And now for the desal campaign...

Now Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh is trying to hit back spitefully at the Sunshine Coast after the rejection of her pet dam project, by trying to fast-track a desalination plant at Marcoola.

Talk about digging yourself a hole and then jumping right in. Go right ahead Anna Bligh.
The Marcoola site is in the midst of endangered wallum heathlands. This area was once national park that was degazetted by David Low to get the road that bears his name built in return for development rights over the coastal strip.

This Crown land was then designated by DNR as "Industrial" and "Investigation" for many years. After about two years of negotiations with DNR staff, personal discussions with then Ministers Jim Elder and Rod Welford, and a unanimous resolution of Maroochy Council supporting my push, the State Government agreed in 1999 (?) to change the designation to "Conservation". It was a great personal win, and was written up in SCEC's Eco Echo magazine at the time. Perhaps no-one has mentioned this conservation status of the land to Bligh, or mentioned that this is one of the few wildflower areas remaining on the Coast?

Also about that time, DNR informed us that there was no water demand that could not be met for SEQ without needing any new dams - through a mix of demand management and recycling. This has not changed.

And I see that National Party MP Fiona Simpson is now claiming there are no other options for water supply. This is wrong. There are and always have been options other than desal. (And I say this family in the desal manufacturing industry.) But with a key component of the solutions being recycling, I am not at all surprised to see that that isn't in the mix for a populist like Fiona Simpson.

Anna: stick your desal on the Brisbane River if that is your annointed method.