred urine-diversion toilets have been imported, Ms. Steinfeld said.

Necessity — whether occasioned by fertilizer prices, carbon footprints or crippling capital investments — could bring change. At a recent wastewater conference, I watched in astonishment as dour engineers rushed to question a speaker who had been talking about stabilization ponds, which clean sewage using water, flow control, bacteria and light. Normally, such things would be cast into the box of hippie-ish ecological sanitation. But to managers struggling with energy quotas and budget limitations, more sustainable, less energy-intensive sanitation may be starting to make sense.

As Mr. Zhang told me with a smile: “For me, whatever the toilet is, I use it. For example, here we eat wheat. When we go to the south of China, we eat rice. Otherwise we starve.”

It’s been more than 100 years since Teddy Roosevelt wondered aloud whether “civilized people ought to know how to dispose of the sewage in some other way than putting it into the drinking water.” The Zhang family toilet is not the perfect answer to Roosevelt, as it still uses some water, though 80 percent less than a regular flush toilet uses. But at least it’s the result of someone asking the right questions.

Rose George is the author of “The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters.”


See - Yellow Is the New Green.

Scenic Rim Council approves recycled water pipeline ...

Scenic Rim Council approves recycled water pipeline

27 February 2009

Farmers near the Logan River in southern Queensland's Scenic Rim region will soon have a guaranteed water supply.

The Scenic Rim Council has approved a project to pipe recycled water from the Beaudesert treatment plant to local farms.

Stage one of the plan includes treating sewage from the Beaudesert treatment plant to irrigation quality within three years.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

UK Sustainable Development Commission needs to do better research ...

The UK Sustainable Development Commission is the UK Government’s independent watchdog on sustainable development.

Pity their research skills aren't much better than those of a 5 year old.

On page 7 of their report SDC response to National Framework for Greater Citizen engagement (October 2008), there's a very interesting footnote:

14. A recent referendum in Queensland, Australia on use of recycled water during the drought illustrates the point well: A referendum returned a ‘no’ vote, but then a blogging campaign – with both sides participating and exploring the full range of views in a deliberative way - resulted in a ‘yes’ the second time round. http://4350water.blogspot.com/2008/09/4350water-blog-recent-search-terms.html.

See - SDC report - Footnote 14 is completely wrong.

The SDC uses this to justify the use of their Framework as an opportunity for participation to help achieve sustainable solutions and go beyond referenda, which can be limited in their ‘deliberative’ potential. If referenda are off the political agenda, it becomes even more important to consider how to use engaged methods to work with the public to make and implement decisions.

Oops.

Are they serious? Doesn't anyone at the SDC do any actual research?

A referendum returned a ‘no’ vote, but then a blogging campaign – with both sides participating and exploring the full range of views in a deliberative way - resulted in a ‘yes’ the second time round?

32,330 voters in Toowoomba remember it slightly differently.

The blogging campaign against the Toowoomba City Council's propaganda campaign came before the referendum returned a No vote and there was no second referendum.

4350water blog encourages government agencies to cite the 4350water blog as part of their research but would prefer them to use employees with sufficient IQ lest mistakes occur ...

Recycled water failures sees Werribee farmers push for desal plant ...

Growing support for Werribee desal plant

25 February 2009

A second desalination plant could be built close to Melbourne in a bid to solve a looming crisis at one of Australia's most important food production zones.

The push to build another desalination plant is designed to save the Werribee Irrigation District, which is estimated to supply close to half Australia's vegetables yet is facing a bleak future under present water arrangements.

Crops at Werribee have been grown in recycled water from the nearby sewage treatment plant for almost four years, but Government failure to ensure the quality of that water has led to fears the district could be destroyed for farming within a decade.

Salinity levels in the recycled water have regularly been double the maximum promised by the State Government when it urged market gardeners onto the recycled water scheme in 2004.

"Within 10 years, I think if it (the soil) wasn't buggered, we would be finding it extremely difficult," said Werribee farmer Carmelo Santamaria.

The Government is now locked in negotiations with water authorities, the local council and market gardeners in a bid to solve the crisis and preserve several hundred local businesses.

