What The People Want

hi i am in a program at school and we have to make a movie and solve a problem which is kind of like a drought but alot harder and i you would love it if you could give me some more info or some websitesthat could help me bye ('-')('-')('-)
PLEASE EMAIL ME AT ellat9@hotmail.com

hi i am in a program at school and we have to make a movie and solve a problem which is kind of like a drought but alot harder and i you would love it if you could give me some more info or some websitesthat could help me bye ('-')('-')('-)

I'm a 17 year old student attending St Josephs college in Toowoomba. When the recent water vote was turned down I was outraged at how selfish some people can be. To me, it seems as though it's the older generations that are the majority of 'No' voters. Fortunately for them, they won't have to grow up dealing with a problem that could have been solved, or at least improved using recycled water! I think it was a foolish idea in having a vote in Toowoomba. We have a history of being the 'Bible Belt'. Everyone is generally closed minded to change. History shows that there has Never been a Federal level vote in Toowoomba that has been a 'Yes' vote. Perhaps this vote should have been positioned in brisbane, where there is more open views to our water CRISIS.

This water crisis affects everyone in everyway. We need to stop worrying about drinking so-called 'poo-water' (Proven to be CLEANER then current drinking standards) and get over it.

Rain tanks are a great idea.. when it rains. So until then, we'll just keep drinking our dams dry, and perhaps when water totally runs out, people will finally understand the impact of voting 'No' for this postive change.

Recycled water is pretty safe to drink...SOME experts advise us.

Hormone Replacement Therapy was/is also pretty safe to take...SOME experts told/tell us.

Human Growth Hormone (pituitary-derived) was also pretty safe...SOME experts told us.

Thalidomide was also pretty safe to take...SOME experts told us.

So don't worry, trust them. Especially those experts that the Qld Goverment may quote. After all, Anna Bligh is recently quoted as saying " The advice we have is this water, purified and treated to the appropriate level, is 100 per cent safe." 100%!!! How can we go wrong

Back 30 or 40 years ago, the then Lord Mayor, Clem Jones borrowed the funds needed to complete the sewering of Brisbane, and we paid for it with an increase in rates.

Why not do the same with harvesting rainwater, the Council installs suitable rainwater tanks to every house, unit, and business throughout the greater Brisbane area, and we pay them off over decades by a small rate levy.

This way, clean rainwater is captured before it becomes runoff and is contaminated.
It's less expensive and less invasive than building dams, we know it rains in the populated areas, but not over the dam catchment.

The tanks and hardware are all Australian made, creating more jobs for Aussies.
Even if the water was only used for the toilet flush, washing machines and the hotwater system, the savings in consumption would add up.

Let's send the polititions a calculator - if you can't give a fresh drink to the people who are already here, why bring up to another 200,000 every year? - I don't particularly care if the foreigners, (who bought our land and businesses at 50-75% of the price courtesy of an artificially deflated AU$), get their cheap labour or not, and, if they want imported cheap labour, pay for their own infrastructure etc.

It's funny how people say it's done all over the world and then the only example they can give is Singapore (at 1%). Toowoomba was set to be 25-29% recycled sewage.

I laughed at the person who said 'Firstly make a commitment never again to allow anyone in your presence to call water ,“ recycled sewage.”'

The number one mistake. Toowoomba City Council and others tried to avoid calling the water what it is - and people were suspicious of such a need to hide the facts.

i am strongly agaist recycled water, just the thought of my shit being turned into water makes me sick.

I am a water quality scientist. It makes no sense to put highly treated and exceptionally clean recycled water (RO water) back into Wivenhoe dam, it is too expensive to make and too clean.

RO (reverse osmosis) water is laboratory grade water suitable for use in scientific laboratories and hospitals. It should be put back into the Brisbane River at Mt Crosby weir to reduce treatment pressure and treatment costs at the 2 Mt Crosby water treatment plants.

Less treated water would be ideal to put back. With CSIRO showing inputs from the Bourke sewage treatment plant into the Darling River are completely mitigated by 30km downstream (ie about 1 days flow). Water spends nearly 5 years in Lake Wivenhoe and organics are biodegraded very quickly (within days) so the claims against endocrine disruptors (hormones and other chemicals) is a scare factor put up by politicians with vested interests (like Berghofer and cronies including Lawrence Springborg). In drinking water they are scientifically (but unfortunately not politically) irrelevant.

With an election on September 9, all Queenslanders now have the opportunity to vote whether they want recycled sewage water in their drinking water or not.

If you want recycled sewage water in your drinking water - Vote for Labor.

