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Mayor Dianne Thorley today welcomed the release of a Queensland Government report into Toowoomba’s water options.
“This report proves what we have been saying for months, that no other option is as viable as Water Futures, on the grounds of cost, sustainability and environmental impact,” Cr Thorley said. Water Futures opponents have recently begun a series of commercials that focus mainly on telling the people of Toowoomba that there are alternatives to the proposal to recycle water. In a media announcement of his own, Premier Beattie ended speculation about the viability of these options. “The Toowoomba City Council has been proactive in looking at long-term water solutions for their community, and this independent report supports its Water Futures - Toowoomba initiative for the use of indirect potable water,” Premier Beattie said. The independent report by Parsons Brinckerhoff, examined five water options for Toowoomba. Option one is the Water Futures project, which was assessed as being the most preferred option. Option two is a water swap with the bore licence holders in the Oakey Creek Groundwater Management Area (OCGMA). The report found this option to be unsustainable and would also have insufficient water resources available. The cost is estimated at $148m. Option three is a water swap with the licence holders in the Condamine Groundwater Management Area (CGMA), an area that is already substantially over-allocated. Again, this option was found to be unsustainable and there is insufficient water resource available. It is estimated cost $196.8m. The fourth option investigated is similar to option three and involves sourcing water from CGMA, however it involves the removal of all non-urban water entitlements in exchange for recycled water from the proposed Brisbane to Darling Downs effluent pipeline. This fourth option was deemed to be excessive in cost and dependent on Brisbane to Darling Downs pipeline proceeding. The total cost is estimated at $275.4m. The final option considered by Parsons and Brinckerhoff is to source water from the production of coal seam gas. At a cost of $224.1m, this option was assessed as having insufficient water resource available, being unsustainable and having questionable reliability. “Voting ‘yes’ in Toowoomba’s water poll on July 29 will give us a reliable and sustainable water solution,” said Cr Thorley. “Opponents of Water Futures have two weeks to come up with a water solution that betters the Water Futures project. If they can’t then they should be voting ‘yes’.” |
