Forum

 
  Back to OzPolitic.com   Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register
  Forum Home Album HelpSearch Recent Rules LoginRegister  
 

Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
Queensland wasting $40,000 in recycled water every (Read 243 times)
freediver
Gold Member
*****
Offline


www.ozpolitic.com

Posts: 47043
At my desk.
Queensland wasting $40,000 in recycled water every
Aug 14th, 2010 at 3:59pm
 
There is a similar situation with irrigation quality water being dumped at sea from a plant in Townsville.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-wasting-40000-in-recycled-water-every-day/story-e6freoof-1225905084507

ALMOST $40,000 worth of water a day is being flushed by the State Government as it refuses to use its flagship recycling pipeline to supply households.

The Courier-Mail

can reveal 33 million litres of water a day are being passed through the high-priced purification process and then ditched in the Brisbane River.

The 33ML would be valued at nearly $15 million a year if sold to council-run retailers at the current wholesale price, rising to in excess of $73 million based on the rate at which it is sold on to households.

The revelation comes as southeast residents are encouraged to conserve water while being hit with higher bills to pay off the pipeline and drought-proofing infrastructure.

The waste – equivalent to about 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools a day – comes after the Bligh Government dropped a pre-election plan for permanent use of recycled water.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The waste is set to continue until commercial customers are found for recycled water or a decision is made to mothball most of the $2.5 billion pipeline's treatment plants.

Department of Environment and Resource Management director-general John Bradley yesterday conceded the level of water loss would continue until two of the plants were completed at the end of the year.

However, Mr Bradley insisted that given the production costs were $300 a ML, or $3.5 million a year, this was "value for money" for a project that eventually could supply up to 232ML a day.

"So proceeding to go through and commission these plants makes good economic sense in terms of providing a strategy that is helping us drought-proof southeast Queensland," he said.

Mr Bradley said purifying the water also meant 86 tonnes of phosphorus from sewage was not pumped into Moreton Bay.

However, Opposition water spokesman Jeff Seeney said the pipeline was an " absolute white elephant" forced on Queenslanders by a Government that had done nothing about water for a decade.

"The wastewater treatment plants were the result of political panic from a Government that didn't plan to build the infrastructure at the right time," he said. "And they will be an economic burden for generations to come.

"The fact is that Queenslanders are not only paying for the interest on the $2.5 billion it cost, they are now paying a weekly cost for water that is actually wasted."

The pipeline is producing 75ML a day on average with Government-owned power stations taking about 42ML. Dam levels are not expected to drop to 40 per cent, triggering recycled water use, until 2013.

Mr Bradley said the water grid manager would have to decide how the pipeline would be operated once the final two plants were commissioned.

"You can mothball them and pickle the membranes," he said.

"Or you can operate them at low load and cycle through the membranes."

He said negotiations with some industrial customers were nearing completion.



Lungfish find could blow $2b pipe dream

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/lungfish-find-could-blow-2b-pipe-dream/story-e6frf7l6-1225903689117

THE discovery of lungfish in Queensland's Wivenhoe Dam has cast doubts over the State Government's ability to switch on its $2 billion recycled water pipeline.

The Courier-Mail has learnt that lungfish eggs and fingerlings were discovered in the dam in September last year just a short distance from the recycled water outlet.

Authorities have since been scrambling to work out what impact changes in water temperature and phosphate levels from recycled water would have on the lungfish population.

Any impact on the lungfish could reduce the pipeline to a multibillion-dollar infrastructure white elephant.

The pipeline is largely idle with no commercial customers  other than state-owned power stations  and the Government is refusing to use it until dam levels drop to 40 per cent.

It is the second time lungfish have frustrated the State Government's water grid after the Traveston Dam was scuttled last year partly because of its impact on the species.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

The Government yesterday insisted it has not considered moving the recycled water outlet and there was no evidence the lungfish would be affected if it were used.

However, internal briefing notes obtained by The Courier-Mail show authorities were clueless about the impact and would have to research it throughout this year.

Seqwater grid manager Barry Dennien said a lungfish management plan had been put in place and the pipeline was not being used anyway.

``There is no evidence that recycled water will have any impact on lungfish or other species in the dam,'' he said.

``Lungfish have a limited and sometimes irregular breeding cycle and their livelihood can be affected by naturally occurring fluctuations in water temperature and restricted protection,'' Mr Dennien said.

However, the internal briefing paper from May prepared for Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson shows Seqwater was concerned about the lungfish discovery at Logan's Inlet.
Back to top
 

I identify as Mail because all I do is SendIT!
WWW  
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print