Parts of Australia entering "Ice Age".

A post for Global warming sceptics:

From the Elders Weather site:

James Luffman, 31 March 2007
Saturday morning saw minimum temperatures well below average across much of eastern and northern Australia, with records broken in some locations.

Two cold outbreaks in the space of a week have caused the humid conditions over much of the country to be replaced by a dry and stable airmass.

With clear skies and cool, dry air the minimum temperatures on Saturday morning were in single digits across much of NSW and inland southeast QLD.

Glen Innes got down to zero, the lowest March minimum in 10 years of records.

Further north in the QLD Darling Downs, Dalby recorded a minimum of 5 degrees – the coldest March night since records began 15 years ago.

The cool and dry air has also pushed well north across the interior of the country, and on Saturday morning Tennant Creek in the Barkly district of the NT got as low as 15 degrees, the coldest March night there in 30 years.

Minimium temperatures on Sunday morning will be slightly warmer in most districts as the airmass slowly warms.

Essex Girls drink recycled water - or so Beattie says.

Did you hear about the Essex girl who drank sewage water?

Another huge boo boo coming up for Beattie and the Queensland Water Commission.

It pays to know what's funny and what's not in country's that you visit as well as national stereotypes.

Do your own research. We all need a laugh.

Courier Mail: "recycled water should be used for drinking only as a "last resort" because of the risk of human error in treatment plants."

From the Courier Mail March 29 2007: "Water hogs face outdoor bans."

*clip* ... The State Government is building a 200km pipeline to pump 210 million litres of highly treated sewage a day to the dam. Half of the recycled water would go to Swanbank and Tarong power stations. The rest would be pumped into the northern end of Wivenhoe Dam to augment the SEQ region's water supply.

However South Australian water quality expert Don Bursill warned that unless the temperature and density of the recycled water was the same as reserves in the dam it would migrate quickly to the dam outlet.

That would make it harder for the natural dam environment to clean up the recycled water.

Mr Bursill said recycled water should be used for drinking only as a "last resort" because of the risk of human error in treatment plants.

He said other cities with indirect water recycling injected recycled water into aquifers.

Unfortunately, there are no suitable aquifers in southeast Queensland so officials are examining ways to safely introduce recycled water into the dam.

One option is a man-made wetland. Recycled water would undergo a natural filtration process in the wetland before migrating to the dam outlet for release into the Brisbane River.

Deputy Premier Anna Bligh and the Water Commission have rejected pumping recycled water into the Brisbane River .

Gosh that Professor Don Bursill is a scaremongering sort of chap.

ABC: "health concerns raised by a leading microbiologist over plans to recycle Canberra's water"

ACT Govt to examine recycled water concerns
The ACT Health Minister says the Government will examine the health concerns raised by a leading microbiologist over plans to recycle Canberra's water.

Expert Peter Collignon, from the Australian National University, says introducing recycled water to Canberra's drinking supply will increase the risk of disease.

Professor Collignon says it is a reasonable option for overseas cities with already polluted supplies, but for Canberra he says it is an unnecessary risk.

"We've got all this extra water, when you look at the numbers - why would we possibly go through this expensive recycled water issue?" he said.

ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher says the Government will look into these issues.
"I think Canberrans are ready for the discussion, but that's not to predetermine what the outcome will be," she said.

Water supplier ACTEW is further investigating the proposal and will make final recommendations to the Government in the middle of the year.

ABC Online Thursday March 29 2007

Gosh that Professor Peter Collignon is a scaremongering sort of chap.

The West Australian checks with Dr Oppenheimer.

Experts warn on recycled water
YASMINE PHILLIPS

22 March 2007
The West Australian page 3

(c) 2007, West Australian Newspapers Limited

Internationally acclaimed scientists have sparked fears over the safety of drinking recycled sewage, warning that new man-made chemicals and pharmaceutical products could slip through the filtration process, raising the risk of cancer and infertility.

US cancer expert Steven Oppenheimer told The West Australian the "toilet-to-tap" process should only be considered as a last resort, likening drinking recycled water to playing "Russian roulette" with human life.

"The world's scientific community does not and will not know all the toxic agents and carcinogens that may be able to make it through the indirect reclaimed water process to drinking water," the director of cancer and development biology at California State Northbridge University said.

Professor Oppenheimer's claims were backed by University of Newcastle Professor John Aitken, whose research concluded that some by-products found in recycled water could damage a man's sperm and promote cancer growth.

Professor Aitken's concerns were outlined in a booklet which was distributed this week to 400,000 households in Brisbane by activists who are opposed to the Queensland Government's plan to use recycled sewage water. The brochure detailed the results of a British study which found a third of male fish in English rivers were changing sex because of "gender bending" pollution in 2004.

Britain's Environmental Agency believes the number of British couples struggling to conceive had increased 55 per cent in five years to one in six, a trend blamed on sewage mixing with drinking water.

Australian Water Association chief executive Chris Davis agreed it was impractical to test for every synthetic chemical in treated waste water.

Anna Bligh and the ABC should probably stop attacking "Think before you agree to drink" because it seems to be gaining some credibility.

