CM 24th/7th Sewage Poll & Nod for Pipeline Study

[westholme]

Sewage poll will count

Amanda Gearing and Brendan O'Malley

July 24, 2006

TOOWOOMBA mayor Di Thorley yesterday ruled out forging ahead with a controversial plan to recycle purified sewage if the idea is voted down at a referendum on Saturday.

The council has scheduled calling tenders two days after the July 29 referendum on the $68 million-plus project, which involves pumping purified sewage from the Wetalla wastewater treatment plant into the city's main dam.

An email obtained by The Courier-Mail also showed the council had received advice from Local Government Minister Desley Boyle that there was no legal obligation for the council to take the referendum result into account. The council said in its funding submission to the National Water Commission that although the cost burden on ratepayers would soar if the project did not get $23 million in federal funding, it was so important to the city it still needed to go ahead.

"If the submission is not successful, (Toowoomba City Council) believes the project must still go ahead, resulting in a very significant cost impost to be borne by TCC ratepayers," the funding application said. But Cr Thorley ruled out pushing ahead regardless of Saturday's vote.

"No, that won't happen. The tenders (have been scheduled) contingent on a 'yes' vote," she said.

"I have no idea of what the alternative will be, but the bores we're drilling and other emergency measures gives us water until December 2007."

The council had to poll electors as a requirement for Commonwealth funding of its Water Futures recycling proposal. A majority 'no' vote could jeopardise the funding.

Speculation that the council would go ahead anyway with Water Futures heightened after news of the tenders and a decision to bring down its budget to July 14, two weeks before the poll.

The budget allocated $22 million to Water Futures Project.

Documents obtained by The Courier-Mail also suggested that the council had already planned to attract private investment into the scheme.

That could mean the project was corporatised with private investment and a board of directors appointed to run the city's water supply.

Council's intention to seek private funding for the scheme was mentioned in a letter of support for the project by the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Environment and Heritage, Greg Hunt, in a letter in May last year to National Water Commission chief executive Ken Matthews.

Following discussions with Mayor Di Thorley and former CEO Chris Rose, Mr Hunt said: "I understand that the Queensland Government has also indicated its support for the project and along with the Council will be focusing on a proposal for local, state, private and Commonwealth funding."

A spokesman for Premier Peter Beattie would not comment on any possible extra funding of the Water Futures project if the project failed to gain federal funding. But Mr Beattie would talk with Toowoomba council once the poll outcome was known.

Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Water Malcolm Turnbull said if the referendum returned a majority 'no' vote none of the conditionally approved federal funding of $23 million would be granted.

However, he said, Toowoomba City Council could still proceed with the project if it attracted alternative sources of funding.

[westholme]

Nod for study

Steven Wardill

July 24, 2006

THE State Government will investigate whether a $7.5 billion, 1200km pipeline should be built to carry water from the Burdekin in north Queensland to Brisbane.

The scheme – which Premier Peter Beattie conceded might not happen for a century – would cost $250 million a year to operate but would only provide as much water as the controversial Mary River Dam.

Despite the huge cost, he said it needed to be looked at as part of a statewide water grid that would insulate Queensland from the effects of climate change.

Mr Beattie announced a feasibility study after a special Sunday evening Cabinet meeting.

He said the early Cabinet meeting was called because it would not have time to consider all its scheduled business today because of an address to Cabinet by former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Mr Beattie said good long-term planning meant all water supply options would be investigated.

"While it is economically infeasible to pipe water from the state's north to the southeast in 2006, population growth and climate change may make such a pipeline not just cost effective but essential in another 50 to 100 years time," he said.

"Cabinet has agreed to support a joint proposal from myself and the Minister for Water, Henry Palaszczuk, to prepare a preliminary feasibility assessment on the long-term staged development of a Queensland Water Grid.

"We're already building a water grid for the drought-stricken southeast corner which will allow us to pipe water from dams with a good supply of water to those dams which are running low.

"We have a responsibility to carry out studies now to test the feasibility of building a pipeline, some 1200km in length, between the Burdekin Basin and the southeast incorporating existing regional pipelines and existing easements."

He said that despite the cost, a Queensland water grid could make good economic and social sense in the future.

"Initial assessments indicate the cost of building the pipeline would be approximately $7.5 billion and the running costs are likely to be more than $250 million per year to supply the same amount of water as the three stages of Mary River Dam project," he said.

The feasibility study will be conducted by the Queensland Co-ordinator General – work will begin immediately.

[westholme]

THE AUSTRALIAN
Beattie rethink on $7bn water pipeline
Tony Koch and Sean Parnell
July 24, 2006
QUEENSLAND will examine a multi-billion-dollar plan to pipe water 1200km from the tropical north near Townsville south to Brisbane.

Faced with the worst water crisis in Queensland's history, Mr Beattie said early estimates put the cost of the pipeline at $7.5 billion with running costs of more than $250 million a year if it ever gets built.

An extraordinary meeting of Queensland cabinet last night resolved to consider the proposal to build the pipeline from the Burdekin Basin.

Its enthusiasm for the project is in direct conflict with Mr Beattie's attitude last month when he rejected out of hand a north-south pipeline proposed by Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrne.

Mr Byrne -- tipped to be the Liberal Party's candidate for the far north Queensland seat of Leichhardt at the next federal election -- said the water pipeline should "piggyback" the planned gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to central Queensland.

At the time, Mr Beattie said he was open to new ideas but Mr Byrne should have called him "rather than making his flawed proposal public".

"It is just not economically viable to pump water long distances in the same way as it is for gas," he said then.

But last night, Mr Beattie said the environmental commentary at the Earth Dialogues Brisbane 2006 forum at the weekend convinced him of the need to combat climate change in innovative ways.

While he maintained the project was not now feasible, he said it might be in 50 to 100 years and the Government had an obligation to take the idea seriously.

The decision is an acknowledgement that dams alone will not solve the state's water crisis, and that the wet season in the state's north could be used to help mitigate dry times in the south.

Mr Beattie said there was a need to examine existing pipelines and easements and set aside any land, including those required for the PNG gas pipeline, far ahead of time. "Climate change is changing the whole ball game," Mr Beattie said. "Everybody has to think futuristic and that's what we've done here."

With the Queensland Nationals wrapping up their three-day conference yesterday, Mr Beattie played up the cabinet meeting as a sign he and his ministers were willing to work through weekends, and acknowledged wanting to send a message about the Government's approach to the water crisis.

The $2 million-plus feasibility study will be conducted by Co-ordinator-General Ross Rolfe and take more than a year to complete, with the Government under no obligation to make a decision before the next election.

While there remains widespread speculation Mr Beattie will call an election ahead of the due date of early next year -- Labor state secretary Milton Dick yesterday briefed cabinet on political trends -- the Premier maintained he had "no intention" of calling an early poll.

Mr Beattie said there were no comparisons with the $14.5 billion Kimberley canal proposed by former Western Australia Opposition leader Colin Barnett, who suffered an electoral backlash as a result.

He said the Government would make no promises until the Queensland project was considered technically and financially.

A 2002 study of the Burdekin Basin water supply concluded that the giant Burdekin dam easily held enough reserves to serve the local requirements of major towns and cities, irrigation for agriculture and the surrounding mining industry.

However, that report was done when expansion in irrigation was not expected and before the mining boom.