Toowoomba, water recycleing

[Wood Butcher]

Not quite Wendy. Have a look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutt_River_Province

[RufflyRustic]

Water is water and we need it to live. The way things are at present, it doesn't matter what decision is implemented, there is still going to be a cost to everyone. Yes, some methods are very much more expensive than others, eg dams - cost of building plus cost to the people who have to move; grey water for toilet & maybe garden use - the cost of an additional set of plumbing; etc etc etc, but some don't cost as much and are just as good as that to which we have become accustomed.

The end result is that I really doubt anyone would have been able to see 100% clearly into the future that we would run out of water, suffer a a major drought, have so many people move to SE QLD.....

Water is water, but please Lord let it rain.

Wendy

[RufflyRustic]

Not quite Wendy. Have a look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutt_River_Province

groan...

I still prefer my own Hutt River Province in NZ though

thanks
Wendy

[Rocker]

I cannot understand why this was put to a referendum. The council should have just gone ahead and done it. I cannot see why they should have to implement a stupid decision made by an ignorant populace on the basis of a scare campaign. Now Toowoomba and Queensland will be the laughing stock of Australia. Hopefully Beattie will have the sense to step in and overturn it.

Rocker

[Pat]

You mean to say that you Queenslanders were not derided before this One name says it all . . . JOE

Ducking into my flame proof bunker, Now

[Buzzer]

The way I see it (all be it from 450km away), is the population is increasing, but no increased water storage, ie, dams.

There is politics involved that I don't understand. If Labour Gov't build dams they will lose the green vote......... and power.

That's my 2 bob's worth.

Cheers.

[Rossluck]

You mean to say that you Queenslanders were not derided before this One name says it all . . . JOE

Ducking into my flame proof bunker, Now

Come on Pat, give us a go. We're still trying to recover some sort of reputation after Joh and Pauline. It's a big ask .

Well put Rocker.

[silkwood]

'cause its a country town, all country towns come last on the list yah know that.

Al

Not True!! Adelaide's been drinking NSW waste water for years!

Cheers

[ozwinner]

Not True!! Adelaide's been drinking NSW waste water for years!

Cheers

True.
In fact if you go to any town along the Murray they all drink recycled water.
It tastes like crap, but if you lived there you would have a filter into your house wouldnt you.

Al

[Wood Butcher]

In that case we do come first here as Toowoomba is at the head of the Murray-Darling catchment basin.

For the record I think that recycling water in going to be a neccesity very soon. The problem I have is that it won't answer the immediate water concerns for Toowoomba and all of the other townships that use the same water supplies. My ideal situation would be to start planning the infrastructure for recycling, while in the mean time start getting water from elsewhere to tide us over. It is the mean time that the council seems to have forgotten about.

It will be interesting to see what happens now. I imagine Mayor Thorley will come on tv saying how stupid all of the people that voted no are and we are doomed for eternity. But the crucial question is what the council are going to do next:confused:

[silkwood]

I'm a little confused Rowan. By your earlier comments I was presuming you were against a Yes vote, but here you say it's inevitable, we should start planning for it now but look to other options for the immediate future(?).

Wouldn't it make sense, then to vote Yes and then lobby for other options (which would be inevitably addresses, if it is true that recycling would be too late)? Not disagreeing, just asking for clarification. I'm genuinely interested in your opinion.

Cheers,

[Wood Butcher]

I'm not against water recycling. A yes vote locks Toowoomba into recycling which as I stated earlier wouldn't come online for another 5 years at least. I think water recycling is a long term solution but we need short term solutions which do exist but it seems the council isn't considering them.

Water recycling is not the be all and end all solution. It really only supplements the natural catchment of rain. It amazes me that there are so many people whinging about water yet they won't put in a rain water tank. Fair enough that the council is making it mandatory on all new houses but as SWMBO suggested this morning why not make it that whenever a house is sold a rainwater tank must be installed within say 6 months (a similar thing at the moment is safety switches must be installed after a house is sold in QLD).

Another option is that the council could put a small weir across the west creek and catch some of the stormwater run off. I live opposite one of the stormwater runoff easements in town and it is staggering the amount of water that runs through there after ANY rain. But then you have the farmers up in arms cause thats their water. There is even some irrigators threatening to take council to court if the recycling project went ahead because the effluent pumped that would otherwise be pumped into west creek is the irrigation water which they would no longer have.

SO (sorry for the long winded reply) I think recycling waste water is inevitable whether you like it or not. The technology is there, one of my chemical engineering lecturers has done some research and they can purify partiulate matter out to one part per billion. Thats something the size of a pin point in one cubic metre of water, so thats pretty pure water!! (and they were going to dump into back into the dirty dam water??) For me it is simply that we just need water now!

[bitingmidge]

What would have made sense, would have been politicians doing the job they were elected to do.

That is, making decisions based on the recommendations of experts employed by their government/council.

If the general population was able to rule by consensus, there'd be no need to have political representation.

Now when the going gets a bit tricky, the elected representatives buckle.

From the population that gave you "daylight saving fades my curtains", we now have water treatment policy for a nation!

Cheers,

P
:eek: :eek: :eek:

[Wood Butcher]

Just found out that apparently the council was just going to do it but the government said that if it goes to referendum and you get a yes vote we will subsidise $23mil (I think) towards the project.

So it still may happen but with possibly no govt funding??

[journeyman Mick]

Rowan,
just wondering what the short term solutions would be? Personally I think everyone should be made to live in a house without town water for 6 months as a water wise education exercise. I'm sure they'd go back to suburbia and use a lot less. . Hmm I might just have to post a poll (my first) to see how much water people use.

Mick