Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 12:39PM by stevem

Capturing rain water and storing it under Brisbane’s suburban streets could be the answer to South-East Queensland’s water security, doing away with the need for large-scale dams such as Traveston Crossing, experts say. Scientists hope a storm water harvesting trial on Brisbane’s northside will help them work out how to capture some of the 500 billion litres of rain water - equivalent to 500,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools - which falls over Greater Brisbane each year but simply runs into creeks and rivers. They argue all new residential estates should be built with the capability to store and harvest rain water supplies underground or in smaller, local dams. Adjunct Professor Ted Gardner is a principal scientist with the CSIRO and one of a handful of scientists who formed the Urban Water Security Research Alliance with $50 million in research funds handed out by former premier Peter Beattie in 2007. Fourteen research projects are now underway.

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Crusher Park is one of four Sunshine Coast sporting complexes that are maintained with recycled water and it has been tested for its safety in the past. The water is derived from storm water and treated effluent from Sunshine Coast sewage treatment plants. The plants produce recycled water meeting either Class A or Class B qualities as defined by the Queensland Public Health Act Amendement 2008. A Sunshine Coast Water spokesman said both qualities of water were suitable for irrigation of sporting complexes and were tested on a weekly basis.

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People who believe that oil is the most precious liquid on earth should think again. It’s actually water. Indeed, with countries around the world facing water shortages, it’s been said that water is now the new oil. What are the best solutions to the problems of chronic drought? What about the costs to the community and business? With parts of Australia now receiving solid rainfalls, the debate is now on as to whether governments should pull back on desalination and focus on storm water harvesting and recycling instead.

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Updated on Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 09:26AM by stevem

THE cost of water is likely to rise 50-100 per cent in five years, as governments invest more than $30 billion for new supplies. Water Services Association executive director Ross Young said yesterday that higher water prices “reflect that we have really had to rethink our whole water systems in the face of the impacts of climate change”. “The new sources of water, whether they be desalination or recycled water schemes, are a lot more expensive than the traditional sources were, which were dams at the top of the ranges that conveyed water by gravity into the cities,” Mr Young said. The association represents urban companies that provide water to 15 million Australians.

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Updated on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 09:10AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 12:56PM by stevem

Updated on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 10:28PM by stevem

PREMIER Anna Bligh has insisted the $2 billion recycled water pipeline was not a “white elephant” despite businesses shunning the prospect of using the water. Ms Bligh yesterday said the pipeline was a long-term piece of infrastructure and an investment in water security for businesses of the future. “I think anyone who describes the new water infrastructure as a white elephant has forgotten all too quickly just how close we came to running out of water,” she said yesterday. Her comments came as southeast Queensland’s dam capacity surpassed 60 per cent for the first time in five years, reducing the chances of levels hitting the 40 per cent mark, which would trigger the use of recycled water. Power stations owned by the State Government are currently the only customers of the project.

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Updated on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 12:02PM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 12:09PM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 12:16PM by stevem

THE Bligh Government’s handling of the fluoride overdose was in disarray last night after it admitted it got the date wrong about when the bungle occurred. The Government has admitted residents should have been told they may have drunk water with 20 times the allowable amount of fluoride on May 2 - not May 1 as Premier Anna Bligh said on Thursday. The blunder is a major embarrassment for the Government, already defending the two-week delay in testing that preceeded this week’s health notification to residents on Brisbane’s northside.

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Updated on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 10:22AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 11:13AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 09:43AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 09:50AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 05:38PM by stevem

A 16km pipeline of recycled water is ready to pump the liquid the final 100m into southeast Queensland’s drinking supply but that may never happen. The pipeline leading to Wivenhoe Dam, the main source of the region’s drinking water, has been built, tested and commissioned as part of the Bligh Government’s $2.4 billion Western Corridor recycled water project. But the pipeline, meant to carry purified recycled water from Lowood to the dam, was effectively mothballed as soon as it was built due to the Government’s decision to put recycled water into the drinking supply only as a last resort.

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SEWAGE has long had an image problem. But an Australian water management expert can foresee a time when the humble waste water treatment plant is heralded as a key weapon to combat the effects of climate change. Water Services Association of Australia executive director Ross Young said there has been a major shift in thinking towards using biogas from waste water as fuel in power production. “Rather than looking at them as waste water treatment plants, if you look at them in terms of green energy producers, you look at them in an completely different way,” Mr Young said.

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Updated on Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 09:01AM by stevem

A LEADING authority on infectious diseases has called on the Bligh Government to reduce the dam level that would trigger the pumping of recycled water to southeast Queensland storages from 40 per cent to 10 per cent, claiming it would be difficult to prevent blood and body tissue being recycled as drinking water. The University of Sydney’s Ray Kearney hit out at the Queensland Water Commission for falsely claiming that hospital waste approvals were in place when the Government planned to add the effluent to drinking water supplies in February.

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Sunshine Coast Regional Council agreed today to investigate sustainable alternatives to upgrading the seven sewage treatment plants (STPs) that service the Sunshine Coast region. A project team will identify alternatives during a three month review period. The team, led by Major Projects Portfolio councillor Debbie Blumel, will review integrated water management strategies that have the potential to reduce the need to augment existing sewage treatment plants. Integrated water management is a term used to describe water infrastructure planning that combines the use of rainwater tanks, roof water and stormwater harvesting, grey-water reuse and dual reticulation.

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