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.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Brisbane dam levels at 76.77% ...

Seqwater rainfall and dam level update

Wivenhoe, Somerset & North Pine dams (Greater Brisbane)

Rainfall across the catchments has resulted in further inflows over the weekend.

Since Friday, the combine storage volume has increased by +1.16% to 76.77%

Wivenhoe is currently 67.15%, Somerset 93.11% and North Pine Dam 100.00%.


See - SEQwater - Brisbane dam levels.

Toowoomba dam levels reduce 0.1% in 12 months ...

Toowoomba dam levels - 30 June 2008 - 10.9%

Toowoomba dam levels - 29 June 2009 - 10.8%.

See - Toowoomba Regional Council - dam levels.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Anna Bligh's QWC costs blow out ...

Sunday Mail:

Splashing out

28 June 2009

Why is the cost of the Queensland Water Commission soaring out of control, and just what does it do?

They are questions Queenslanders might reasonably ask this morning as they read of the massively increasing costs of an organisation that was supposed to be abolished after flooding rains washed away the water crisis.

Established by then-premier Peter Beattie to oversee water supply strategy and the building of a $9 billion infrastructure grid, the commission was supposed to cost a relatively painless $2 million a year. Last year it cost $24 million, and this year it will cost $28 million.

The Weller Report recommended in April that it be abolished and its responsibilities be taken over by relevant departments.

Instead, Premier Anna Bligh gave us promises of action, trimmed the number of commission members from three to one and outlined an election campaign program of cost-cutting that is revealed as a bad joke.

Ms Bligh and her government owe Queensland straight answers to the two simple questions above.

See - Sunday Mail - Splashing out.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

SEQ Water at fault for Brisbane fluoride overdose ...

ABC News:

SEQ Water at fault for Brisbane fluoride overdose

26 June 2009

Queensland Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson has blasted SEQ Water for its role in a fluoride overdose in water supplies, north of Brisbane.

After initial confusion about the date, suburbs and dosage involved, the State Government confirmed the contamination happened in April, with up to 400 homes affected in the suburb of Joyner, as well as 200 children at a school camp.

Premier Anna Bligh ordered an independent report to find out what caused a malfunction at the North Pine water treatment plant.

The independent report has found the fluoride overdose was caused by equipment failures to which the operators did not respond appropriately and recommends more training for staff.

Queensland Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson says he has put SEQ Water on notice that he will not tolerate another fluoride bungle.

"I've expressed to them in the strongest possible terms my expectation that this incident will not be treated lightly," he said.

"But I've also indicated to them that should a repeat of such an episode again, I will not hesitate in removing the board."

He says it is unacceptable that water safety legislation has been breached.

"I have spoken directly to the chair of SEQ Water indicating to them my very strong displeasure," he said.

"I have expressed in very strong terms that I find this unacceptable and that my expectation is that the board will take appropriate action against those found to be responsible."

The fluoride facility will be closed until at least September while repairs are made.


See - ABC News - SEQ Water at fault for Brisbane fluoride overdose.

Tugun desal plant can 'service large population' ...

ABC News:

Tugun desal plant can 'service large population'

26 June 2009

The company responsible for transferring water around south-east Queensland says the Gold Coast desalination plant will be used even if Hinze Dam is full.

The chief executive officer of Water Grid Manager, Barry Dennien, says once fully operational the Tugun plant can operate at either 33, 66 and 100 per cent capacity.

He says there is a large network linking the Gold Coast to Brisbane and surrounding regions.

"Even in the case of Hinze Dam ... [being] full we would most likely take some water still to the central region if the dams of the central region aren't of the same level as the dams on the coastal areas," he said.

He says when fully operational the Tugun plant will be able to service a large population.

"We've got flexibility to run it at zero, 33, 66 or 100 per cent. So having that flexibility gives us options and we'll make those decisions at the time when we are able to make those calls on what percentage we want to dial up on that plant," he said.


See - ABC News - Tugun desal plant can 'service large population'.

Cost woes scrap Victorian recycled water scheme ...

The Australian:

Water recycling plan switched off

27 June 2009

Billions of litres of drinking water will pour through Victoria's power stations after the state government dumped plans to use recycled water.