Welcome University of Queensland Students ...

Particularly those studying ENVM7511 Natural Resource Management at the University of Queensland.

We are proud to be included in your course material.

Your task is:

"Have a look at this blog site. [You have arrived here safely] It has been organised by the people who campaigned against the use of re-cycled water for human consumption in the recent referendum on this issue in Toowoomba. What do you think of their arguments and the evidence they present to support their case against the use of re-cycled water to supplement drinking water supplies?"

We make no apology that what you might read has an inherent bias against using sewage as a source of drinking water. It is merely an attempt to balance the blatantly misleading spin that the Queensland Water Commission, the Queensland Government, the Australian Water Association and corporations have put on the topic in order to sell the idea to a reluctant public.

Over 70% of the general public are opposed to it but there is almost unanimous support for using recycled water for industry and agriculture.

'It's done all over the world' - but where? You can join our worldwide 'challenge' to find a community on this planet that deliberately sources a significant proportion of its drinking water from the back end of a sewage treatment plant.

Please log in and leave comments. This is a busy site (in the top few percent of blogs) and you will undoubtedly get a quick response from those opposed to 'purified recycled water' and those in favour - they will tell you why.

ABC's Madonna King begins to suffer loss of credibility.

ABC Radio's 612 Talkback with Madonna King has been working furiously to rebut the contents of 'Think Before You Agree to Drink".

Gary from Holland Park who has a sister in Oregon is Madonna's latest expert:

Gary (Holland Park) - I sent you an email on the weekend about that...

King - Yes, and I read it at about 4am this morning. What this is is a Snow Manners recycled water brochure.

Gary - That's right, yeah. I have a sister that lives in Oregon, communicated with her and she helped me with it. The opening page of that, the first one, Steven Oppenheimer, I contacted him. And I said - I'm an American, even though I'm naturalised & everything else, live in Australia - there's a pamphlet. Did you contribute to that brochure? He said - no way. I said - did you make these statements? He said - no way. [I don't think anyone claimed Oppenheimer contributed to the pamphlet - he was simply quoted in the pamphlet]

King - So he denied...

Gary - Right. That he didn't even contribute anything. They pulled it off the internet and didn't even get it right. Secondly I contacted the Water News Online and that other quote that they said was done by that retired professor from North Carolina University was bunkum. He wasn't even there. I looked it up & looked in June 2000 on that website. I spent about four hours researching this on the web. I sent an email to them, and I said was this person, and I copied & pasted what was said, and the president and the publisher said - no, he did not even occur on that website.

King - So how many checks did you do Gary? How many people did you go to that were quoted or facts in that booklet?

Gary - I got a little bit exhausted from doing this, but the other one - there was a website that went www.eight... whatever it was, and I did deep research into that. And he says that this person said that it was no good for you, and what that website said was - it was talking about contaminated water from pesticides. So that was a misquote.

King - So was there anything accurate on those that you checked?

Gary - None. I sent you an email about it. I spent two hours typing you the email.

King - Yes I read the email and went through those. We had also spoken to someone, I don't know if you heard last week, who was taken out of context and they weren't aware that they were quoted in it either.

Gary - So we're bang on, aren't we? [WE? Is that Gary and the ABC?]

King - Well it sounds like it. That's Gary from Holland Park, and he has sent a long email where he has gone through contacting various scientists and various websites and putting to them what is then in that water brochure booklet, and he's found fairly much in... well in all those cases that what is said isn't what is printed in the booklet.

Well that's research from the ABC at its very best.

We have done our own reference checking and although Manners and Dowson would do well to sack their proofreaders, their references stack up.

1 HACCP 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2006, from http://www.haccp.com.au/

2 Simpson, Jenifer ‘From Waste-d-Water to Pure Water–Water Quality Star Rating’ [http://scec.org.au/water-booklet/ - this blog found it here]

3 Singapore NEWater http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater_files/faq/index.html Last accessed November 30, 2006.

4 Windhoek problems Vonhoff, R 2006, ‘H2O upset–Namibian city plant flawed’, Toowoomba’s Mail, 11 May, p.1. [http://www.queensu.ca/msp/pages/In_The_News/2004/August/Namibia.htm - this blog found it here]

5 Orange County Groundwater Replenishment Sytem http://www.gwrsystem.com/about/overview.html Last accessed November 30, 2006.

