Sludge Watch ==> Australia - Recycled sewage closer to tap

[Maureen Reilly]

AUSTRALIA: Recycled sewage closer to tap, within limits
03.aug.07
Brisbane Times

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/recycled-sewage-closer-to-tap-within-limits/2007/08/02/1185648060530.html#


Drinking recycled sewage has, according to this story, moved a step closer 
with the drafting of what are said to be the world's first national 
guidelines to establish standards for recycled water quality.
The draft guidelines published yesterday by the National Health and Medical 
Research Council provide a crucial advance in the development of recycling, 
water industry executives say.

A water-quality expert, David Cunliffe, was cited as saying one of the 
significant barriers to informed discussion had been the lack of national or 
international guidelines on recycled water.
Dr Cunliffe, who headed the expert panel that produced the guidelines, said 
analysis of secondary treated sewage showed it could contain more than 500 
chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, fragrances, pesticides, 
disinfectants and dioxins.
Extracting potable water from sewage required the removal of harmful 
parasites such as cryptosporidium and pathogenic bacteria and viruses, 
thousands of which were present in just one litre of sewage.

The draft guidelines recommend that water with a "tolerable risk", using 
World Health Organisation standards, should be that posing an annual risk of 
one case of diarrhoea per 1000 people.
The maximum allowable level of pharmaceuticals in recycled water would be 
one-hundredth the lowest daily dose of that normally prescribed by a doctor, 
and for cancer-causing compounds and steroid hormones one-thousandth the 
normal dose.
The standards are expected to be applied to two water recycling projects 
already under way or being planned in Queensland and the ACT.
Dr Cunliffe was cited as saying the guidelines showed it was possible to 
produce safe drinking water from recycled sewage, adding, "These guidelines 
show recycling water will be a big challenge. They don't make it any 
easier."
Mr Donlon, the technical director of the Water Services Association of 
Australia - which represents the biggest water utilities - joined others in 
expressing concern about the lack of competent staff to provide 
round-the-clock supervision of complex technologies in which a breakdown 
could have disastrous, even fatal, consequences.
The Australian draft guidelines had drawn keen interest from overseas, Mr 
Donlon said.