Toowoomba Regional Council shifts to medium level water restrictions ...

See - Toowoomba Regional Council - Medium Level water restrictions - 21 October 2010.

Toowoomba Regional Council forgets to ask for free excess Wivenhoe water ...

Excerpt from the Chronicle:

19 October 2010

Toowoomba Regional Council failed to ask the State Government to waive water charges for the excess water it wanted to pump to Toowoomba when Wivenhoe Dam began overflowing.

Minister for Natural Resources Stephen Robertson said council last week only asked to increase the volume of water that could be pumped to Cressbrook Dam through the Wivenhoe Pipeline.

“No request was made for the waiving of the variable water charge,” Mr Robertson has revealed.
...

Cr Antonio said he could not comment on why the government wasn't initially asked to temporarily waive the cost of water because he was not involved in the negotiations.
...

See - The Chronicle - Minister waives excess water fees.

Oops ...

Anna Bligh backflip - Toowoomba now allowed access to excess Wivenhoe Dam water ...

Faced with growing opposition to their refusal to allow Toowoomba access to excess Wivenhoe Dam water, the Bligh government has quickly relented. Toowoomba will now be granted access to additional water beyond the current 10,000ML annual limit.

SEQ's Grid Twelve dams are now shown on the SEQ Water website as being 100% full. Bligh's refusal to allow Toowoomba access to this water meant that it would be released into the Brisbane river and out to sea.

Anna Bligh and her Minister for Natural Resources, Stephen Robertson, were caught in a morally indefensible position. After lauding the benefits of a water grid and the ability to shift water to where it was needed, they wouldn't allow Toowoomba access to additional water to provide for its water security - water which the Bligh government was going to pour down the drain.

Another monumental mistake from a deeply unpopular government.

The Bligh government's decision was ridiculed over the weekend in feedback comments on the Courier Mail website and business leaders had commenced calling for a review of this decision.

The backflip came quickly. Toowoomba will now be allowed access to excess Wivenhoe water.

No other decision was possible - if the Bligh government didn't want to spend the next month being criticised and ridiculed in the press.

And with the public float of QR National underway, the Bligh government can't afford any media distractions.

Excerpt from ToowoombaNews.com.au:

11 October 2010

Wivenhoe Overflow Tops Up Toowoomba

Toowoomba Regional Council has been given the go-ahead by the State Government to access additional water from the overflowing Wivenhoe Dam.

Council asked for more water beyond its initial requested allocation because our main storage, Cressbrook Dam, is under 25 per cent capacity.

Business leaders expressed dismay that the city may not have been able to take advantage of the extra water spilling out of Wivenhoe.

But Minister for Natural Resources Stephen Robertson announced today (October 11) that the extra water at current rates was a "common sense solution" for Toowoomba.

"Wivenhoe Dam is currently spilling around 24,000 megalitres a day. That will continue for the next few days," Mr Robertson said.

"One of the strengths of the South East Queensland Water Grid is that it enables us to move water around to where it is needed, and in this instance, we will make more available for Toowoomba," he said.
...

For the full story, see - ToowoombaNews.com.au - Wivenhoe Overflow Tops Up Toowoomba.

Also see - Brisbane Times - Kilcoy cut off by floods.

Also see - Courier Mail - Southeast Queensland dam levels to guarantee drinking water until 2021.

Also see - Courier Mail - Excess water from Wivenhoe Dam pumped along pipeline to Toowoomba's Cressbrook Dam.

Anna Bligh prefers to let excess Wivenhoe dam water go down the drain ...

... than give it to Toowoomba.

See - Win News - Fight for free water.

Also see - WIN News - Dam anger.

QWC's and Anna Bligh's $1.15 million bill for failed recycled water PR experiment ...

Excerpt from Sunday Mail

Queensland Government's PR bill for recycled water hard to swallow

Sunday Mail

3 October 2010

It is the $1 million taxpayer-funded shopping list that could be mistaken for a party planner's inventory rather than a government PR campaign.

Queensland Water Commission staff forked out more than $1.15 million in a futile bid to convince southeast Queenslanders to drink recycled water.

Tens of thousands of dollars was splurged on cold rooms, Eskies, tables and chairs, cups, shot glasses and marquees as it carted recycled water samples across the region.

Documents obtained under Right to Information laws revealed a PR campaign expense list that continued even after Premier Anna Bligh mothballed the $1.5 billion recycled water pipeline in 2008.

But the QWC has rejected claims it wasted funds.

Documents show the Water Commission spent $215,000 on importing about 80,000 bottles of recycled water from Singapore, as well as producing 76,500 of its own bottles of purified recycled water from its Bundamba treatment plant.

The cost of the Singaporean bottled water was $115,000. More than $7000 was spent on shipping the bottles.
...

See - Sunday Mail - Queensland Government's PR bill for recycled water hard to swallow.

Next time Anna Bligh bleats about everyone needing to be environmentally friendly (while shipping as much coal overseas as possible), remember she was buying water in Singapore and having it shipped to Brisbane ... and then pouring it down the drain ...