6 Email from the Toowoomba City Council Director of Engineering Services

7 United States Environmental Protection Agency 2006. Retrieved October6, 2006, from http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/oscpendo/pubs/edspoverview/primer.htm

8 Reynolds, M 2006, “Gender bender water warnings’, Australian Financial Review, 2 May, p.61 [We found the article transcribed by 'Locke' here: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/index.php?t-360619.html ]

9 Men inherit sperm damage: reports’,2004, ABC Online, The World Today, 14 May. Retrieved October 6, 2006, from http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1108469.htm

10 Ngheim,L.D., Schafer, A.I. 2004, ‘Trace contaminant removal with nanofiltration’ in A.I. Schafer, A. Fane, and D Waite, (eds) Nanofiltration – Principals and Applications,Elsevier Science, Sydney, pp. 479-520. [Have to buy the book here: http://www.cplbookshop.com/contents/C2524.htm ]

11 Reynolds, M 2006, ‘Recycling receives a Spray’, The Australian, 24 Feb. Retrieved October 6, 2006 from http://waterfutures.blogspot.com/2006/02/australian-friday-feb-24-2006.html

12 Dimitridiadis, Dr S 2005, ‘Issues encountered in advancing Australia’’s water recycling schemes’, Parliament of Australia–Parliamentary Library. Retrieved October 2, 2006,from http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/Pubs/rb/2005-06/06rb02.htm

13 Draft National Guidelines for Water Recycling 2005, Environment Protection and Heritage Council. Retrieved October 6, 2006 from http://www.ephc.gov.au/ephc/water_recycling.html

14 Batty, J. Lim, R. Morphological and Reproductive Characteristics of Male Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis holbrooki) Inhabiting Sewage-Contaminated Waters in New SouthWales, Australia Journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Publisher Springer New York ISSN 0090-4341 (Print) 1432-0703 (Online) Issue Volume 36,Number 3 / April, 1999 Pages 301-30715 Australian Academy of Science 1998, ‘Is there something in our water?. Retrieved October 6, 2006, from http://www.science.org.au/media/endopr.htm

16 Krimsky authored Hormonal Chaos “Our Stolen Future” by Sheldon Krimsky 1996

17 A letter to the editor by Dr Jean Ginsberg et al “The Lancet”. p230 Vol 343 Jan 22 1994 “Residents in the London area and sperm density” [we found it here: http://www.valscan.com.au/GinsbergLancet1994.pdf ]

18 Mika Peck, Richard W. Gibson, Andreas Kortenkamp and Elizabeth M. Hill. 2004. ‘Sediaments are major sinks of steroidal estrogens in two United Kingdom rivers’,Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol.23, No. 4, pp. 945-95219 UK Environment Agency [we found it here: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15604001 ]

20 Feminised fish throughout Europe’ 2000, News in Science, 8 September. Retrieved October 9 from http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s173226.htm

21 Edwards, Rob Environment Editor ‘Alert as gender bending sewage alters lambs’ sex’ Sunday Herald 21 November 2004 Retrieved October 17 2006 http://www.sundayherald.com/46214 [we found it here: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20041121/ai_n12592163 ]

22 U.S. Water News Online ‘Use of recycled water for drinking questioned’ June 2000 Retrieved October 10 http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcconserv/tuseof6.html

23 Issues in Potable Reuse: The Viability of Augmenting Drinking Water Supplies with Reclaimed Water Committee to Evaluate the Viability of Augmenting Potable Water Supplies with Reclaimed Water, National Research Council ISBN: 0309064163 [see above]

24 San Diego Union Tribune. October 18, 1998. Toilet-To-Tap Plan Worries Salk Researcher.

25 12.10.05 said in a letter to the editor in the Courier Mail 1.8.05

26 In a letter to Rosemary Morley of Toowoomba

27 Young, Leith 2006, ‘Drastic Action’ , The Source – a magazine by Melbourne Water, Issue 37, March 2006, p.4. Retrieved October 10 from http://library.melbournewater.com.au/content/publications/the_source/the_source_issue_37.pdf
28 Dr. Steven Oppenheimer, Augmenting Drinking Water with Reclaimed Water, http://www.beachwoodvoice.com/WaterIssue/augmentingdrinking.htm

29 Ref: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=6022

Dr Steven Oppenheimer again spells out the danger of reclaimed water.

Dr Steven Oppenheimer crystallises the whole argument against Peter Beattie's planned recycling scheme:

Augmenting Drinking Water with Reclaimed Water

Most of the views I will provide on this issue are not mine alone. They are the opinions released in a National Research Council Report in 1998. The most striking aspect of the NRC report, titled "Issues in Potable Reuse: the Viability of Augmenting Drinking Water Supplies With Reclaimed Water," is the following statement: "Further, indirect potable reuse is an option of last resort"

The reasons for this dramatic statement are simple. The United States of America, and for that matter, the world’s scientific community does not and will not know all of the toxic agents and carcinogens that may be able to make it through the indirect reclaimed water process. It took decades until the risk of Chromium 6 materialized. Imagine the possibility of thousands of unknown agents getting into our water supply as a result of hospital and industrial waste releases. And the release by such organizations will not be predictable.

We do not even have tests available to determine many of the unknowns that may show up in water from the indirect water reuse program.

Some say that this water will be the cleanest water in Los Angeles. And that may possibly true in terms of the known agents that we can test for. But this program is like Russian roulette. It may be fine for years, until an unknown agent makes it through the process and kills people in LA. Anytime one deals with medical wastes and industrial wastes in such large quantities, it is likely that such a scenario will eventually materialize. We simply do not have the testing mechanisms required to protect the people of Los Angeles from such an eventuality. The indirect potable water reuse project is not new. It has been around for decades. Studies have been done. The NRC, however, warns: "Negative results from such studies do not prove the safety of the water in question."