Despite 12 years of drought and water shortages, the recycling project has been shelved in an announcement that coincided with rising water bills.

The government has also abandoned plans to divert recycled water to the Yarra River, which would have freed up more drinking supplies.

Releasing a $6 million business case report on the projects, Water Minister Tim Holding said they were too expensive.

"I don't think we could look Melbourne households in the face and tell them their water bills were going to go up hundreds of dollars for such a small increase in potable water supplies," he said yesterday. An upgrade of the Eastern Treatment Plant on Melbourne's fringe is set to be completed by 2012, treating more than 100 billion litres of waste water a year.

Victoria's Latrobe Valley uses about that amount to cool its coal-fired power stations. The government had proposed substituting 67 billion litres of that with recycled water. But the business case found the scheme would cost $3.9 billion, plus $100m a year in operating expenses.

The 60 billion litre Yarra River project was valued at $2.1bn. Mr Holding said the costs outweighed the benefits.

A contentious desalination plant is going ahead, costing at least $3.1bn and producing 150 million litres of water a year.

"When you look at them from a cost perspective, they're not in the same ballpark," Mr Holding said.

Federal opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said the decision represented environmental vandalism.

"It means billions of litres of treated sewage will continue to gush into one of Victoria's top coastlines at Gunnamatta Beach on the Mornington Peninsula," Mr Hunt said.

Melbourne water bills will soar by between 51 per cent and 64 per cent from Wednesday under price rises approved by the Essential Services Commission yesterday. The increases will add more than $300 to the average annual bill to pay for billions of dollars' worth of drought-busting water projects.


See - The Australian - Water recycling plan switched off.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Brisbane dam levels hit 75% ...

See - SEQwater - Dam levels.

Monday, June 22, 2009

QWC's Elizabeth Nosworthy shown the door in reshuffle ...

The State Government has announced SEQ Water director Mary Boydell will take over as the new Commissioner for the restructured Queensland Water Commission (QWC) next month.

There will be one commissioner instead of three, and some responsibilities will be transferred to Government departments.


See - ABC News - Qld Govt appoints new Water Commissioner.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Anna Bligh MP says bury the dead with GPS devices ...

One of Anna's MPs wants to recycle humans, using cardboard cartons for burials in the bush and leaving GPS devices with the bodies so family members can find where they are buried.

"Testing has shown that they release half the emissions of a standard coffin," she said.

See - Courier Mail - Go for eco-friendly grave, says MP Barbara Stone.

Are the GPS devices biodegradable ...

Labourer sues Sydney Water after drinking sewage ...

See - Sydney Morning Herald - Labourer sues after drinking sewage.

Tampa water officials studying toilet-to-tap proposal ...

See - Tampa water officials studying toilet-to-tap proposal.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Toowoomba Regional Council out of money for Wivenhoe pipeline project ...

TRC Financial Services spokesman Cr Mike Williams said water rates would be impacted by the massive loan needed to fund the pipeline.

Says they are down to their last negotiation with the Qld Water Commission.

See - The Chronicle - Cuts pose threat to development.

He sells desal ...

The Age:

He sells desal...

15 June 2009

In the world of Australian higher education, the oddest connections are occurring between researchers in different universities in different states. One of the latest is between engineers at Victoria University in Melbourne and a PhD student at the University of Queensland who is studying salt uptake by marsh plants.

The research involves the design and installation of a solar-powered desalination plant at Brisbane's Botanic Gardens, coupled with a new method of disposing of the unwanted brine left by the process. The investigation could lead to portable desalination systems that could be easily moved and used in drought-affected regions across Australia.

VU engineering lecturer Dr Eric Peterson and his fourth-year civil engineering students designed and helped build the desalination system. The $500,000 project was financed by the Queensland Government in collaboration with Queensland University's centre for marine studies and VU's institute of sustainability and innovation.

Until last month, south-east Queensland had endured a seven-year drought that had forced the Botanic Gardens to truck in up to 200,000 litres of recycled water a week to ensure its plants survived. Dr Peterson says the gardens have the world's largest collection of Australian rainforest species and the only way to keep them alive was to have tankers deliver huge quantities of water.

