Recycle effluent: green group
Water restrictions should be made permanent, an environmental group says. And effluent water should be filtered to drinkable standard to end the state's water crisis, the Total Environment Centre says.
The centre has also called for an independent review of the NSW Government's $2 billion desalination plant, labelling it environmentally unsound and much too expensive. "The Government is insisting on rushing ahead with desalination before a proper public, economic and environmental inquiry," said the centre's director, Jeff Angel.
The Government introduced the desalination plan earlier this year. Chief among Mr Angel's concerns is that the fossil fuels used to power the plant, on Kurnell Peninsula in Sydney's south, will create damaging greenhouse gases. And once the Government has poured billions into the plant, it will use the cost as an excuse not to fund recycling, he believes.