Australians to Drink Filtered Storm Water

Australia’s Salisbury suburbs council wants to have some of its residents drinking filtered stormwater within three years, according to a report in the Advertiser.

Salisbury Council said it has the ability to provide properly filtered storm water fit for drinking to some of its residential areas and public acceptance remains the only hurdle.

Council spokesman Richard Watson recently told a Property Council of Australia seminar that using treated waste water was also an option, but the council conceded any take-up of such measures would more likely be a decade away.

Salisbury Mayor Tony Zappia said he was "very excited" by the project to harvest storm water for filtration, which is underway in conjunction with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

"This is simply reproducing nature's own ways of filtering water," he said.

The council has begun work on six reservoirs, which will be injected with storm water for the next 12 months. After this period the contents will pass through the aquifer and be extracted for quality testing by United Water and the CSIRO.

"What we will be able to achieve in the years ahead is the reuse of millions of liters of water annually," Zappia said.

"And that means not only substantial dollar savings to the community, but a significant reduction on our reliance on water from the River Murray."

The project has also received funding from organizations in the European economic community, the director of city projects and head of the council's water recycling program, Colin Pitman said.

He said the results were being awaited in the hope the system could be reproduced worldwide.

Once quality tests are complete, the council will seek State Government clearance for the recycled water to be used in the Salisbury Council area.

Source: The Advertiser