Word: toowoomba
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Rosemary morley doesn't deny that Toowoomba's water problem is grim. Like everyone else in this parched southeast Queensland city, she's been living with tough water restrictions for nearly three years. But the 60-year-old former president of the local chamber of commerce is sure she's being duped by Toowoomba authorities when it comes to a solution-and she's not alone. More than 10,000 people have signed a petition rejecting the local council's proposal to make the 95,000-strong community the first in Australia to supplement its drinking water supply by adding...
...Next month Toowoomba will vote in a referendum on whether treated wastewater should make up 25% of the city's drinking water. With state and federal governments keenly awaiting the outcome, a heated contest is underway to win public favor. Morley, who founded the Citizens Against Drinking Sewage lobby group 10 months ago, says locals talk of little else: "People go to funerals and after a cup of tea what does the talk turn to? Water." Contrary to the popular image, that water wouldn't flow straight from their toilets to their taps. But though scientists insist that wastewater recycled...
...Toowoomba and Goulburn opt to make Australian history, they won't be global pioneers. Some U.S. cities have had similar schemes for years, and since 2003, Singapore has been adding treated wastewater to its reservoirs, the quality of its NEWater exceeding World Health Organization guidelines. Greg Leslie, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of N.S.W., worked on Singapore's scheme with engineering firm CH2M HILL, which is proposing to upgrade Toowoomba's sewage-treatment plant. Leslie thinks objections raised to such schemes in Australia verge on hysteria. "I can't fathom anyone in their right mind saying they...
...attitudes to treated wastewater showed that science alone isn't enough to reassure people in a debate that's just getting started, says the csiro's Blair Nancarrow: "Scientists aren't just trusted automatically anymore. You have to have a partnership with the community." Next month's poll in Toowoomba will shape the future of that debate. But a yes vote will only make it the first Australian community to officially welcome recycled water into its kitchens. Richmond, on Sydney's outskirts, takes water from the Hawkesbury River, into which treated effluent is discharged, as does Adelaide, from the Murray...
...DIED. R.M. WILLIAMS, 95, iconic cattleman of the Australian bush whose leather-goods and clothing company became a global business empire; near Toowoomba, Queensland. Williams worked as a gold prospector and ranch hand before he began making elastic-sided boots in a shed in the 1930s. He became a multimillionaire but remained a rugged outdoorsman. At the age of 70, Williams finished first in a 250-kilometer horse race in Queensland...