I'm fine with it.

Do you have a cost comparison for tank water vs recycling? One advantage of recycling is that the infrastructure is mostly there already. You just need to join the sewer back up to the intake. You don't have to get a plumber etc out to every single house. Whatever option we choose will have an energy cost.

Would that achieve the same thing? The recycling plant would probably be able to deliver all the water for those homes, not just part of it.

The house I am currently in pays about $100 per year for water. I'm not sure if that is the full cost of supply, and whether it would go up to pay for a recycling plant. At $1000 or more for a tank setup, that would be at least a ten year payoff if it supplied all the water, but probably more like 30 to 200 years. You'd be lucky if the tank and house lasted that long. Maybe it makes economic sense with the subsidy, at least from a personal perspective, but I am running a lot of the roof runoff onto the ground and the first thing I would do is turn the other downpipes onto the lawn to water my trees. If you check the gardening section I also wrote up an article on greywater, which can be a very cheap option, depending on your house layout.

I have to agree with the rainwater tanks.  The tanks aren't too bad at between $1,000 - $2,000 depending on the size, but it's the added cost of the plumbing, pump and if you want to connect it to your house - the diverter.  I don't know why councils or governments don't loan people the money - even with a small interest payment - they could still make a profit.

At the moment I pay $500 in my rates towards maintenance of water pipes, sewerage etc. and about $140 for water.  We're on stage 4 restrictions.  Even if we put in tanks - we'd still have to pay all the council costs and a lot of us just can't afford it plus installing a tank connected to the house.

I can't see how Sydney Water makes much of a profit anyway - the constant maintenance of broken pipes would wipe out any extra cash.  With the recycling and desal plants - it's not only the fact they guzzle energy - I personally don't want to drink recycled sewerage.  Only a few western countries drink recycled sewerage - the rest manage on de-sal plants - but the environmental cost is too high a price to pay.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Water-workers-fall-ill-from-unsafe-water/2007/03/20/1174153059782.html

At least 12 Melbourne Water workers have fallen ill after recycled water not fit for human consumption was mistakenly piped to a drinking tap at one of the authority's offices.

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'Strange' protest against recycled water

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Strange-protest-against-recycled-water/2007/03/20/1174153046674.html

A booklet claiming recycled water changes the sex of fish and causes infertility in humans is being distributed to Brisbane homes in an attempt to scuttle a plan to introduce it.

Campaign spokesman and Toowoomba councillor Snow Manners said information in the booklet, sourced from worldwide research, presented "the other side" of the debate to counter the "one-sided presentation" by the government and Queensland Water Commission.

Arguments in the booklet against the use of recycled water mostly centre on the devastating effects that would occur if chemicals make it through the filtering process.

Among its claims are that recycled water changed the sex of fish and made male lambs "start behaving like females".

It also claims the water reduces sperm counts, causes infertility among couples and triggers a doubling in liver cancer rates.

He said companies from outside Queensland could hurt the profit margins of drink companies in the state, warning consumers against "piss" drinks if recycled water was introduced.

He said recycled water should instead be used on non-food farming to free up irrigation water for drinking.

The Queensland government described the booklet as "scaremongering".

"This material is dishonest ... it is not based on sound and comprehensive science and it certainly does not put in the arena all of the facts," Acting Premier Anna Bligh said.

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Democrats urge water licence acquisition

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Democrats-urge-water-licence-acquisition/2007/03/20/1174153035825.html

The Australian Democrats have used an international report classing the Murray-Darling among the world's 10 most damaged river systems to call for compulsory acquisition of water licences.

A report by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature included the Murray-Darling among 10 of the world's great and most threatened rivers, which it said were suffering "most grievously under the weight of these threats, or bracing for the heaviest impacts".

It found that in the Murray-Darling, which drains 14 per cent of Australia's landmass, invasive species like the European carp were the main threat to the ecosystem.

Other threats included salinity, river regulation and climate change.

ex-member DonaldTrump wrote on Feb 17^th, 2007 at 1:08am:



When Councils can & do phuq up treating dam/stream or underground water .....

you don't think there's a possibility it could happen with a town or cities treated effluent water?

.
I came across this tik toc vid … thought it was interesting…
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https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSdbowp8S/?k=1