If you want fresh water in your drinking water - Vote for the Coalition

There is nothing more dangerous than overshooting local water catchment with population growth. Greens and others who so thoughtlessly endorse government profligacy with water show how little they really understand of the dynamics of population, consumption and technology.

If we continue to give in to high immigration and a bolstered birth rate then in 2050 there will be another 10 million people in Australia (and perhaps 9 billion in the world) and the cost of water, land, housing and other necessities of life will be beyond the capacity of the majority of Australians to assure their shelter and health and beyond the ability of any government to service. We will then be at the mercy of private and corporate forces and they do not have any interest beyond the dollar.

The 'Yuk' factor is but a straw man built to channel comment away from the real issues.

Not so long ago people in this country counted themselves the fortunate inheritors of rational democracy. Now population growth benefits those who own the technology and the resources in demand and the rest of us will pay more and more for this growth. Sooner or later it will cost lives as our access to water reduces in line with increasingly dense populations.

(Sunshine was here)

I am a dick head who don;t belive in the eight second rule. But I drink from the toilet anyway.

YUMMY YUMMY SEWAGE!

(PLEASE, I REALLY WANT YOU TO EMAIL ME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

We lived in Wagga Wagga for 33 years,11 towns including the Canberra put their treated effluent in the Murrumbidgee before we drew our water from the River.If you look at all the western River systems in NSW that enter the Murray and those on the Darling system including Toowoomba,count all the towns on those rivers plus the those towns on the Murray from its source,these towns all deliver their treated effluent to the river. You then have the hide to think the idea is new - You must live in Fantasy Land.

I don't believe it!

Look who we vote for. Basically it essence the whole debate is about ignorance and not about science. I do not know one person who is willing to admit they voted liberal in the federal election, I would assume that any referendum on recycled water would achieve the same result if the result is negative.

Basically if the scientists say recylcled 'sewage' and yes the stuff that comes out of our kidneys and bowles is safe to drink I and my whole extended family would willingly do so.

People, examine the science and not talk back radio, educate yourself. And yes most people are to ignorant to deserve as say for this very reason IGNORANCE.

p.s. I am not a scientist just someone who is informed, a 7th generation australian and drank tap water in London water and so has my family.l

I am over sixty and apart from thirteen years drinking town water that stinks of chemicals,I have managed to survive healthily on water from dams and wells, and rainwater tanks. As well I have eaten a great deal of food that is made in countries that use unknown (to us) sources of water and ingredients, and I have swum in many backyard pools in the company of children who are noted for their energised bladders. Moreover, I do not hesitate to buy Australian produce which is grown and cleaned in "rural water". If at any time I have felt uneasy about drinking chemical-free rainwater I boil it. Simple.

The Toowoomba vote was disappointing, one must ask what the agenda is for Toowoomba now, do they follow Goulburn, NSW having no water?
Having lived near a dam but without access, we used tank water, I have seen what goes into the water, decaying leaves, wildlife carcasses, you name it it will eventually wash into the dam then your home.
As to home watrer tanks, yes there mayy be chemicals washing into them but in a full tank they are traces only. When as above I lived on rainwater tanks, there were even occassions frogs etc got in and died, we only found out when the water smelt foul, I am alive today and have suffered mored through so called town water than i even did drinking rainwater or even creek water, pumped to top up the house tanks when they were low.

Being a full-blooded Queenslander, a true blue banana-bender, we had tanks in our back yards, which were taken off us because of the mosquito plague. Now it's time that those tanks are put back into the back yards.

When they put in a new housing development, why can't they install their own local sewerage plant, and recycle the water for garden and other domestic uses, and store stormwater runoff in holding tanks or dams, instead allowing it to run-off into the sea.

We are suppose to be the SMART STATE. Yep, we were SMART, back in the 1950's to 60's. We knew how to conserve things and look after things. But then, that was before all the SMART people arrived from other States taking advantage of Queensland.

Why can't we pump all the recycle water back into our water catchment areas around our dams, and allow it to flow naturally back into the water system.

Now if all of this happens then may be we could call ourselves the SMART STATE, but sadly, some SMART person will come along and cut back on the process of filtration to save money.

I am still strongly in favor of redycling and think the controls are now more important than the ifs. Must never be privatised where profit becomes more important than quality control,and should be kept at arms length from local government.

