What are the hazards of recycled sewage into
drinking water?

Could it make a difference to Australia's
water shortage?

I'd like to read what other posters have to
say on this controversial topic.

Foxy,

When I first learned that sewage water was used as drinking water in places like U.K., Israel, parts of Europe, Canada and now the USA my first reaction was "Gross". Til I realised that this meant I'd been to places which used this method and obliviously drunk the water.

I don't remember anywhere downing a glass of brown water with floaties in it (which is the picture drinking sewage brought straight to my mind): - I was still here - and so were all the millions of people - old and young, babies and geriatrics - who lived in all these places.

I think, in this instance, the inhabitants of Toowoomba who voted against the planned installation were being a wee bit precious. Because, to answer to your query about the difference it could make, I guess we all worry about the water situation in Australia and know what the penalty for not taking action will be. Wringing our hands because we can't get over the Yuk factor when we have a possible solution - already operational in other places whose need for water is not at the critical stage as it is in Australia - could even perhaps be viewed by some as being irresponsible?

Accompanied by refusal by all of us to accept the current short-sighted local government irresponsibility in the matter of domestic water-tanks - not least for those who still refuse to accept the proposition of potable sewage - it possible we could be contributing to part of a solution. Right now every living creature in Aus. is part of the problem. The solution to which lies...if not in our own hands, at least in another integral portion of our anatomy.

ps: theres a wealth of information on the Web: try www.science.org.au/nova/095/095key.htm, or All About Australian Drinking Water as starting points.

How many opponents of recycled water have actually visited a dam?

They're stinking, filthy things, crawling with algae and animal crap. Then it gets treated and comes out of our tap as yummy drinking water.

All tap water is recycled sewage to some extent. The yuck factor is just being cynically manipulated for political gain.

Foxy,

An aspect of this topic came up in March 2007 on OLO in the discussion thread to the article 'What's a bone dry city worth?'. From memory the matter of xeno-estrogens was raised in a post by the article author, Peter Ravenscroft. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5616#74547

Sancho's post, while indicating there may well be a 'natural' yuk factor applying to water from any dam, does not even begin to address the nature of the contaminants that are only likely to be contained in HUMAN sewage effluent. The 'bone dry city' of Peter Ravenscroft's article was Brisbane. Note that the xeno-estrogen contamination issue mentioned in one of the links given in that OLO post related to water reticulated in London. Romany mentions drinking water in the UK she now knows to have contained recycled effluent as if it was not a problem: perhaps not so.

Romany suggests the rejection of effluent recycling by the residents of Toowoomba in a referendum may have been a little precious. Not so. The residents were being bullied and they knew it. Their own local catchment had also already been raided for the Brisbane water supply, and they knew that too. This link will put you on the November 2006 'To Poowoomba' OLO discussion thread and might clarify why Toowoomba residents refused the use of recycled effluent as a solution to an already acute shortage: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=256#4754

This latter link indicates the nature of the business entities and political organisations that stood to benefit in the absence of any 'cynical manipulation' by the Toowoomba voters.

Overall, its a bad idea to use recycled effluent in reticulated supplies of water. This stuff should be being used for lower grade purposes, not potential cooking or drinking purposes.

Thanks for the links, and for your comments.
From what I've read
I've got to confess that I'm not to eager
to drink recycled water. It sounds like
its going to be very expensive to put in
all the safety features, and even then, its
risky. Even the scientist
who developed the Australian water safety
guide-lines says he wouldn't drink recycled
water.

Water shortages are going to be a problem, however
if recycled water could be used for irrigation and
industrial use, (not for drinking) then perhaps
this would alleviate some of the problem?

The most ridicules thing about using recycled sewage for our water supply is the fact that it requires a greater total treatment, at greater cost, in money, & power, than it takes to start with relative cleaner sea water.

It is more cost effective to desalinate sea water, than to purify sewage. There appears to be some ideology problem with some greens, who will put the extra energy into recycling sewage, but object to desalination. Perhaps, if we could work the recycling terminology in there the problem would disappear.

The cost of the recycled sewage is the other problem. THe government want full cost recovery for the stuff, which makes it too expensive to use for irrigation, & for most industrial processes. One of the main reasons for the huge increase in our power prices is that the power plant has been made to use the stuff, at a much higher price than the old mains water price they paid.

We need to get the message, to the government, that it's ok to discount the stuff, & put it to the best use, to save the the damn water for town water.

Of course, this doesn't help places like Toowoomba. It's too expensive to pump water from the coast, up to the table lands. Inland places may have to use some level of recycling, in bad droughts.