In 1996, a Rand Corporation study found that there was an almost 100% (average of 73%) increase in rates of liver cancer in areas using reclaimed water. The authors, however, down play the finding by stating there is no evidence to associate liver cancer with reclaimed water; therefore the liver cancer is most likely explained by other factors. In my opinion, and in the
opinion of others who read this statement, it is flawed reasoning. The liver is the organ that processes toxic substances and it s likely, not unlikely, that liver cancer could result from unknown toxins in the reclaimed water. Who knows if liver cancer in this study resulted from the reclaimed water? That is not the issue. The issue is why have not extensive animal tests been done before this water was forced on people? Drinking water standards cover only a limited number of contaminants. They are intended for water obtained from conventional,
relatively uncontaminated sources of fresh water, not for reclaimed water, and therefore cannot be relied on as the sole standard of safety."

Thus, according to the NRC’s report, the gigantic problem with this water is... "from the large number of compounds that may be present, the inability to analyze for all of them, and the lack of toxicity information for many of the compounds."

Los Angeles in embarking on a project considered the "option of last resort" by the National Research Council. Don’t the people of Los Angeles deserve programs that protect their health, not threaten it? Thank you.

—Dr. Steven Oppenheimer

George Negus - SBS Dateline debunking the Singapore drinks sewage water myth.

SBS Dateline Archives - March 21, 2007

Singapore's Taste Test
*clip*
YAP KHENG GUAN, PUBLIC UTILITIES BOARD: We are always on the lookout for different sources of water so that we are not just dependent on our traditional sources of water. And that's part of Singapore's water management strategy, if you like.

Singapore gets its water from four different sources, it calls them the four national taps - and the most important one is about to be turned off.

Singapore imports half its water from Malaysia, just across this causeway, through these pipes. But in just four years time the contract to provide most of this water expires. This is a very touchy subject in Singapore, where relations with Malaysia are sometimes difficult. Dr Tommy Koh is Singapore's Ambassador-at-large at the Asia Pacific Water Forum.

REPORTER: From a Singaporean perspective is there some concern about the end of the agreement in 2011.

*clip*

YAP KHENG GUAN: Well, we have three others. So I think it is a question of how well we can do a balance here.
Tap two is recycled water. Here they use the euphemism, 'NeWater'. These fish are swimming in recycled water outside the NeWater visitors centre, and they seem happy enough. They are playing their part in the PR campaign to sell recycled water to the public.

LIANA, TOUR GUIDE: The journey into NeWater begins now because we are proceeding into the factory itself. So let's find out more. OK, open sesame.
Liana is my enthusiastic tour guide.

LIANA: OK, everybody welcome to the very own the Bedok NeWater factory. So as you can see from here, this is where we process and make NeWater.

REPORTER: I notice you don't call it 'sewage', you call it "used water", you don't say "recycled water" you say 'NeWater', so how important is that selling the message?

YAP KHENG GUAN: What's important is that we have the technology that can actually treat water to a very high standard, a very high quality, and that is what NeWater is all about. And again, we're very open about the technology. It is very sophisticated, it's very meticulous in which the treatment process undergoes. But we try to be as open as we can and try to make the technology understandable to the layman.

LIANA: So over here, just imagine you are a water molecule, let's get ourselves washed. Come this way. Do join me here. So can you make it? No. Ah, if you are not, you must be the larger impurities.

HARRY SEAH, NEWATER QUALITY CONTROL: This is the nerve centre of the plant where we control the whole operation from here.
Harry Seah is in charge of the technology and the water quality, and he chooses his words carefully.

REPORTER: What is the raw product? Is it sewage?

HARRY SEAH: Yes, the raw product is waste it's waste water. It's what I call "used water". We prefer to call it used water because..

REPORTER: But it is sewage, though, yes?

HARRY SEAH: It is...it is we Sewage but..

REPORTER: You call it "waste water"?

HARRY SEAH: "Used water".

REPORTER: Used water.

HARRY SEAH: But more important is that you realise that in a sense that this waste water is actually more than 99-point-something percent water, alright. So you should be not be too think about, if you have proper treatment and you have proper operation, you should get very high quality water. It's not an issue. We have proven it here.

Although a small amount of the recycled water makes its way into the drinking supply, most of it is used for industry.

YAP KHENG GUAN: The demand from the non-domestic sector is actually very high and there is really no need for us to actually think about using NeWater for the time being for domestic purpose.

Yes, we do have some part of NeWater but a very small part. It goes into the reservoir, so it's not directly into the drinking water network but into the reservoir.

Why don't Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh and the Queensland Water Commission put that in their brochure or on their website?

Sunshine Coast residents reject drinking recycled water 65%-32%.

The Sunshine Coast Daily - March 1, 2007 has revealed details of a survey showing residents reject the idea of drinking recycled water:

No dam, and no recycled water ... not ever
A total of 65% of respondents said Sunshine Coast residents should not be forced to drink recycled water, while only 32% said they would drink it.

Peter Beattie has been saying there is 70% support for sewage water in SEQ!! Is he lying?