I am still strongly in favor of redycling and think the controls are now more important than the ifs. Must never be privatised where profit becomes more important than quality control,and should be kept at arms length from local government.

it would be well for people to remember that home water tanks are not the answer to all of our water supply problems. indeed, if given the option between drinking city tank water(that is tanks situated in large urban areas) and recycled sewerage i would take the recycled any day. rain water that falls onto ones roof and then into a backyard tank would be grossly contaminated. petrochemical exhaust from vehicle emmissions is particulate as well as gaseous. this particulate residue settles onto roofs in large quantities. joining this are the rotting remains of animals and vegetable matter. urban tank water would not be fit for long term human consumption. (this is a personal and as yet untested hypothesis.)

I recently saw some figures which showed the cost of water supply systems.
The cost of recycled water was greater than that of desalinated water. This was because of the greater energy required for the recycling process, against desalination.

This being the case, I can see no reason to use recycled water, except where the user is too far from the coast, to be viable for pumping.
Lets use the primary treated water for industry, power generation, & agriculture, with desalination, & tank water for home usage.

Surely Beattie's sudden conversion can only be an interest in the green vote. I am finding it more & more difficult to believe a single word this man utters.

South Australia has an alternative where recycled water is used for the garden, washing the car etc. I find it interesting that the states we call backwards is where the forward thinking comes from.

Recycling water back to existing dams is not a debate of "if" but "when". If our generation embraces this change in water management instead of building new dams (that don't work and waste tax payers money like so many other empty dams that have been built), we will have saved the beautiful environment of the Mary River all the way to Hervey Bay for us to enjoy and for future generations. Rivers are the arteries of life and meant to run free to the oceans. Dams change river flows and irreversibly alter the triggers that so many aquatic life cycles depend on.

A “yes” vote could have impacted on the propsed Traveston Dam built on tears. We must now leave no stone unturned to express the truth about recycled water. Firstly make a commitment never again to allow anyone in your presence to call water ,“ recycled sewage.” Please make a commitment to get the facts and ‘talk’ the facts at every opportunity. The Save the Mary Valley website is a great source of information as is also the MRCCC.
The water in the Toowoomba project is 6 star quality and is suitable both for dialysis and pharmaceutical uses.
· The process of multi barrier treatment removes acute and chronic risks.
· The health of drinking recycled water is significantly lower than that of drinking normal potable water.
· Planned indirect potable uses have occurred for may years with no know health risks.
· Nature constantly recycles. Ever thought about where our rain clouds have hailed from? or what caused chemicla rain in Europe? or how far clouds can travel?
· We all live ‘downstream’. Communities all over the world discharged treated and untreated waste water into rivers and streams, and many will use for a drinking supply.
· For me the very best option is to initiate a recycling process that delivers SAFE, PURE water into every home.
· If you still can’t trust that, then TANKS are the best possible option.
· For some areas augmentation of water supply through recycling is the only option other than a long “wet season”.

There was nothing incompetent about the Yes campaign for those who wanted an informed opinion. To the contrary, the No campaign was a digraceful mish mash of anti science misinformation and scare tactics, promoted by the National Party and Clive Berghofer. If the same campaign was run elsewhere, the result would be the same.

Still want authorities to study the example set by C.Y. O'Connor in the Perth to Kalgoorlie
pipeline that made it possible to open that part of the country and still provides a lifeline to agriculture as well as the renowned mining industry. Tentative plan is being introduced to the Queensland Parliament at the present sitting.

Graham, Whilst it is true that some people voted against the recycling project because of the Yuk factor, I can reassure you that either, a high percentage of the No vote was because of the arrogance of the Council, or of the missing months between delivery of treated recycled water into Cooby dam and the delivery to residents. I'm not surprised by some of the anti Toowoomba comments by persons supporting the "Greens". More often than not these comments are made by persons who do not live in this area.

yours sincerely
Ted Eggleston

I've installed a tank for rain water..for when it rains, but I would still welcome recycled water in the future to keep my garden alive and for every other function. If people don't choose to drink it they can buy water for drinking or use tank water.

People seem to think that recycled sewage is being used for potable (drinking) purposes all over the world, but that isn't the case. Singapore, for example, only includes 1% recycled water (or what it euphemistically calls 'new water') in its drinking supply.

Recycled water has not been shown to be safe for human consumption, including the elimination of pharmaceuticals and hormones; nor has it been shown to be safe for the environment into which it is to be pumped, that is, the upper reaches of the catchments, where there are endangered, vulnerable and rare species of plant and animal.

Queensland does not separate its industrial waste from its household waste, and that is a compounding factor.

The answer is in conservation of our existing supply, tightening leaks and using less, developing alternatives like rainwater tanks, and stabilising our population.