A desalination plant was seen as a possible solution and it is now driven by solar panels that produce the electricity to pump brackish bore water from the Brisbane aquifer - some 80 metres beneath the gardens - and press it through reverse osmosis membranes to strip out almost all the salt ions. The desalinated water is then mixed with water held in the gardens' ponds to introduce minerals and nutrients needed for irrigation.

The desalination system has the potential to generate 64,000 litres of pure water a day. Once it becomes fully operational in the coming months, the project is expected to produce 10 million litres of recycled water a year using solar power by day and off-peak electricity at night.

One of the many remarkable features of the joint project is that the researchers expect to achieve a zero waste outcome by piping the brine that comes from the desalination plant through a series of terraced ponds in which salt-loving marsh plants are growing. They take up the water and in turn can be harvested and mixed with livestock fodder in a complete recycling process.

"Our hypothesis was that we could treat the brine and use solar energy to drive the system so we had two innovations - an engineering aspect using solar energy for power and the botany hypothesis that we could take care of the salt using marsh plants that Jock McKenzie, a UQ PhD student, is testing as part of his thesis on the subject," says Dr Peterson.

A mechanical engineer who earned his first degree in the US, Dr Peterson became interested in environmental engineering after migrating to Australia. He undertook a PhD in aquaculture engineering at James Cook University in northern Queensland and then taught at Queensland University's centre for marine studies before taking up his lectureship at Victoria University.

"When we were setting up the desalination plant, we had intended to pump the brine into a big lagoon but freeway construction work meant we had to pump the water uphill on to a series of terraces that the civil engineering students designed as if we were building rice paddies," he says.

"We originally thought all we had to do was engineer the desal plant and instead we ended up doing that and designing the terraced ponds as well. We also discovered there is a lot of pressure produced by the reverse osmosis in the desalination, so much so we could use it to push the brine up Mt Cootha - 20 metres uphill in fact."

As Dr Peterson says, the reverse osmosis in a desalination plant is an example of "bio-mimicry" in that it works rather like our kidneys in extracting salts from the blood stream and excreting the waste. The membranes in the desalination plant act as extremely fine molecular filters that allow only low molecular weight molecules such as water to pass through, but very few of the various salt ions.

"As with your kidneys, you explode if you can't pass the waste products so we have that pressure in the system and it just pushes the effluent uphill. As we don't need any additional pumps, we can discharge the brine uphill to the terraces. People don't realise that the brine from a desalination plant has all this energy in it and I've thought you could use it as a `green' roof on a building and have these salt marshes growing there and pump the desalinated water up to them."

The terraced areas, sown with salt-loving plants including species of sarcocornia that grow around Port Phillip Bay at Point Cook and in Geelong, have created a new display at the Botanic Gardens while allowing Mr McKenzie to calculate the uptake of salt. As well as monitoring what is happening on the terraces, he is also conducting trials in glass houses on the university campus and in big aquaculture tanks.

Dr Peterson says that eventually the marine beds will be mowed periodically to take the plant tips off so they can continue to be harvested. The nutritious fodder will then be fed to livestock at the university's animal research farm outside Brisbane.

Dr Peterson says he runs debates with his engineering students so they can consider the case for desalination versus dams or, in Victoria's case, piping water from the north of the state to Melbourne, or even across Bass Strait from Tasmania.

The plant in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens is strictly for inland desalination. The system would not service a capital city but would be sufficient for a small community or an agricultural enterprise on a property, he says.

As for Victoria's plans to build a massive desalination plant near Wonthaggi, Dr Peterson says before such decisions are made, it is essential that all the pros and cons be debated and the costs compared with alternative arrangements, which could include a do-nothing approach.

"With desal plants, you absolutely have to build a pilot plant: you cannot go to full-scale without first finding out what the problems are. It's much better to build a small plant, sort out the problems and then double the production with each evolution.

"Without that feedback you can't refine the process. That's what we've done with the Botanic Gardens scheme: throw a bit of money at it and see how it goes, but also look at the alternatives - including the do-nothing alternative; just leave things as they are and see what happens."


See - The Age - He sells desal.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Aussie PM Kevin Rudd's new carbon cop patrols ...