Anna Bligh lies about Washington.

I think Manners has his facts right. Read both pages of this article from the Washington Post Sept 2006 only a few months ago and look at the maps. Stuart Khan needs to respond, why wasn't this in his report to the QWC or LGAQ.

Manners - the Book - the Media.

This was Snow Manners' press release:

Over a million Brisbane people will have their say on drinking sewage water.
In an Australian first a private voluntary vote will be held across 400,000 Brisbane households involving over a million people.

The question to be put is:

“Do you want water sourced from sewage treatment plants and then treated to be returned to the drinking water supply of South East Queensland?”

400,000 copies of the book “Think before you agree to drink – Is sewage a source of drinking water?” will be delivered across Brisbane during Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week a few days after March 17, the day the Premier had originally pledged South East Queensland would have a vote on the issue.

Snow Manners has agreed to act as spokesman for the group that produced the book and has authorized its distribution.

Snow Manners said. “The book to be distributed to 400,000 Brisbane households has been piloted with 50,000 copies to households in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs and 10,000 in Goulburn. It has been re-edited to include the Brisbane voluntary poll.”

“Consumers are entitled to make choices. Drinking, cooking, showering and swimming in ‘sewage water’ (or ‘purified recycled water’ as some call it) must be a matter of choice.”

“Premier Beattie reneged on a key election pledge that the issue would be put to a plebiscite. So we have decided to let people have their say in a democratic way.”

“Premier Beattie is using ‘scaremongering’ to introduce sewage water with a campaign of misinformation and fear about running out of water, climate change and drought. This book provides accurate objective information from water experts and medical experts.”

“The Queensland Water Commission has been unable to produce any documentation on long term studies into the safety of sewage water and considerable disagreement exists in the scientific community.”

“This book seeks to generate a proper scientific debate on the subject by presenting opposing scientific view. The Government is using emotion and fear, not information, to sell the concept of sourcing city water from sewage treatment plants.”

The people of Brisbane have every right to feel concerned that water management in South East Queensland is running out of control with Armageddon solutions being used where sensible planning is needed.”

“Recycling does not produce any new water supply and it will only extend the life of drought stricken dams by a month or two. It is too great a risk to take for no additional water supply.”

This is the interview on the ABC with Madonna King. (wma format) who hadn't read the book but became concerned later in the day as to who actually funded it. Clive Berghofer was targetted by journalists but had not contributed a cent - and the witch hunt was on for the money source which continued on 4BC drive time with Anna Bligh joining in.

What does that matter? Well, Governments hate well funded opposition from the grass roots and don't know how large it may become.

A lot of the media swung into a 'feminised fish' routine - the same line that was used against Lawrence Springborg.

We heard the usual accusations of 'scaremongering' and 'intellectually dishonest' now used 26,500 times to describe those that oppose the prevailing fasle doctrine of manipulative governments [the term shows a complete lack of originality by Bligh and Beattie] - this probably puts it in the same categoy as Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth.

Anna Bligh holds a special media conference on the matter reducing all 0ver the world to two places - Washington and California - Madonna King phones California and they don't do it either - Anna Bligh says "throw it in the recycling bin" which puts it in the irresistable banned books category.

Jennifer Mahorasy was impersonated by a fool.

Prof Paul Greenfield gives the publication a D- on ABC for not being rigorous enough in its analysis - but then he has a vested interest in commecializing university research. Which hat is he wearing tonight.

The key thrust of media:
Major anti-recycling push starts
'Strange' protest against recycled water
Recycled water 'can kill'
Recycled water can kill, campaigners say

There are media blogs: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21414489-3102,00.html and http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/vitalinterest/index.php/couriermail/comments/snow_job_delivers_cold_comfort/
However nowhere in the media since the launch of the book has there been a single valid rebuttal of any of the fully substantiated facts it contains. A point not lost on the general public.

Meanwhile Manners, Dowson and whoever else is involved in the Book have made contact with the roots of the Brisbane community and know exactly what the public sentiment is.

Truth forever on the scaffold.

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

James Russell Lowell

The "wrong" have turned out in force today to try and hang Manners and Dowson. However huge numbers have shown their appreciation of the truth - they thought they were alone.

Channel 7 News: Thames Water bursts Beattie's bubble.

Channel 7 Brisbane's top story completely debunked the 'London drinks recycled water' myth.

After about 7 takes of Peter Beattie and his Cabinet Ministers saying that Londoners drank recycled water the news took audio from a Thames Water spokesman saying that there is absolutely no water reuse scheme in operation for London.

Premier Beattie was caught at the airport on his way to Africa (and London) stuttering his way through the AWA propaganda that Londoners drink water that's been through seven sets of kidneys.

Again the channel took audio from Thames Water saying that this was an unfounded myth.

At last the Brisbane media is waking up to the lies that were foisted on Toowoomba.

For our wrap on London during this debate peruse the 'London' label below.

Queensland Water Commission flounders on issue of dangerous 'prions' in recycled water.

