Monday 24 August

Chlorine is easy option for Cairns Water

A crowd of over 200 residents answered Julia Leu's call to come to a public meeting at the Port Douglas Community Hall on Saturday 22 August to hear an independent water consultant give them his views and ensure that no option is left uninvestigated, before Chlorine or whatever else our amalgamated Council deems is necessary to protect their legal responsibility to supply a safe quality of drinking water to the residents, becomes a permanent fixture in the regions water supply.

Don Bursill is the former head of the Co-operative Research Centre for Drinking Water and Treatment with particular expertise in chemical free treatment and current Chair of the National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Don was invited by former Douglas Shire Mayor and passionate environmentalist Mike Berwick and Cairns Division 10 Councillor, Julia Leu to come to the region to independently review the water system and explain why our water quality has deteriorated to such a point where the introduction of chemical disinfection in the form of chlorine was felt necessary by Cairns Water Dept.

Cr Leu opened the meeting by stressing that "To live in paradise, a major given of that Paradise is our water".  She reminded the gathering that at the original Mossman Shire Hall meeting almost exactly one year ago, water was a major issue.  She also reminded everyone that just one week after that meeting, ecoli was found in the water supply.  Two reports were then commissioned after continued contamination problems.

She challenged the terms of reference for these reports because there was no reference to finding a way of fixing the problem and she felt this was vitally important.  She also expressed her wish that the meeting should explore every option available to solve this current water crisis because speaking personally, she said "I do not want to wake up in a few years time to find out there was something we could have done !"

Mike Berwick then took the meeting back in time to pre-amalgamation days to explain a little of why this particular filtration system, which at the time was the most expensive option of those on offer, was purchased and installed by the then Douglas Shire Council.  He also noted that at the time of the amalgamation hand over, the system was almost debt free to such a degree that the Douglas Shire Council were in a position in their last year of office to take a dividend from the water rates.   And now, with the water rate increases that have been incurred in the Douglas region since amalgamation there should be even more money 'sloshing' around in the water pool !

However, he is nothing if not a realist and with Chlorine now introduced to the water supply and no answers coming from the appropriate council department about how to solve the problem without chemicals, it was time to ask for some independent help.  Mike Berwick stressed that the expertise essential to ensure the results would be taken seriously could only be valid if it was completely independent and impartial.

It was also acknowledged by the action group that it could be a 'double edged sword'.  Whilst it was hoped that the investigation results would produce positive answers to present to the Council to help solve the perplexing problem of why one of Australia's highest quality waters could possibly turn into such a badly polluted water source at the point of distribution in just 12 months, it was also possible that the independent enquiry might produce results the residents didn't want to hear !

Enter, Don Bursill whose qualifications are unquestioned and reputation for plain speaking legendary.  He was invited to come up to Port Douglas without a political agenda and certainly with no history of the problem. And he insisted that he would not be a paid consultant, he said he would simply look at the problem and the operations and give his view on what, if anything, he felt could be done to get to the root of the problem.

Prior to the meeting he did his due diligence by spending some time with Cairns Water to see the operation and laboratory facilities.   It emerged that his concern was with the sampling and testing procedures.  He acknowledged that chlorine is needed at the present time until the possible flaws in the sampling and testing procedures are corrected, because without proper results, the Council has to be sure it is complying with it's legal obligation to deliver safe water to the community. However if that testing procedure is indeed flawed, accurate results, upon which to base the removal of the chemical disinfection, will never be achieved.

His reasoning for his findings come from several basic facts  The original water supply from the Mossman Gorge is unquestionably a very high quality water, the filtration system exceeds requirements for such a small population and starves the possible contaminants of their food source throughout the various levels of filtration and on into the distribution network so the only place there can be a problem is with the storage tanks. 

This will require some remedial effort from Cairns Water to ensure this is eliminated and that elimination is maintained.  It is summized by Don Bursill that Chlorine is being used as the 'easy' option by the Cairns Water in a misguided attempt to avoid the more difficult and more expensive efforts required to ensure high quality water is being distributed safely. Afterall he pointed out that Chlorine doesn't kill everything nasty in the water anyway !  

His closing remarks stressed that chemical free water is well worth the effort !

The assembled audience then had a lively question and answer session, which confirmed that the report that Don Bursill has kindly agreed to compile and send through to Mike Berwick and his team will be asking Cairns Water to take the appropriate action to solve the storage problem so that the Douglas Region can once again boast the best water in Australia and leave chlorine where it belongs in the swimming pools !

Editors comments - No easy option, please - Fix our water !  Chlorine in the water supply is not acceptable and neither is bottled water, which is currently our only other alternative option for drinking water.   Neither is good for the environment.  Cairns Regional Council should immediately instruct Cairns Water to make the effort that Don Bursill is asking of them and get the water supply back to chemical free.

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