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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (5 June) . . Page.. 1972 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

aware that the primary parameter on the growth of Canberra in the longer term will be water capacity, water supply and our ability to treat our own waste.

At this stage, as water consumption increases we draw more and more on Googong Dam. Googong Dam is an open catchment. Although there is a lot of money involved, one day I would like to see further dam capacity that matched the Corran/Cotter/Bendora system-a closed catchment that does not need the treatment that the Googong Dam water requires. Also, we do not want to have to draw on the Cotter because that requires pumping and the use of energy.

Mrs Dunne: We're not drinking Googong water today, though.

MR QUINLAN: We are drinking it from time to time.

Mrs Dunne: But we aren't today. You can smell it.

MR QUINLAN: Yes. Paragraph (b) of part (1) of Ms Tucker's motion states that the water leaving the ACT should be of no less quality than the water flowing into the ACT. I think that is again quite clearly an aim that we should certainly aspire to. In terms of our own treatment, in response to the challenge issued by Mr Wood, I advise the Assembly that I have actually witnessed the engineer in charge of the lower Molonglo water control centre dipping a schooner glass into the discharge just before it runs into the river, and drinking that schooner glass of water. Certainly, that water is of much higher quality than the water in the river.

Mr Wood: Did you drink it too?

MR QUINLAN: No, I didn't actually. I thought better of that.

Mrs Dunne: You weren't thirsty at the time.

MR QUINLAN: No. I just checked on him 30 days later to see how he was. From time to time, politics have been involved in the flow-out of the lower Molonglo, particularly in relation to algal bloom in Lake Burrinjuck. Generally this has been done by a couple of politicians called Alby Schultz and Peter Cochrane, both of whom are genuine old-style participants in the game of playing politics. Generally, any overflow of partially treated sewage from our control centre into the river will happen at a time of high rainfall. We have a lot of ingress of stormwater into our sewage system. So the effluent is highly diluted and it certainly is treated for health reasons to a standard that could be discharged into a river.

Let me advise members that the same rain that may cause the overflow falls over the paddocks and fields alongside of the river and rainwater passing over all sorts of animal droppings, fertiliser and animals that had recently passed away also flows into the river. But somehow, according to the Schultzes and Cochranes of this world, the algal bloom flare-ups at Burrinjuck were totally the function of Canberra. I spoke to Mr Cochrane about this one night at a dinner and he said, "Yes, I believe everything you're saying but it's still good fun kicking Canberra anyway." So there is a lot of exaggeration in relation

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