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.
The State opposition has called on the State government to investigate using the soon-to-be decommissioned Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline to transport coal seam gas water to Toowoomba.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 9:47 AM
For many years, the 4350water blog has informed readers of plans by the Toowoomba City Council (now Toowoomba Regional Council) and the Qld government to introduce recycled water for drinking in Toowoomba. It has also looked at the issue from a State and Federal perspective and dealt with related State and Federal political issues. There continues to be a need for the Toowoomba Regional Council to be completely transparent in its dealings with the ratepayers and residents of Toowoomba. There also continues to be a need for open debate on the benefits and risks of potable reuse and long-term studies on the effects on humans of drinking recycled water. Coal seam gas water is emerging as a possible alternate water source for some uses for the region. The 4350water blog is a collective effort and thanks go to its many contributors.
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2 Comments:
Hansard, 1 May 2008:
Waste Water
Mr HOBBS (Warrego—NPA) (6.28 pm): I want to talk tonight about the use of waste water from coal seam gas wells. There is enormous coal seam gas development on the Darling Downs and in the Maranoa region. This was mentioned when debating a previous bill.
Queensland Gas, Santos, Origin, Arrow Energy, Link Energy, Sunshine Gas and a lot of other companies are actually out there and they have this enormous resource that we have not been able to utilise properly.
Queensland Gas Managing Director, Richard Cottee, is keen to utilise this water. I have spoken to him about this on other occasions. I have heard him on radio and TV news saying the same thing.
Towns like Miles, Chinchilla, Dalby and Toowoomba certainly need further water supplies. Toowoomba is probably facing the most serious water supply problem. It has about 90,000 people using about 130 litres per day each. That is their residential use. So we are looking at roughly 12 megalitres being used daily.
I propose that the Santos Moonie to Brisbane oil pipeline that is to be decommissioned be used to pipe water to Toowoomba as a short-term measure. That would be of enormous benefit to my region particularly, because we have this water that has to go somewhere. Presently it is just evaporating.
It is not being used properly. So this is one way that we can do something with this water.
The Moonie to Brisbane pipeline is 300 kilometres long. The distance from Moonie to Toowoomba, roughly where the gas is—even from the Chinchilla area—is about 167 kilometres. The pipe is small in water-carrying terms; it is 27.3 centimetres wide. The current problems with the pipe are
basically at the Brisbane end of the pipe, and members can probably imagine why. The pipe goes from Moonie to Toowoomba and then 2,000 feet downhill to Brisbane. I am sure there are pressure reductions on the way down and so forth, but at the end of the day there certainly would be a lot more pressure down at the Brisbane end of the pipeline than there would be at the Toowoomba end of the pipeline. So even though the pipeline is very old, there would not be any great problem in using it to pipe water.
We need to undertake a detailed assessment. The pipe could carry 1 to 1.3 megalitres a day. At 130 litres per person per day that would probably supply between 8,000 and 9,000 people in Toowoomba for their residential use. The total supply for residential use would be along the lines of, say, 12 megalitres a day. Although that would not fix the problem, it would certainly help.
I call on the state government to set up a working group to assess the viability of using the pipeline to provide water to Toowoomba. In my early discussions with Santos they have indicated that they wish to decommission the pipeline. The pipeline will stay in the ground. They would not rule out any future use for that pipeline. They are happy to talk to people about it. Santos would not be interested in using the pipeline to pump water, but they would certainly be happy if somebody else did that.
2:04 PM, May 03, 2008
Well Mr Hobbs, please talk to the new Toowoomba Regional Council as they while they have "Kevvie" to guide them he will be pushing the idea of Toowoomba people drinking recycled sewerage water for all it's worth. Toowoomba people do not want to be the guinea pigs. It will be just too bad if we all get sick. Will they just say "Oh! what bad luck".
1:32 AM, May 07, 2008
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