The Queensland Water Commission (http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/), part of the Beattie Government as its domain name indicates has contracted some help from another arm of government Med-E-Serv (http://www.medeserv.com.au/) to counter arguments raised about the safety of recycled water.

You will find the results here on the QWC website after they spent many hours trolling over this blog alone.

One question they seek to answer is:

Can I get Mad Cow Disease from drinking the purified recycled water that will be added to the water supply?

No. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) is considered to be caused by a prion (proteinaceous infectious particle) which is a unique type of infectious agent. Mad cow disease can be spread to humans after consumption of infected meat, particularly brain and spinal cord, from an infected animal. Due to strict quarantine and monitoring, Australia is free of mad cow disease.
Due to consumer concerns over beef and beef products in the UK, the UK government undertook a large scale cull of cattle in 1996. The wastewater from the abattoirs and landfills receiving these cattle carcasses was tested for prions and none were found.

For previous posts on prions use the 'prion' label below. Note the typical Peter Beattie cavalier attitude QWC has dismissed this concern - don't care, won't happen, no mad cows here, AQIS can sort it.

Now the facts are that prions can pass quite happily through the whole seven barriers of safety used to produce water from sewage. It is one of the dilemma's of water scientists. Prions do sometimes cluster and whilst in a large cluster they won't pass the membrane. However they will generally happily sail through.

Beattie and the QWC are going to use the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service - AQIS to provide an eighth but only single effective barrier to prions in sewage water - don't let mad cows or suspect meat products into Australia.

The British became concerned when the BSE variant vCJD emerged in humans. Dr. Frederick A. Murphy Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California Davis said in a comprehensive interview "Prions are the most bizarre infectious agents ever imagined." and went on to give details you can read for yourself.

Such was the scare of human infection in the UK that the Australian Red Cross Blood Service made and Exclusion Policy to avoid taking blood for Australian use out of people who had spent six months in the UK during the scare:

These regulations were put in place by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in 2000 to prevent people from donating blood if they have lived in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man) for a cumulative period of six months or longer between 1 January 1980 and 31 December 1996.

This is the period in the UK when the “mad cow” epidemic in cattle was at its peak.

In addition since 2004, the TGA has also excluded people from donating blood who have received a blood transfusion while in the UK from 1 January 1980 onwards. Current policy and regulations can be reviewed once a reliable blood test for vCJD becomes available. From a press release by Federal Health Minister Tony Abbot to defuse media speculation that this restriction would be lifted.

The more alarmist speculation is that a great number of people have prions in their blood with the potential to cause vCJD.

The point is that these prions cannot be detected in blood using the wonders of modern medical technology and obviously have no chance of being detected in a water testing lab - certainly not in this one proposed for testing SEQ Water Grid water.

The Queensland Water Commission is relying on AQIS to ensure that BSE/vCJD don't enter Australia and slip undetectably into our sewage water supply.

However the Red Cross Blood Service is aware that people are living quite happily and healthily in Australia with prions in their blood stream and they will probably never develop the debilitating and always fatal disease.

Is there any way that human blood can make its way into the sewage system in any appreciable quantity and carry the vCJD prions with it? Who knows?

What is the likliehood that prions and other most bizarre infectious agents ever imagined will later emerge in this fast changing world?

Only a fool would take that chance with municipal water supplies and not dismiss it without one iota of scientific validation.

A sad State of affairs.

Queensland (the smart State) is rushing backwards to the 1950's with candles, kerosene and rainwater tanks being proposed to provide the basic amenities of water and power.

The bad news is that sewage water will be used to supplement city water supplies, the good news is that Peter Beattie has Anna Bligh out looking for more sources of sewage.

These clowns are expecting the citizens to trust them with implementation of brand new cutting edge, untested, membrane technology when the use of rainwater tanks is still straining their intellect.

$600,000 has been spent to study 29 rainwater tanks in Brisbane. A mere $20,000 per tank!!! Water was even considered "pure" in two of the tanks ... "This is not a scientifically controlled process, (catching rain from rooftops into a tank) with rainfall catchment surfaces exposed to birds, pollutants, leaves, possums, bats, insects and dirt" he said. Tanks cleared for safe drinking - Sunday Mail March 18 2007.

But don't worry, if push comes to shove and a possum poos in your tank, a truck will come to your house with water, a horse and cart perhaps in true milkman fashion. He will fill the buckets you leave out with water, sell candles and collect any night-soil or greywater you may care to donate to the SEQ water grid.

Ms Bligh elaborated on the emergency plans yesterday, saying a range of measures were under consideration, including:
• FURTHER cuts in water use by power stations in the southeast.
• ROAD or rail tankers supplying water to SEQ towns with fewer than 30,000 people.
• USE of mobile desalination plants for smaller areas.
• OTHER sources of recycled water.
Tarong power station will slash its electricity output to just 30 per cent from March 30, saving an estimated 22,000 megalitres of water over the next 15 months. 'Armageddon' water strategy' - Sunday Mail March 18 2007

That should reassure the people that the Peter Beattie Government has things under control.

Queensland, Australia 2007. Can you believe it?

"Think before you agree to drink" - Fixing Beattie's broken pledge.

