this rain just never bloody stops, so why Desal? There is nothing 'green' about it.

Sunday arvo those dark rain clouds started rolling in again. The past week of no rain was too good to be true. Those storms that hit hard awhile back were massive, and the downpour was enough to finally bring Sydney's dam levels back up form 38% to above 50%. The critical stage Sydney was at no longer applied in relation to it's water supply. So why is this State government pushing ahead with a stupid Desalination Plant? It's a energy consuming, environmentally destructive, and costly infrastructure. Pump the money into harvesting drain water runoff, into better water management by the State government, into fixing the current infrastructure that looses more water to waste than anything else.

The salt that is going to be extracted from this desalination plant is going to be dumped back into the ocean, creating a high densely concentrate that is going to kill off all marine life within the vicinity's. Its going to create another 'Dead Sea'. What craziness goes on inside politicians heads when they know this is not what the public wants. Do the right thing and look into the current infrastructure and fix those leaks, fix those inefficiencies.

Also the simplest things can be done at home. Invest money into financial backing of homes to install their own water tanks to catch rain runoff from roof tops. Invest funds into recycling 'grey water' and having that water flush toilets and water gardens and council ovals and parks.

The work on the Sydney desalination site has already begun, and it begun prematurely. The government promised it would only begin when Sydney's dam levels fell below 33%. It never got there and is now above 50%, and yes its been raining non stop for the past 24 hours. All that run off could be captured and directed away for storage. The government lied. They rant and rave about the jobs its going to create and how it will secure Sydney's water supply. All its doing is trying to secure their own jobs by buying a small number of votes.

Another arguement is that the NSW Government has a conflict of interest over the supply of water. Essentially the government does not effectively encourage a reduction in water use because it derives so much income from its sale.

Desalination: taking the plunge

Greenhouse implications of the proposed Sydney desalination plant