Sensational-Adelaide.com

Bulldozer wrote:I thought the growers consortium that owns the existing pipeline was going to contribute the other half of the funds and that it was only waiting for the state government to approve the project?

City plan to use recycled water
GREG KELTON, STATE EDITOR
April 23, 2008 12:30am
A $5 MILLION plan to save one billion litres of drinking water a year by piping recycled water into city buildings has been proposed to the State Government.

The plan calls for recycled water from Glenelg to be plumbed through all cooling towers in commercial buildings in Adelaide's central business district.
The Property Council plan, to be unveiled today, calls for a $60 million pipeline from the Glenelg WasteWater Treatment Plant, to be extended to allow more city buildings to use the water.

Preliminary planning on the 30km pipeline already is under way with construction expected to begin either late this year or early next year.

The council has written to Premier Mike Rann and Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald outlining the plan.

President James Sarah said there were plans to direct recycled water into what would be Australia's highest rated six-star green building, VS1 in Victoria Square.

The building will be the new home of SA Water.

Under existing plans, the pipeline from Glenelg creates a circuit around the city, irrigating major parklands.

"Since the water is scheduled for non-drinking purposes in VS1, it will be suited for similar purposes in other buildings," Mr Sarah said.

Preliminary estimates by the Property Council show one billion litres of water a year could be saved by directing it into cooling towers.

That is the equivalent of 4000 Olympic-sized swimming pools or enough water to service all units and apartments in the Holdfast Bay Council area.

While the Government would be urged to pay the $5 million for the pipeline extension, building owners would pay the costs of plumbing the recycled water into buildings.

"The $60 million pipeline project is a significant outlay and it makes sense to maximise the state's environmental return for this investment," Mr Sarah said.

He said the $5 million cost was "an insignificant outlay when considering the benefit to the state and the River Murray in saving one billion litres of potable water a year".

Ms Maywald said the Government's intention was to expand the use of the pipeline as demand grew.

Some businesses and local government bodies had signalled they would like to use the recycled water.

"It was always intended this was the first step towards getting the pipeline into the city and we are prepared to work with the business sector to look at ways of saving water," she said.

"The Government has always envisaged there would be more use of the water from the pipeline."

rhino wrote:Grant Cameron interviewed a woman from the parklands preservation society bout this last week. She was against the idea because it would require building pumping stations in the parklands, and that was just unacceptable.

Wayno wrote:personally i'm not fussed, but i'd prefer not to see an industrial pumping station surrounding by tall mesh fencing in the parklands.

Presumably only one pumping station is required, and it could easily be located adjacent to the parklands - perhaps in the western railyards near keswick/mile end?

rhino wrote:There are already pumping stations in the parklands. Some have been there for over a century and are now disused. They are housed in old stone or brick buildings and most people don't even see them, they are so unobtrusive...