I haven’t been a big fan of the current Queensland government’s environmental record, but their decision to ignore the easy scaremongering and invest in recycling water is probably one of the best decisions they’ve made. But it’s not just the water being recycled. The arguments against water recycling have been thrown up and debunked so many times it’s not funny. And for whatever reason, The Australian newspaper has suddenly decided to run a series of articles over recent days highlighting the usual concerns.
No drinking water can be said to be zero risk. But there are already many areas in Australia which source their drinking water downstream from sewage treatment works, none of which treat the water to anything like the standard that is being done in Brisbane.
Just to show I’m not just engaging in gratuitous bashing of The Australian, this opinion piece on their website by Paul Greenfield outlines the basic facts very well. The Queensland government should be expanding the use of recycling to further strengthen the water capacity of south-east Queensland and scrapping the Traveston Dam instead. It’s cheaper, uses less energy and is just as safe.
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As you rightly pointed out Andrew, the opposition to recycled water is ridiculous, unsubstantiated nonsense. “Drinking poo”. Pfffffhhh. 2 points:
Sydney has been drinking recycled water for years and hadn’t realised it. A number of STP (sewage treatment plants) used to feed into the back of the Warragamba Dam and noone noticed. Ag run off is far, far worse. Richmond (Sydney) Filtration plant draws water from the Nepean, downstream of Penrith STP, always has done.
And on the recycling front, there’s no reason the water can’t be as clean as any other process. SydWater is working on a “replacement Flows” project where effluent is treated to a very high standard (not drinking though) to put into the Nepean to replace the environmental flows of potable water over Warragamba dam. Turns out though that the treated effluent is too clean and so pollutants have to be added back in to get it up to river standard!
Off topic Andrew; Any comments on ISP filtering? Just a grab for headlines by some irrelevant backbenchers and senators?
I’ll second that. I do acknowledge however that there may be something distasteful about the the thought of drinking re-cycled sewage, but the history of the process across the planet supports its value.
It is said that people in London are drinking water that has been through seven sets of kidneys on its way from Reading (to the west). The process as I recall is far less sophisticated than in QLD but it does show that it is safe and reliable.
I regard the process of ocean disposal of wastewater as unacceptable. I worked as a microbiologist many years ago on an innovative project where secondary sewage effluent was allowed to seep through a mixture of waste gypsum, bauxite residue (red mud) and local coarse sand in Perth. Our data showed that leachate under the infiltration basin was free of microbes and nutrients (N&P). The concept was later used in septic tank installations.
The depolyment of innovative ideas in this critical area will save water and energy.
Dr Bill Parker
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