THE nation's largest and most expensive water recycling system, Brisbane's Western Corridor pipeline project, will run at a fraction of its capacity or be closed under options now before the Queensland government.
The $2.4 billion project is a cornerstone of the "water grid" that was constructed at breakneck speed with little expense spared by the state's Labor governments under Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie, in the teeth of a drought that had threatened to empty dams supplying the Queensland capital.
But Campbell Newman's Liberal National Party government is reviewing the water infrastructure, built at a total cost of more than $9bn and originally providing for "toilet-to-tap" recycling of sewage, with an eye to cutting water debt that soaks up hundreds of millions of dollars annually in interest payments.
The 16km Western Corridor pipes water from three recycling plants to power stations west of Brisbane to alleviate the need for them to draw on drinking supplies from Wivenhoe Dam, the city's principal reservoir that fell to just 16 per cent capacity at the height of the drought in 2007.The pipeline can also be used to top up Wivenhoe with recycled water if its level falls below a trigger point of 40 per cent.
The vast reservoir filled during the deluge two years ago that preceded the disastrous flooding of Ipswich and Brisbane and remains at 94% capacity, despite a dry summer to date.
However, the options of halting or reducing output to a single recycling plant on the Western Corridor have the potential to drive up water costs, posing a dilemma for the Newman government as it moves to rationalise the recycling system.
The other alternatives set out by state agency Seqwater, according to government sources, are to ramp up production to full or leave it where it is, with the Gibson Island recycling plant shut down, the Bundamba plant operating at 50% and the third facility at Luggage Point pumping normally.
State Water Minister Mark McArdle would not discuss the options. However, he said savings from reducing output on the Western Corridor might have to be offset against the loss of income to Seqwater from its deal to supply power stations west of Brisbane.
"There are contracts tied to the use of the pipeline and if they are terminated by agreement or otherwise it could result in a considerable downturn of income to Seqwater and could have a direct onflow into the cost of water," he told The Australian.
"Those contracts need to be worked through properly and effectively, otherwise what could be a good idea on paper becomes a disastrous outcome in reality."
Mr McArdle said the government was also mindful of the need to retain the capability of the Western Corridor in the event of another severe drought.
"To walk away completely from this pipeline would be to throw money away, simple as that," he said.
If the government was to take the middle-course option of scaling back recycling, rather than shutting down the pipleline, it would most likely leave only the Luggage Point plant running near Brisbane airport.
"Toilet-to-tap" recycling was not introduced after Ms Bligh buckled to a public outcry
Comment
Continuing chatter about abandoning the
recycled water pipeline is disappointing.
My recollection was that LNP advocates
supported using waste water for industry and farming purposes.
Can the LNP can revisit plans they were
advocating while billions were being spent on these thought bubbles?
If an LNP leak floated in the Australian has any
teeth, abandoning such expensive infrastructure is a disgrace.
When an ugly scar first appeared on
top of Mt Petrie it became known a tank was being constructed to gravity
feed recycled water to Bundamba.
The Queensland Government has refused the option of using water along the way to benefit the community.
The Queensland Government has refused the option of using water along the way to benefit the community.
Spectacular forests on the Belmont
Hills could be thriving now with a tiny fraction of the water allowed to keep
the area thriving.
Parks, gardens, bushland areas,
catchments, industrial areas should have benefited from the water
passing right by them.
Billions were wasted with projects that
did not deliver.
They were thought bubbles that made
construction companies and public relationers very rich but of no significant
benefit to the people.
The LNP was there, watching, saying nothing.
The LNP was there, watching, saying nothing.
The basics such as cleaning out dams
while they were empty were not on the agenda.
If water is not for drinking purposes
it does not have the volume of expensive chemicals added.
Surely they installed solar/methane
pumps at Gibson Island, so the electricity costs should not be an issue.
Do any of the advocates over the years
for recycled water to be used for industrial and farming purposes have an
opinion that might help the Premier make a sensible decision?
It would be good to have an opinion
from all those companies that did very nicely out of the multi-billions spent.
Can some alternate opinions be obtained
before the infrastructure is put in mothballs?
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