Taking time out from investigating terrorist cells and stopping drug trafficking, the Australian Federal Police reportedly are to be deputised as "carbon cops", prosecuting new "carbon offences", under the Government's proposed climate change legislation. That will really strike a blow for law and order.

It's just another resource-sapping absurdity brought to you by the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
...

See - Sydney Morning Herald - Fielding changes Canberra's climate.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Q150 Icons List ...

See - Brisbane Times - Q150 Icons - full list.

Liberals propose $9 billion water canal to Darling Downs ...

Courier Mail:

Bronwyn Bishop puts forward $9 billion water canal plan

10 June 2009

Former federal Liberal minister Bronwyn Bishop wants water pumped from north Queensland to the Darling Downs under a new project that draws parallels with a 70-year-old drought-proofing scheme.

Ms Bishop yesterday urged the Rudd Government to adopt a $9 billion above-ground, sealed canal plan that would involve water being pumped using solar power.

She said the model had been proposed by an Australian who helped devise a similar scheme in the US.

But Ms Bishop said it was not the Bradfield scheme – devised in the 1930s by John Bradfield, the designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge – which aimed to redirect surplus northern water underground to inland rivers linked to the Murray-Darling Basin.

Ms Bishop said the scheme would be more economical than the Government's current moves to buy back water from farmers.

But Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said the idea lacked common sense.


See - Wacky $9 billion water plan.

Toowoomba water - fluoride levels vary from street to street ...

The Chronicle:

9 June 2009

...

The Government has excused the council from adding fluoride to the city’s bore water supplies, because of its high cost and logistical near-impossibility.

"We have the most complex water system in Queensland, possibly Australia," Mr Kleinschmidt said.

Fluoride will only be added to the Mt Kynoch water treatment plant.

That should come online by the end of this year.

The exemption means 75 per cent of houses will not receive properly fluoridated water.

The city’s 20 bores make up more than 30 per cent of the water supply.

People living in the CBD and older parts of Rangeville are serviced almost entirely by bore water, which is treated at the point the water is injected into the supply.

They will miss out on fluoride.

Residents in Wilsonton, Mt Kynoch and the area north of James Street and west of Mort Street should get the proper amount.

Everybody else will get a varying level of fluoride. It depends on how much bore water is being used.

This level varies daily, sometimes hourly.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Friday, June 05, 2009

Qld State Opposition comments on Qld Water Commission debacle ...

Hansard

4 June 2009

Mr SEENEY:

...

The report that I looked at first was on the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project which members are well aware of. The commission’s report indicates that that project cost Queenslanders $2.5 billion. They are the commission’s figures, not mine. It was supposed to provide 230 megalitres per day of recycled water. It is currently providing 40. It is a hopeless failure in terms of any sort of return on investment. It was supposed to provide 230 megalitres of recycled water a day. It is providing 40 megalitres at a cost of $2½ billion. That is the Water Commission’s report on that project.

I now turn to the Gold Coast Desalination Project. At the end of March the desalination project had cost $1.122 billion. It was producing no water. The commission says that it had been tested to capacity and then shut down. Members from the Gold Coast have raised in this House a number of concerns about the performance of the desalination plant.

Next is the southern regional water pipeline which cost $833 million. That is almost another billion dollars. It was supposed to transport 130 megalitres of water a day to Brisbane. At the end of March its peak performance was 70 megalitres a day. It had achieved just over half of its design capacity. There are a number of other projects along the same lines.

The Moreton Bay Regional Council substitute recycled water project cost $41 million and produced no water at all.

The Bribie Borefields Project cost $43 million and produced no water at all.

Just in that list of projects the Water Commission had spent $4½ billion to produce 40 megalitres of water a day—to produce a little bit of recycled water to pipe to the power stations and to provide water to government owned corporations that were, I believe, forced to use it.

Some $4½ billion is the Water Commission’s tally on projects that have basically not met their targets—have not even gone close to meeting their targets.

