Purified Recycled Water is the right choice for South East Queensland

Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) joins with scientists and Queensland’s Water Minister in supporting the move to use purified recycled water (PRW) to bolster SEQ’s potable water supply. 

 “The science is clear, PRW is purer than any other source of water, so it’s a safe and sustainable way to increase the security of South East Queensland’s urban water supply.” said Nigel Parratt, QCC’s Water Policy Officer. 

“South East Queensland residents will remember the dire situation we were in when Wivenhoe and other urban water supply dams dropped to alarming low levels as result of the Millennium Drought. 

“At the time, the then Labor Government introduced a raft of measures to ensure that SEQ did not run out of drinking water including building the Western Corridor Purified Recycled Water Scheme at Bundamba. 

Under current legislative arrangements, PRW produced at the Bundamba Advanced Waste Water Treatment plant can be added to Wivenhoe Dam to augment SEQ’s urban water supply when the combined levels of SEQ urban water supply dams drops below 40%.”  

“Most Australians have drunk purified recycled water already as it’s used to augment potable water supplies for cities across the world including Perth, Cape Town, Singapore, Los Angeles, San Diego and many other towns across the USA. 

“It makes economic and environmental sense to fully use the Western Corridor Purified Recycled Water Scheme for its intended purpose to augment SEQ’s potable water supply. It’s already been built and is safe to use

“A new seawater desalination plant will be very expensive to build and operate as well as causing adverse environmental impacts from the hypersaline wastewater that will be discharged to the marine environment.”