QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh has backed down from the proposal for recycled drinking water in Brisbane and has also announced delays to the Traveston Dam.
Bligh announced on 25 November that the government had reversed its decision to recycle treated effluent into the state’s south-eastern dams, regardless of their levels.
The water will only be used as a last resort if Brisbane faces shortages in the future. The recent rainfall filled the dams to their highest levels in three years, prompting calls from lobby groups to abandon the original proposal.
The Premier says the reversal comes after listening to the concerns of the regions residents. Polling results showed only 56% of the public supported the proposal.
The Queensland Water Commission will meet to decide at what level the dams must fall to before the recycled water intake is triggered.
The Western Corridor Re-Cycled Water Project (WCRWP), part of a nine billion dollar water grid is nearing completion. It will be able to deliver 232ML of recycled water a day into the Wivenhoe Dam.
The backflip means the project may now only produce only a fraction of the water it was intended to deliver and a 16km to the dam may now never be used.
It is currently supplying 41ML to the Swanbank and Tarong power stations. However, unless the demand from other industrial sources dramatically rises, it could remain at this low level.
The Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant has the capacity to meet current demand without any additional water being produced by the other treatment plants under construction.
Unless it is decided that the original plan to use treated effluent as drinking water must go ahead, around 200km and three treatment plants will be operating well below their capacities for foreseeable future.
The Federal Government had also invested $408m into the project as part of its Smart Water Australia program.
Bligh also announced the Traveston Dam will be delayed by up to four years to ensure environmental mitigation works were completed before the construction begins, rather than after.
Over $450m has been put into the $1.7b proposal already. The delay comes after Coordinator-General Colin Jensen advised that up to $150m of rehabilitation work would need to be carried out on the Mary River before the proposal would get federal approval.
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