Farmers have pushed for a desalination plant attached to the treatment plant to purify the water, and despite concerns from Melbourne Water that such a solution would be too costly, the farmers have found support from the local council, Wyndham City.

The council has argued it could be more affordable if multiple users of the water were found in Melbourne's west.

In a letter to a Victorian Parliament inquiry, Wyndham chief executive Peter Marshall argued that a new desal plant could be more affordable if multiple uses for the water were found.

In particular, he suggested the plant could help parched sportsgrounds in Melbourne's west.

The proposed plant would not supply drinking water, but would be safe for all other non-consumptive uses.

The water authority charged with evaluating the future options at Werribee — Southern Rural Water — confirmed this week that desalination had not been ruled out and would be considered in a major options analysis now under way.

Despite its caution over costs, Melbourne Water has also refused to rule out desalination.

The four-year arrangement to use the recycled water will expire on June 30, yet SRW has only recently started an investigation into the best option for continued farming at Werribee.

The delay means that an extension of the deal — which farmers fear is ruining their soil — is likely to be announced for a further two years.

If desalination were adopted, it would be the second major example of such technology in Victoria, after the Labor Government controversially opted to build a desalination plant at Wonthaggi to help boost Melbourne's drinking water supplies.

Water Minister Tim Holding indicated that a solution to Werribee's woes was still a long way from being found.

"They are complex issues and they depend on a lot of different factors, on which drought has had a fairly dramatic impact," he said.


See - The Age - Support for desal plant.

Australia as a puddle ...


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Farewell to the QWC ...

Anna Bligh axes Nosworthy's QWC - folds staff into DPI ...

This will be tough news for the QWC staffers surfing the blogs while eating their cornflakes.

QWC was chewing through $28 million per year.

No more.

Water Commission budget slashed to pay for tax breaks

24 February 2009

The Queensland Water Commission will have its budget slashed by almost half to pay for payroll tax concessions for businesses to employ apprentices and trainees.

In Townsville on the first full day of campaigning for the March 21 election, Premier Anna Bligh announced that the commission would have its budget cut by $15 million over two years to pay for the payroll tax incentives.

Ms Bligh said the commission, headed by Elizabeth Nosworthy, would be merged with the Department of Primary Industries but that no jobs would be lost in the move.

Instead, public awareness campaigns would be cut as "Queenslanders had got the message on saving water".


See - QWC axed by Bligh - merged into DPI.

Wonder how much they paid the QWC staff to monitor the 4350water blog ...

Update - Nosworthy to stay on - for a while:

Ms Bligh said the Queensland Water Commission board would remain in place, including chairwoman Elizabeth Nosworthy, who is a member of several boards of public companies and has had to face up to various corporate troubles in those areas while she has been chair of QWC.

See - QWC Board to keep drawing their salaries.

Nosworthy is running out of Boards to sit on as these companies collapse.  Any that actually manage to survive are unlikely to want to keep her on ...



Monday, February 23, 2009

QWC's NEWater experiment with athletes backfires ...

Courier Mail:

20 February 2009

There are few people more desperate for a drink than a triathlete after swimming 1.5km, cycling 40km and running 10km for two-plus hours in a race. They usually scoff whatever fruit and drink is at the finish line. So, at the end of the recent Moreton Bay Challenge triathlon at Redcliffe, they stumbled in, were handed bottled water and started guzzling. Then one read the bottle. 

This NEWater brand hadn't come gurgling from a pure mountain spring in France or Tassie. It was flushed from a toilet . . . in Singapore.

"Bloody hell," the cry went up. "It's poo water and not even ours."

And that put a cat turd among the pigeons. It was being handed out by girls in Queensland Water Commission T-shirts.

Yes, I know all about globalisation blah blah blah but somehow, importing water from the toilets of Singapore just seems . . . fundamentally stupid. Whichever government minion's bright idea that was, take yourself aside. 

If these triathletes were anything to go by, the poo water promotion backfired. Or maybe athletes are a little more particular about what they put in their bodies. 

As one said: "Give us a bloody cup and I'll find a tap."

