All water is recycled, really. Just some is a little closer to sources you’d rather not think about than others.
When I was in the Navy, we’d suck up seawater for purification for drinking and engineering (the machines had much higher standards than the sailors) through one set of pipes and discharge “grey water” out another. All in and out of the same ocean.
The problem with the recycled sewage plant proposed for Toowoomba is that it just would not work.
It is not possible to produce 11,000 ML of recycled water from 8,000 ML of sewage. Toowoomba City Council also had nowhere for the RO waste stream to go. Acland Coal did not want it. Singapore pumps its RO waste stream into the sea.
The plant could never have been built for $68 million – closer to $150-200 million would be more accurate when you take into account the hundreds of acres of evaporation ponds required which were not included in the budget.
Regardless of your view on recycled water use, the no vote in Toowoomba was correct because the proposal was a dud.
Tricia
July 29, 2006 — 8:11 am
All water is recycled, really. Just some is a little closer to sources you’d rather not think about than others.
When I was in the Navy, we’d suck up seawater for purification for drinking and engineering (the machines had much higher standards than the sailors) through one set of pipes and discharge “grey water” out another. All in and out of the same ocean.
john c
August 19, 2006 — 10:51 pm
The problem with the recycled sewage plant proposed for Toowoomba is that it just would not work.
It is not possible to produce 11,000 ML of recycled water from 8,000 ML of sewage. Toowoomba City Council also had nowhere for the RO waste stream to go. Acland Coal did not want it. Singapore pumps its RO waste stream into the sea.
The plant could never have been built for $68 million – closer to $150-200 million would be more accurate when you take into account the hundreds of acres of evaporation ponds required which were not included in the budget.
Regardless of your view on recycled water use, the no vote in Toowoomba was correct because the proposal was a dud.