How irresponsible can a Government be? By that I mean pumping treated sewerage into our existing dams. Properly treated sewerage may be drinkable, but we all know machinery breaks down and humans often fail in their duties.

Just imagine the magnitude of a breakdown of a treatment plant during the night when the attendant falls asleep! What are our leaders or should I say misleaders going to do then? Keep quiet or does Mr Beattie announce on television the next morning “sorry folks, we had a breakdown last night and pumped millions of litres of raw sewerage into our water supply and since in our wisdom we linked all our dams together we don’t have any useable water in the whole of South East Queensland! I suggest all you Queenslanders pack your bags and go on a holiday interstate or overseas for six months while we empty our dams, clean them out and then pray for rain.”

It is the politician’s fault that we are in such trouble concerning our water supply. They encouraged (and still do) too many people to settle into areas where there isn’t sufficient rainfall. Why don’t they show us that they are men, real men and admit that this crisis is at least partly their fault and donate their million-dollar super, which they most definitely did not earn towards an alternative drinking water supply that does not involve treating sewerage? There are many alternatives. Pipelines from areas where there is water, like the one from Perth to Kalgoorlie. Farmers who grow crops using a lot of water should have to relocate to somewhere near Lake Argyle. Paying incentives to businesses to go north. People will soon follow to places where the jobs are.

Isn’t there a politician who has the power and the guts to say those things can be done? A pleasant reward, if the above-mentioned things are put into place, will be that we don’t kill off the tourist industry. I personally know a number of people who say that they will not visit Australia again if they have to drink treated sewerage.

well
until such time when there is a party that represents the people other than themselves this is what you have.

www.tapp.org.au

always looking for members and candidates for the federal election.

Sigh, yet another extremely ill-informed opinion on water recycling. For instance, do you even know what the process is? It involves a number of stages, not just a big filter as you seem to think. First, all the large solids are removed, then it is the organics are removed and it is microfiltered and also passed through a reverse osmosis filter which then removes salts and small molecules, the it is treated with ozonation (activated oxygen) to oxidise any organic molecules that may have gotten through (by this time they are in the parts per trillion range if at all) and THEN it will be pumped about 200 kms to the TOP of the Wivenhoe dam, just near the power station (co-incidence? maybe, maybe not). Then it will take a few weeks under direct sunlight to make it all the way back to the points where the water is picked up by the traditional treatment plants and chlorinated for drinking purposes. It takes a lot of energy and the sewage is treated locally and then the water is pumped, not the the other way around ie the treatment plants are not right next to the dam.

If you have ever seen a large scale filtration plant, then you would realise its laughable (as I do) that you could think that millions of litres of raw sewage could be pumped into the water supply.

Wake up to yourself, there's more crap in that one post than in a billion litres of filtered water.

“There's more crap in that one post than in a billion litres of filtered water.”

Aaaaahaaaa hahahaha. Very funny.
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Good on Oldie for raising the issue for discussion. But yes I think there are some fundamental flaws in his thinking.

“It is the politician’s fault that we are in such trouble concerning our water supply.”

Yes but not entirely. The community has a responsibility too. There should have been a much greater outcry starting many years ago when this looming crisis first reared its head.

“They encouraged (and still do) too many people to settle into areas where there isn’t sufficient rainfall.”

Yes. And that is their biggest foible of all. The continued facilitation of rapid population growth into critically resource-stressed areas is just whacko. But again, where’s the outrage from the general community? The populace has been far far too blasé.

“There are many alternatives. Pipelines from areas where there is water…”

Yes, especially from the Burdekin Dam. Other parts of the solution are a wide-scale implementation of tanks and the gearing down of population growth if not a moratorium on it in water-stressed areas. Improvements in efficiency of usage, including recycling are also in there. Desalination plants should probably be avoided.

Whether recycled water should go into domestic supplies and hence into drinking water is another question. I think it is quite safe, but I appreciate many peoples’ concerns. And if those concerns exist, even if they are unfounded, then a major problem exists. The issue becomes the level concern itself, not the foundation or lack thereof of that concern.

And one other thing that should be avoided is a major redistribution of population from SEQ, up the Queensland coast or to higher rainfall undeveloped areas in northern Australia, or of population that would have gone to SEQ. We certainly don’t want this water crisis to lead to a massive new wave of human expansion with all its associated problems, in areas that have so far largely escaped its effects.

So we need to get the issue dealt with, with great urgency. And if that means piping water from the Burdekin Dam, then fine.

And of course we need to address the overall issue of population growth in Queensland, and Australia.

I think its about time that the actual plans were made obviously public and freely available and then people could comment and raise concerns about reality rather than malicious fantasy. Pictures and plans on what a recycling plant does would be helpful to dispel some myths about the technology also.

Oldies comments draw an image of gigantic Acme pump hooked up to a big filter and if it breaks while Elmer Fudd's asleep at the desk then we get millions of litres of raw sewage through the pipes (oh noes!). Can't happen.

But we've already gone through the sustainability and alternatives etc, I guess Oldie never bothered to check that. I thought this might actually be a concern on the technology.

What's the bet this is part of that stupid scare campaign that "got Snow" Manners was promising.