See - QWC's NEWater experiment backfires.

Anna Bligh blames global financial crisis for holding early election ...

Anna Bligh lies about going full term - sends Qld to polls on 21 March ...

Premier Anna Bligh is on her way to Government House to ask Governor Penny Wensley to dissolve Parliament and will then call a general election for March 21.

Ms Bligh has repeatedly stated she intended to go full term – which would have meant an election in September.

But speculation has been growing that she would instead go early after Labor began airing attack ads against Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg rushed to fill vacancies caused by retiring MPs, the Premier launched a new website and tried to put a lid on damaging electoral issues including furore over the new Queensland Children's Hospital.

Labor currently holds 58 of the 89 seats in Parliament, the Liberal National Party holds 25, there is one MP from both the Greens and One Nation and four Independents.

To take power, the LNP needs to win an extra 21 seats because Stuart Copeland's seat of Cunningham has been scrapped in the recent redistribution.


See - Qld off to the polls.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

North Queensland flood photos ...

See - ABC North Qld - flood photos.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Anna Bligh loses Qld's AAA credit rating ...

Voter confidence in Labor's ability to govern during the economic crisis will be tested for the first time in Queensland, where an early election is almost certain after the Bligh Government revealed yesterday the state budget had plunged $1.6 billion into deficit.

The collapse of fortunes forced ratings agency Standard & Poor's to lower the state's long-cherished AAA credit rating for the first time to AA.


See - Qld loses AAA rating.

Silence from Bligh government as bacteria resistant superbugs found in Qld water supply ...

Excerpt from Courier Mail:

Bacteria resistant superbugs found in water supply

By Des Houghton
20 February 2009

Flesh-eating bacteria resistant to antibiotics have found their way from hospital sewers into rivers and streams throughout Queensland.

Scientists who made the startling discovery in 2006 have expressed alarm that the State Government failed to follow up their report or act on their recommendations.

Secret tests on waste water discharged from 28 Queensland hospitals and clinics revealed the widespread presence of MRSA (Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VRE (Vancomycin resistant Enterococci).

However there was no evidence the potentially lethal organisms had made their way into drinking water.

A Central Queensland University scientist who helped carry out the research told me 97 per cent of hospital sewage discharge lines tested positive for antibiotic resistant bacteria.

He said 70 per cent of hospital discharges tested positive for both MRSA and VRE.

"We got a lot more of those bacteria than we thought possible," he said.

"The MRSA and VRE are a major source of deaths from medical infections.

"Even though they have passed through a treatment process, the bacteria are most likely getting back into natural waterways, dams and ponds used for swimming, boating, fishing and in food production.

"Strangely, they are not routinely tested in water management systems.

"A sample can come back lacking in, for instance, E. coli bacteria, so it's wrongly assumed it's safe."

The results of the tests were tabled in Parliament by Dr Bruce Flegg (LNP, Moggill) in 2007 but went unreported perhaps due to their technical nature.

The report sat in limbo until it was tabled again last week by Rob Messenger (LNP, Burnett) who asked Health Minister Stephen Robertson to explain why it cost taxpayers $2.6 million when the university got only $107,000 for researching and writing it.

As well as the deadly microbes resistant to antibiotics, the scientists led by William Sinclair, Ben Kele and Barry Hood revealed the presence of 56 chemicals and heavy metals - some highly toxic - in hospital waste water.

The report noted: "The presence of these organisms at the point of wastewater entry into the council sewerage system indicates it is likely they will routinely be washed into the general wastewater stream, which flows to the community treatment facility.

"The fate of these organisms is a primary concern.

"Are they removed from the 'treated' water or do they pass through the treatment process and into the 'treated' outflow?

"If they are retained in the treatment system what happens to them - are they destroyed or do they form part of the microbial community associated with the facility?"

Checks were done at nearly 180 remote and regional hospitals and community health centres and dental clinics.

The hospitals where MRSA or VRE or both were found were listed as Kilcoy, Moura, Yeppoon, Weipa, Charters Towers, St George, Ayr, Emerald, Dalby, Thursday Island, Kingaroy, Boonah, Biloela, Babinda, Texas, Surat, Blackwater, Moranbah, Maleny, Gordonvale, Oakey, Mapoon, Ravenshoe, New Mappoon, Whitsunday and Proserpine.