Premier Peter Beattie gave an unequivocal election pledge:

"In terms of recycled water for drinking, I give this pledge today (July 30, 2006) - we will not do it unless the people vote positively for it in a referendum," Mr Beattie said.

Today was to be the nominated polling day but that pledge was broken. The opportunity for the public to express their opinion was stolen.

Snow Manners is spokesperson for a group of ordinary people determined to give south east Queenslanders the opportunity to vote.

The revamped publication Think before you agree to drink. Is sewage a source of drinking water? begins its roll-out across south east Queensland. At a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars this is probably the largest privately organised public vote in Australian history.

PUBLIC MEETING: Greenbank Community Centre - 2pm Saturday March 24.

Greenbank Community Centre is at 145 Teviot Road, Greenbank.

The meeting starts at 2pm. The topic is Is Sewage a Source of Drinking Water?

Guest Speaker is Snow Manners from Toowoomba, one of the succesfull opponents to the introduction of sewage water into Toowoomba town water. He has since been elected to Toowoomba City Council on a platform opposing recycling water fro drinking purposes.

Come along and hear the truth about South east Queenslands water crisis. Bring a friend.

QWC Releases: Toowoomba is not in the SEQ and Mayor Thorley too weak to speak up.

The Queensland water Commission today made a number of press releases:

QWC Media releases
09 Mar 2007 Level 5 water restrictions and households
09 Mar 2007 Proposed Level 5 restrictions targets business
09 Mar 2007 South East Queensland "Target 140" campaign
09 Mar 2007 Advice on cost recovery and pricing
09 Mar 2007 Advice on institutional arrangements

The advice on institutional arrangements says in part:

Ms Nosworthy said that the Commission had recommended that the following Councils should be designated Grid Customers as of 1 July 2008: Beaudesert Shire Council; Boonah Shire Council; Brisbane City Council; Caboolture Shire Council; Council of the Shire of Esk; Gatton Shire Council; Gold Coast City Council; Ipswich City Council; Kilcoy Shire Council; Laidley Shire Council; Logan City Council; Pine Rivers Shire Council; Redcliffe City Council.

The following Councils were recommended to be designated Grid Customers as of 1 July 2009: Redlands Shire Council, Noosa Shire Council, Maroochy Shire Council, and Caloundra City Council.

CS Energy (Swanbank Power Station) and Tarong Energy (Tarong Power Station and Tarong North Power Station) will also be customers of the Grid.

Ms Nosworthy said the Commission had based its decision on which Councils should be included in the Grid and be subject to its cost recovery arrangements, on the key principles including:
• water is a regional resource and existing water supplies are not owned by individual local governments;
• the grid provides security of supply through a commitment to supply water in accordance with defined Level of Service Objectives which addresses hydrologic risk and
• the economic and social well-being of SEQ’s individual communities are inherently interdependent and an improvement to water supply security in one community provides benefits to the entire SEQ Region.

SEQ Mayors including Brisbane City are irate at the proposed cost recovery and wholesale water price increases with Campbell Newman threatening to use BCC ratepayers money to fight the State Government. Noosa, Logan, Redland and other Mayors as well as Commerce Queensland are furious that the whole infrastructure costs are going to be passed to water consumers who don't even want the grid.

Mayor Thorley, now too politically weak to even pretend to represent Toowoomba City told Brisbane to "get used to it" (water restrictions and pricing).

Ms Nosworthy said Brisbane was chosen as the ‘benchmark’ in developing the cap, because it supplies the largest proportion of water consumed and revenue raised in the region and its prices were around the average in the region.

“This price path equates to an average wholesale price increase (including inflation) of $261 per megalitre in 2008-09, rising to an increase of $560 per megalitre in 2012-13,” she said.

“The total wholesale price increase would be $1986 per megalitre in 2012-13, of which $306 per megalitre would be attributable to inflation.

“At the retail level, assuming this price change is passed through by retailers, it would mean an annual increase of $71 in 2008/09 for a average customer who uses about 250,000 litres of water per year. A typical Brisbane household using 250,000 litres currently has an annual water bill of $355.

“By 2012/13, a typical household’s annual cost would increase from $355 to $876, an increase of 147 per cent.

Approximately $102 or 29 per cent of that increase is attributable to inflation.

That $876 sounds like the $900 Mayor Thorley was bantering about a few months ago when her poll was defeated. She liked the idea because it was a stick to hit her constituents with.

A 250,000L consumer in Toowoomba saw their water rate jump 34% this year from $167 to $215. That's a 5 person household in Toowoomba.

The new management structure of the SEQ Water Grid and staged pricing is pointing to privatisation by about 2015. At that time the 20% increased returns from customers will justify the capital acquisition of dams and other infrastructure. The the forced introduction of sewage water will provide some cheap bulk water for Veolia or other multinational water companies to make the whole thing work.

Local Councils will swallow the bait and sell their dams to the 'Corporation' and simply profit from reticulation margins. For example Toowoomba's three dams are probably worth $300million in total and by 2012 TCC will be feeling the financial squeeze because its water customers moved a long way towards self sufficiency and not needing council water.

