KeZ,
You are right. Adelaide is in pretty bad shape with its water situation, due to the poor state of the Murray-Darling river system. It has the option of supplementing the water drawn from the River Murray with a desalinisation plant.

That option is not available to Canberra, as a garden city. The Googong Dam in the Canberra Water Supply is a classic case study of water storage in shallow dams ibeing wasteful because of the water loss through summertime evaporation.

What options does Canberra have to increase its water supply? Water recycling

KeZ,
The Corin Dam looks worse from above I remember reading something about the proposed Actew/ACT Government Water2Water initiative asking Canberrans to focus on a purification process that will allow water from our sewerage treatment plant to be fed into the drinking water supplies.

There had been a Future Water Options study a few years earlier.

What happened to that report ? Wasn't there some public forum in May this year? Or something like that?

Pam,
public health issues. From what I can remember an ANU academic--a microbiologist slammed the proposal.

The project was slammed by Prof Peter Colignon, not only an academic, but Head of the Infectious Diseases unit at the Canberra hospital. At least Colignon got print space. Those who attacked the proposal on economic grounds were given no air at all. . The proposal got the go-ahead on no economic analysis at all. The formal proposal apparently will be announced this week.

Pam,
a link to Prof Peter Collignon's intervention. He argues that drinking recycled waste water is an unpalatable last resort option. Recycled water should be used first for industrial purposes, or to water lawns, and only used to top up drinking supplies when no other water saving measures are available.

I agree. I recall reading about this in the Canberra Times. What I couldn't understand at the time was why the ACT govt didn't address the storm water recycling issue first.

We in Adelaide, who draw their drinking water from the Murray Rvers, downstream from a sewage treatment plant, are in effect already drinking recycled water. All the country towns along the river dump their sewerage into the river.

being new to canberra and only recently trying to learn about water resources here, i'm not placed to make an informed opinion.. i do believe, however, that the focus of environmental concerns should be sustainable living..

i'm not sure we can save much more water through further household education.. almost everyone i know is aware of the issue and taking steps to reduce their consumption..

i suspect that the reluctance to purify water is foolhardy.. i don't believe we ought to rely on new dams or taking water from our already over-stretched rivers.. like i said, sustainable living..

i notice that terms of reference of the public health and safety report that Gary linked to were restricted to the ability of the plant to make water that complies with safety guidelines.. they're rather specific..

i also noticed that the Labour Party policies on the environment, and water specifically, were very localised.. weren't they proposing a national water council?

i believe we would benefit from a national perspective on the future of water in australia..

as for the Liberal Party website, well, they don't make it easy to find their policies generally, let alone an environmental one.. they're "Our Policies and Plans" page has a link to a meager eight policy documents from the previous two weeks!

Gary,
re your comment:

What I couldn't understand at the time was why the ACT govt didn't address the storm water recycling issue first.

This link may help. It is the community forums for the Water2WATER, that ACTEW ran in May/June this yeasr.

KeZ,
Pam's link to the ACTEW's Future Water Options study in 2005 may give you some background. It identified nearly 30 possible options for a long-term reliable water source for the ACT. It concluded that three options were suitable for more detailed assessment:

1.building a new dam on the Cotter River, just downstream of, and thus effectively enlarging, the existing Cotter Dam;

2. building a new dam on the Gudgenby River near Mount Tennent, south of Tharwa; and

3. transferring water from Tantangara Dam in New South Wales to the ACT.

All rely on rains falling in the catchment area of the dams--a questionable assumption with global warming. This was looked at here

i agree its a questionable assumption, gary.. doesn't help if there's no rain to fill the new dams..

our reliance on dams ought to be mitigated through recycling the water we already use..

KeZ,
ACTEW are considering a desalination plant on the coast and bringing it to Canberra. It realizes that the only long-term completely reliable source is desalinated water.

However, this option very expensive and energy intensive. Estimated costs of a desalination plant range is about $500-700m.

KeZ,
the Canberra Times reportsthe following:

Some water experts have cast doubts on the long-term viability of Canberra an inland city with water-hungry residents as climate change brings hotter, drier weather.

The ACT Government's solution is to build a new Cotter Dam, which will boost Canberra's water storage by a third. The dam is the centrepiece of the Government's new water plan..

The old Cotter Dam is small and was built almost a century ago. Soon it will have a soaring 80m wall and will hold 20 times as much water 78gigalitres if it rains, of course.

This would boost Canberra's water storage by a third,if it rains. Where is the Cotter Dam?

This additional report says that the Stanhope Government has backed away from the most controversial proposal for boosting water supplies: recycling sewage back into the water supply.Another controversial suggestion building a Tennent dam has been dropped.

KeZ,
The Stanhope Government's is not very future looking is it? More dams rather than recycling storm and grey water.

I see that Patrick Troy, Urban studies professor at the ANU's Fenner School of Environment and Society Patrick, is critical of the strategy.

The strategy was motivated by the search for more water a scarce resource when the best solution lay in cutting back Canberrans' phenomenally high usage. A massive volume of water was wasted on toilets and on unnecessary showers and clothes washing.

Troy says that instead of seeking out yet more water an "old-fashioned, expensive" approach the Government should cut demand. Grey water should be recycled for toilets and gardens. Composting toilets could be installed and new water-saving technologies explored.

I agree.

increasing the capacity of the cotter dam seems all the more ridiculous when it hasn't rained enough to fill the current capacity by more than 30%..

i'm not sure why recycling of water is the 'most controversial' option? controversial or not, with canberrans apparently high volume consumers of water and the prospect of low rainfall into the near future, it must figure in the solution..

perhaps we do also need more encouragement to reduce household consumption.. australians must get into the habit of letting the yellow mellow..