The university's study is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia.

I understand the findings have been verified by the CSIRO.

The report was completed in 2006 and became the centre of a Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation.

During the investigation the anti-corruption watchdog raided the homes and offices of at least four businessmen with links to the Australian Labor Party.


Shamefully, the report was not released by the State Government and the scientists doubt if any of their recommendations were implemented.

"There was a wall of silence," one scientist said.

"We heard nothing."

Mr Messenger said he was appalled the Health Minister was doing exactly the opposite to what he promised in Parliament by dismissing the issue and sweeping it under the carpet.

In the US, medical journals have likened the arrival of the MRSA "superbug" to the AIDS epidemic.

At a recent conference on infectious diseases in Cairns, the principal scientist at Royal Perth Hospital, Geoffrey Coombs, said MSRA was one of the biggest bacterial threats to humanity.

One of the country's leading water experts assures me Queensland's drinking water is free of dangerous bacteria.

Don Bursill from the National Health and Medical Research Council said although super bugs such as golden staph might be occurring environmentally, they did not survive the drinking water treatment process.

"None of these pathogens which have developed this resistance are surviving in public water supplies," Professor Bursill said.

He was confident the final chlorine and ultraviolet light treatments kept drinking water safe.


See - Courier Mail - Bacteria resistant superbugs found in water supply.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Coal seam gas water in limelight ...

Excerpt from Qld Country Life:

Coal seam water in limelight

13 February 2009

Worries about coal seam gas water contaminating local water courses could be allayed, courtesy of a pilot reverse osmosis plant that came on-stream for the first time late last week.

Following a tour of Arrow Energy’s facilities in and around its Daandine Field operations west of Dalby, principally to show the extent of its burgeoning operations, rural interest centered on the prospects for pilot desalination plants and their ability to treat the water associated with the coal seam gas/water extraction process.

Energy companies have been rushing to develop this energy-rich sector of south east Queensland but have rural producers and conservationists on edge over the quality of water being drawn from the underlying coal seams.

While a couple of feedlots already utilise water from Arrow Energy’s gas extraction process, often it is supplemented by bore water before being pumped to thirsty stock.

Arrow Energy environmental manager, Ralph Gunness, was buoyed when examining the first treated coal seam gas water to emerge from the company’s trial reverse osmosis plant on the day I visited.

Within months it is expected to be applied to crops on its Glenelg property via a centre-pivot irrigation system that will cover 80ha (204 acres) on each sweep.

“It will demonstrate to local farmers just what we can do with our water,” Mr Gunness said.

He says agronomists will conduct tests on the crops to be grown beneath the centre-pivot irrigator with the local community to be involved in “each step of the way” with the new plant on track to supply about 1.5ML of treated water each day.

“We’re looking to process all of our water for the benefit of the community,” he added.

Already, Arrow Energy is supplying around 13ML a day of coal seam gas water to neighbouring feedlots, local coal washing facilities, plus directing it to power stations for cooling purposes.

Mr Gunness believes the company’s pilot reverse osmosis plant will be the forerunner of further plants that not only will supply treated water for local producers but also earmark its use within local carbon sequestration projects involving both forestry and crops.

Arrow Energy envisages developing its reverse osmosis strategies by either positioning smaller-scale plants nearer clusters of wells, or near more substantial plants to provide water to designated irrigation projects.

“For the moment we’ll be working on the dynamics of how they (reverse osmosis plants) will work and how we can manage the water over time,” Mr Gunness said.

Vice president of AgForce, Ian Burnett, is cautiously optimistic about Arrow Energy’s pilot reverse osmosis plant.

His comments come in the aftermath of the lobby group’s worries about the impact of mining operations on water quality.

“While I haven’t seen the scheme, as far as agriculture is concerned, we are encouraged by any development to treat that coal seam gas water,” he said.

“We will be interested to see how the pilot plant develops,” Mr Burnett added.