Classic Local Government in Queensland.

Brisbane City Council votes 0:0 on 18 year old $4,800 compensation claim.

The 'ayes' are nil, the 'no's' are nil - I don't believe it!!!

This must be where Toowoomba City Councillors learn the art of stupidity.

Watch the video.

New looks - new books - new sooks.

New Looks: The team hope you like the upgraded look and feel of this website. A little bit of work designed to make research easier and tie together posts using labels. Traffic volume is getting huge so the quicker readers find what they want the better.

New Books: There is a strong rumour that the "Think before you agree to drink" book has re-invented itself for distribution to Brisbane households. The rewrite is expected to shake the Government and the Water Industry to the core and fully engage the Brisbane community in the debate. We expect a copy tomorrow which we have agreed to make available for download.

Malcolm Turnbull has decided to spend $200,000 on a book about water too. He obviously doesn't have the same budget as Manners and Co. Up to $200,000 will be spent printing information booklets on the use of recycled water for drinking, the federal government has announced

Chris Davis CEO of the AWA was on radio today announcing his little booklet with 20 points about water. Apparently available at the AWA website but no-one can find it. Chris Davis has joined the looney fringe of water solution advocates suggesting pipelines across Bass Strait to provide irrigation water. No wonder we have problems in the water industry.

New Sooks: A rattled water industry and politicians taking their advice are on the backfoot as the general public realises the whole sewage water idea is a 'scam'.

There are many tears on the Labour backbench being hit by the electorate, moaning by water authorities that not enough is being spent on 'education' about sewage water and not enough on staffing and resources at QWC.

'Purified recycled water' is a concept too hard to sell against the realistic 'sewage water' concept promoted in the media and the unions might stall Beattie's pipelines.

Perhaps we can gather their tears and desalinate them - it will produce more water than Luggage Point.

It is now apparent to SEQ that recycling is non-viable. Who is to blame?

What is obvious to most practical minded people is that you can't recycle water if you don't have any.

The grand plan of taking water out of Wivenhoe, using it, cleaning the lumpy bits and putting it back in again doesn't work. It's not a water supply.

Courier Mail: How dam bad until we hit worst case?

Who was it that has let Queensland get to the stage where carting in water using boats may be an option? Who should be held accountable for saying "Don't worry, when there is a bad drought people will accept sewage water"?

Who do we blame for our water crisis?

Possibly Jenifer Simpson, Lyndsay Chappell, Rowland Rodgers, Alasdair Jeffrey, Noel Playford, Vikki Uhlmann, Ian Cameron, Ron Walpole, Rob Saunders, Ernst Brunyius, Bill Razzell BCC, Howard Gibson BCC, Julie Ivison, Terry Loos EPA, Greg Johnston, Veronica Pearce, Ross Macleod, Senior Policy Adviser, Rod Lehmann, David Barnes, Tom Belgrove, Paul Greenfield, Bryan Coulter, Mark Pascoe or Rob Drury SEQ Water to name a few.

All decisions come down to individual people like you and I and we must be accountable for the decisions we make especially when it affects the economy of a state and the lives of millions of people.

Ask them to get you out of the poo, Pete. They got you into it.

Prof Cullen "Recyled water - uneconomic"

Water conferences always cause a little flush of sewage water stories. We can't see where this one got a run in the general press (corrected SMH March 7) but it should ring alarm bells.

What Cullen is saying is that if the water industry can't make money out of selling sewage water for drinking then they will have to charge a lot more to the ratepayer for cleaning up their sewage before it enters the environment.

That of course is where the whole proposal for potable reuse started in the first place - we are endocrine disrupting the environment and we can't affford to fix it - lets sell the treated water back to consumers rather than have clean environmental flows out of sewage treatment plants.

AAP Wednesday, 7 Mar 2007 at 2:05pm; Category: Australian General News; Low priority; Story No. 5204.

Professor Peter Cullen of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists told the conference (Ozwater 2007 conference in Sydney today) that while he was also keen on recycled water, it was unattractive economically as an alternative source.
He said NSW residents should be made to pay for their sewage to be treated properly to ensure recycling was a more viable option.

"The economics of recycling is pretty horrible, and it's pretty horrible because we don't charge properly for sewage treatment," Prof Cullen said.

"If we start to demand that (sewage) be treated properly and that people who press the (toilet) button and flush (waste) down there pay the cost of doing that, the economics of recycling instantly becomes more popular."

Prof Cullen criticised the "second-rate" media coverage of the referendum on recycled water in the Queensland town of Toowoomba last July, which he said did not help the public discussion on the issue. But he said that in a decade the Australian public would look back and wonder what the fuss was about in the debate over drinking recycled water.

Prof Cullen is also the chairman of the Independent Review Panel, which provides expert advice to the NSW government on water issues. He said the panel encouraged the NSW government to build the controversial desalination plant because it was not rainfall dependent. Despite recent rain boosting dam levels, he still believed building the desalination plant would be a prudent move.

"Sydney is going to need that water despite current rain, so I still support that decision," Prof Cullen said. AAP