The truth is that the bill before the House tonight to restructure the Water Commission has been brought in because the Water Commission has been a screaming failure. The Water Commission has failed dismally in properly providing or securing our water supplies for the future. What it did was succeed in the government’s prime aim for the Water Commission and that was to build a public relations machine to protect the government from the fallout of the water crisis that afflicted Brisbane and South-East Queensland at the time.

The staff levels of the Water Commission blew out to 120-odd staff members, most of whom were engaged in producing public relations publications to protect the government from the political wrath that should have been directed towards it.

In terms of delivering anything that was going to secure water supplies for South-East Queensland, the Water Commission spent, just in the list of projects that I read out, some $4½ billion to produce next to nothing.


SEQ water grid - Qld Water Commission does more harm than good ...

ABC News:

Water Commission fuelled Qld's 'terrible financial state'

5 June 2009

The Queensland Opposition says expensive water projects in the south-east have failed to deliver and left the State Government struggling financially.

State Parliament has passed new laws changing the structure of the Queensland Water Commission (QWC).

There will be one commissioner instead of three and some responsibilities will be transferred to government departments.

The State Government says the changes will save $7 million over four years, on top of $15 million cut from the QWC public relations budget.

In debate in Parliament last night on the QWC changes, Opposition spokesman Jeff Seeney told the House that the Tugun desalination plant on the Gold Coast has been plagued by problems.

The Government says recycled water will not be used to top-up drinking supplies unless dam levels drop below 40 per cent, but the treated effluent is being pumped to power stations.

However, Mr Seeney said less than 20 per cent of the daily target for recycled water was being produced.

He says the projects cost $4.5 billion.

"The Water Commission is one of the fundamental reasons why the Queensland Government is in such a terrible financial state," he said.

But Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson paid tribute to the QWCs achievements.

"I pay credit to [Commissioner] Elizabeth Nosworthy and the other two Water Commissioners for the work that they've done over the last couple of years," he said.

"They have transformed how this state and in particular south-east Queensland understands and uses water.

"The people of south east Queensland will thank them.

"The Water Commission has brought a discipline to resource planning and infrastructure delivery that has hitherto been unknown in Queensland."


See - ABC News - Water Commission fuelled Qld's 'terrible financial state'.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Kevin Rudd has a bad day - loses Defence Minister, becomes embroiled in free car scandal ...

See - Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon resigns from portfolio.

Also see - Kevin Rudd under fire over car 'gift'.

Also see - John Grant Motors - free cars for Kevin Rudd.

Federal ALP is looking more and more like Gordon Brown's scandal-ridden Labour Party ...

Brisbane dam levels update - 4 June 2009

Now at 74.4% according to SEQwater ...

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Call to recycle all water and ban outfalls ...

See - The Age - Call to recycle all water and ban outfalls.

Western Australia proceeds with 2nd desalination plant ...

The Shire of Harvey in south-west Western Australia has granted conditional approval to plans for the Southern Seawater Desalination Project.

The project will be the state's second seawater desalination plant.


See - ABC News - WA's next desal plant.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Anna Bligh's Qld cash crisis - parliamentary speech ...


Read it here - Courier Mail - Anna Bligh's speech on asset sales.

Brisbane dam levels update - 2 June 2009 ...

Now at 74.17% according to SEQwater ...

NASA label warning on recycled water ...

NASA says its recycled water containers come with labels that say to "drink this when real water is over 200 miles away."

See - NASA’s reclamation libation.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Is water the new oil ...

Is water the new oil?

People who believe that oil is the most precious liquid on earth should think again. It's actually water. Indeed, with countries around the world facing water shortages, it's been said that water is now the new oil.

What are the best solutions to the problems of chronic drought? What about the costs to the community and business?

With parts of Australia now receiving solid rainfalls, the debate is now on as to whether governments should pull back on desalination and focus on storm water harvesting and recycling instead.

The question is whether rain water tanks would be enough. Certainly, there is evidence suggesting that rain water tanks might actually increase Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts say rain water tanks might save water but they're energy intensive.

Similarly, the $30 billion for water infrastructure over the next 10 years, which includes the construction of desalination plants, will also increase greenhouse gas emissions. Not exactly good for fighting climate change. Critics also say desalination plants can have a devastating impact on the physical environment.

A report from the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) warns that recycled water could push up emissions.