Queensland Farmers Federation president, Gary Sansom, says he doesn’t doubt the quality of the treated water, querying, however, the costs involved.

“I’m sure reverse osmosis works but, unfortunately, it’s not cheap – so that might be a limiting factor to primary producers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Queensland Government says it is finalising a discussion paper on ways to manage coal seam gas water.

Those wanting to comment on the issue should contact the Coal Taskforce at:
coaltaskforce@dip.qld.gov.au

See - Coal seam water in limelight.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Port Phillip Council - don't pee in our town ...



South Australia - Wastewater reuse plan for new estate ...

Thousands of residents in new housing estates in the southern suburbs could be using recycled water in their gardens and toilets from late next year.

The Mawson Lakes-style water system would provide 1.6 gigalitres of treated wastewater to 8000 new homes in areas around Seaford.

Homes in northern Mawson Lakes have dual waterpipes plumbed to homes, one pipe for mains water for such uses as showers and drinking, and another pipe for recycled water for toilet and outdoor use.

The Southern Urban Reuse project would take treated wastewater from the Christies Beach treatment plant to the Aldinga wastewater treatment plant for further treatment and storage. It would then be piped into new housing developments. Work on the pipelines and storaPublish Postge tanks is expected to begin in April with the first delivery of water to new developments in late 2010.

The Federal and State governments have provided a combined $62.6 million for the project.


See - Wastewater reuse plan for new estate.

Impossible in Qld - reality in SA ...

Monday, February 16, 2009

Anna Bligh launches 2009 Qld ALP election campaign ...

Launched 14 February 2009


Premier Anna Bligh looked outside the "Smart State" when developing her official election campaign website which was designed in the southern states.

The anna4qld site - which is emblazoned on every page with the slogan "Protecting Queensland Jobs" - was developed by the Melbourne-based DTDigital and the Sydney-based Lawrence Creative Strategy.


See - Courier Mail - Anna Bligh's election website not Queensland-made.

Silly mistake ...



See - Anna4Qld.com.au.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

For Anna on Valentine's Day ...

Anna Bligh's secret Qld icon list ...

All 700 names on the long list are listed in the comments.

See - Courier Mail - Queensland icons: the list of 700 nominations.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Quote of the day ...

"A ski area should know better than to attempt to make fake snow from treated sewage effluent and dominate Mother Nature in the high desert, especially in the face of global warming.  It's not only unsustainable, it's insane."

See - Tribes and environmental groups petition Supreme Court to protect sacred mountain.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Dalby leads the way in recycled water ... for non-potable reuse ...

Dalby Recycled Water Plant

The Dalby Recycled Water Plant treats approximately 2 mega litres or 2 million litres of household reclaimed water per day of which one third is currently treated to a Class A standard. 

The Class A recycled water is used to supply water to the Golf Club, Turf Club and South State School for turf irrigation.

Council is upgrading the treatment plant to provide Class A+ recycled water to homes in the Trinity Green Estate via a dual reticulation system and to the Dalby Bio-Refinery upon completion.

When recycled water is provided to these two projects the Dalby plant will be recycling approximately 75 per cent of all household reclaimed water.


See - Dalby and recycled water.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Forget recycled water - try Kabbalah water ...

That's not Cabarlah water - it's the cleansing power of Kabbalah water:

Over the millenia, ancient kabbalists understood water to be the source of all cleansing. Making use of Kabbalistic technology, they would activate the cleansing power of water. These waters have been energized with the same 4,000 year old technology.

Note: The producer and distributor of this water do not claim any specific physical benefits which might be achieved by using it. Persons suffering physical ailments are urged to consult with their physicians.

See - I want my miracle Kabbalah water.

Maybe if the Water Futures project had been built, the Council could have sold a line of Kevin water at Woolies ...

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Why Victoria won't opt for toilet-to-tap recycled water ...

... State Water Minister Tim Holding outlined why the Victorian Government had rejected recycled water, tanks and dams as options to boost the state's water supply.
...

... Mr Holding said recycled water would be extremely unpopular, tanks wouldn't capture enough water and piping water from Tasmania would be too expensive and unreliable.
...

He said adding recycled water to Melbourne's reservoirs would be met with howls of protest.

Mr Holding said "Toilet to Tap" protesters would fiercely battle the Government over the proposal.


See - Weekly Times Now - Holding talks down tanks.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Anna Bligh readies SEQ water grid for privatisation ...

... using 'take or pay' clauses to underwrite profitability of SEQ water companies.

The State Government's Swanbank power station will spend up to $20 million in the next 10 years on recycled water it does not want or need.

CS Energy, which operates the station west of Brisbane, has what it describes as an "onerous" take-or-pay 10-year water purchase agreement with the government-owned South East Queensland Water Grid Manager.
...

The result is a long-term water-supply contract that CS Energy said in its latest annual report was "in excess of both the current and anticipated future operating requirements of the Swanbank power stations".

"A ($20.6 million) provision for an onerous contract has been recognised for that portion of the fixed charge that relates to water currently identified as excess to operating requirements," the report said.


See- Courier Mail - Swanbank charged $20m for unwanted recycled water.

A take or pay clause that obligates Swanbank to pay for water that it will never need.

So the government-owned Swanbank subsidises the profitability of the SEQ water grid.

If anyone thought the privatisation of water wasn't on the cards, they need to think again ...

Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Peter Taylor - how much of your money can I stuff in my pockets ...


Looking oh so comfortable in front of the camera ...

SEQ water grid - $1.2bn water project springs a leak as parts fail ...

Queensland government authorities failed to check the reliability of European companies that supplied 45 rusting pipe couplings for a $1.2 billion desalination plant.
...

The complications for the desalination plant follow setbacks for another central plank of the $9 billion water grid, the $2.5 billion western corridor recycled water scheme.

The scheme has suffered a succession of waste water spillages, including three on one day last month, while plans to add treated effluent to drinking water supplies this month were deferred.

Industry sources said the company members of the alliance building the desalination plant -- Veolia Water, John Holland, Sinclair Knight Merz and Cardno -- had not been responsible for checking the reliability of companies that supplied the corrosive pipe couplings and other parts.

The suppliers were not vetted adequately by state government authorities because of the need to complete the plant quickly amid fears at the time that southeast Queensland could run out of water. A return to wet conditions in recent months has eased the water supply crisis.
...

See - The Australian - $1.2bn water project springs a leak as parts fail.

Monday, February 02, 2009

4350water blog 950% more popular than QWC website ...

YouTube stats for QWC's latest ad campaign show more visitors via 4350water blog than via QWC's own website:

Clicks URL:
12 - http://4350water.blogspot.com/
6 - http://www.4350water.blogspot.com/
2 - http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/Purified+recycled+water
2 - http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/tiki-index.php?page=SandBox
1 - http://4350water.blogspot.com/2009/01/qwc-starts-you...

That must be disappointing for the Qld government.  Such an expensive website (at taxpayers' expense of course!) and only 2 visitors* so far clicking through to see their video ...

(* = 4 visitors but the 2 listed as coming via the 'SandBox' would be QWC employees)

San Diego wakes up to the prospect of human error with recycled water ...

Eww de Toilet

8 January 2009

Rob Davis' article on recycled sewage is interesting but a bit short on fact. First, when San Diego tried out their proposed system in the mid-1990s, there was much hype about the Virginia project, which had just started, and the Orange County program.

The wastewater department had spent a lot of taxpayer money on an experimental plant, and had many reports including a "scientific report" which I read. The principle conclusion was that the proposed system "shows promise." That is a scientist's way of saying that we aren't there yet.

The Orange County plan was to return the somewhat purified sewage to the underground, natural, aquifer where it would circulate for six about six years, not six months.

Quite apart from the issues of the science and planning, the one problem not solved is that of human error. During the period when the city was considering this project, there were several leaks of sewage into bodies of so-called "pure" water, which had gone undetected for months. This was largely due to a failure to conduct regular inspections. Every city and county department screws up on occasion for a whole variety of reasons. There is nothing to insure that they won't happen to our drinking water.


See - Eww de toilet.