by Roy Weavers

The Mayor, Val Schier and her Cairns Regional Councillors came to the old Douglas Shire Council Offices to hold one of their two annual off site Council meetings in Mossman as part of their campaign to be more accessible in the surrounding divisions.

It is part of modern day politics from local level up to Federal for the councillors to have to run a gauntlett of disatisfaction from action groups when key issues are on the agenda or in some cases not on the agenda but thought that they should be!

Such was the case at Mossman yesterday (Wed 18 May) when not one but two demonstrations were staged inside the Council Building foyer spilling over to outside on the entrance way on two contrasting issues.

The first issue of the day concerned a long running battle over land that was set aside by the former Douglas Shire Council for use for an aged care facility some years ago. The issue was exasperated by the amalgamation of the Douglas Shire Council over 3 years ago to form Cairns Regional Council.  It seems the proposed land rights and subsequent use for aged care went back to square one when amalgamation came into effect. Resdients in Mossman want the land back to fulfill what they see as promises from the previous administration.  Ex Douglas Shire Councillor Marj Norris is leading the fight and was hoping to be able to put the case firmly back on the Councils agenda at todays meeting.

The second issue that generated a sizeable crowd at the Councils Mossman Offices today was based on two issues concerning the Douglas water supply.  

Robert Hanan and Michael Gabour leading members of the FODS campaign group led the deputation to firstly ask the gathered Councillors to explain on what basis the sudden cancellation of the Chlorine Free Water trial was justified.   As reported on Monday in the Newsport (article - Chlorine in the water - H2NO) Mr Hanan can find no justification for the decision to cancel the chlorine free water trial. The second part of their water concerns appertained to the costs being published by CRC in regard to the old douglas water facilities and supply. 

The deputation presented a submission to the Council requesting a detailed account of both the expenditure and income from this regions water supply from the Cairns Water dept since amalgamation.  The deputation believe the water rates payers have the right to know detailed figures and that the council are legally obliged to supply them.

It was hoped that through this written submission the accounts provided will illustrate that the costs supplied to date are incorrect and that the chlorine free water tests would then be reinstated.

Votes later in the afternoon proved to be good news for Marj Norris and her Aged Care Land group with the Council voting to grant their application for the land use so long fought for providing building starts within 5 years.  However the vote went against the Water deputation and the decision to cancel the chlorine free tests was upheld.

For your information : Details of the submission as presented to the Council meeting have been supplied to The Newsport and permission has been granted to set them out before our readers as below:

WATER SUPPLY DEPUTATION

I.    BRIEF OPENING STATEMENT. Before the DSC was amalgamated with CCC, Douglas boasted, arguably, the best drinking water in Australia. Cairns Water assumed the ownership and operational control of the Douglas water supply after amalgamation. In 3 short years, through questionable management, reckless adventurism, disregard for one of the pillars of the Australian Water Drinking Guidelines and a lack of transparency, Cairns water has turned one of this Shire’s major assets into a liability.

II.    THE FACTS AND NOTHING BUT THE FACTS

History:
For many years Douglas water came straight from Rex Creek. The fresh mountain water tasted beautiful but did have a quantifiable bacterial count.  Since there was a long history of community opposition to standard treatment, especially chlorination, the council embarked on a search for a chemical free treatment system. It turned out there was a membrane filtration system on the market but it was expensive and hi tech.  Council surveyed the residents, giving them choices that included chlorine, membrane filtration, ozone and other options. An overwhelming majority chose membrane filtration, the most expensive option, with estimates that it would double water rates. 

Council called tenders for a chemical free system; the state government supported the exercise and contributed the standard subsidy of 40%. Once installed and run in, the ultra-fine membrane filters worked highly successfully.  Water rates went up but the increase was far short of doubling. For 5 years the system ran well, meeting state testing requirements and with no complaint from Qld health. The sceptics, initially worried about this new technology, were convinced and Douglas residents and visitors had clean-tasting, chemical-free water.

The Plant
The Council completed the construction of three state of the art water purification treatment plants, incorporating micro-filtration and ultraviolet treatment to deliver pure, clean, chemical free water to the Douglas Shire.  The capital cost to the community was approximately $12.5m.


Operations
The distribution system was gravity-fed, providing efficient, cost-effective delivery to the Douglas community.  Preliminary quality tests suggested that water from the treatment plants was of sufficient quality to meet commercially bottled water standards.  Further to this DSC was investigating the introduction of small hydo electric plants which would have made the treatment plants self sufficient.

There were no outstanding quality issues with Queensland Health. Even with repairs, maintenance and capital expenditures, Douglas Shire water operated at a surplus which, in its final year, amounted to over $1m.

Budget
The last DSC budget contained $1.8m for repairs, maintenance and capital expenditures for this system.  Included in these items, was $480,000 for micro-filtration membrane replacement, as the filters were at the end of their projected life. Despite representations to the contrary, monies for the replacements were clearly passed on to the CRC during the amalgamation.

III.    CAIRNS WATER REIGN OF ERRORS

At the time of amalgamation, Cairns Water inherited a functioning state of the art water treatment system that met all Queensland Health requirements, supplied the community with clean, safe, chemical-free water and operated with a cash surplus.

This situation changed radically under Cairns Water.  In short order, there was an exodus of Douglas employees and with them, expertise to run the system. 

Rather than continue with tried and true methods, Cairns Water embarked on a path of what some might call “reckless adventurism.”  Cairns Water took the following actions without a full understanding of the possible consequences to the Douglas water distribution system:


1.    Introduced untreated water into the Douglas water supply in some sort of supply experiment.
2.    Reduced Douglas water pressure by 40%, possibly compromising the distribution system from backflow.
3.    Began use of pumps due to pressure drop, substantially increasing the cost to supply water to Port Douglas.
4.    Introduced an 18-month idled reservoir into the Port Douglas distribution system (without prior emptying and cleaning) of the reservoir.

Stealth and duplicity have been the hallmark of Cairns Water operations in Douglas. The following are examples:
•    Crudely introduced Chlorine into Port Douglas reservoirs without notification to residents,
•    Reduced water pressure to Port Douglas and only acknowledged the action when shown photos of pressure reduction valves,
•    Allowed massive over dosage of chlorine into the Mossman water supply and initially attempted to cover up the error,
•    Continued failure to provide cogent figures for revenue generated from Douglas water charges,
•    Continued failure to provide cogent figures for expenditures on Douglas water system.

The Australian Water Drinking Guidelines (ADWG) place great importance on Community aspirations.

The ADWG are intent on providing consumers with safe and aesthetically pleasing water and ultimately it is consumers who will be the final judges of water quality.

The guidelines state it is vitally important that consumers are viewed as active partners in making decisions about drinking water quality and the levels of service to be adopted. Community expectations and willingness to pay must be considered. Decisions on drinking water quality made by a drinking water supplier and the relevant regulatory authorities must be aligned with the needs and expectations of consumers.
 
While Cairns Water has acknowledged this Community’s desire for a return to chemical-free water it has chosen to ignore this fundamental principle of the ADWG and has recommended that you, as a Council also ignore those aspirations.
You had a duty of care to be cognisant of these issues before acceeding to the CW recommendation.

The Guidelines further state that

‘Water distribution systems should be fully enclosed and storages should be securely roofed with external drainage to prevent contamination”. It is almost 3 years since Professor Don Bursill (who was recently appointed South Australia’s Chief Scientist) made that his first recommendation but it still, amazingly, has not been done.
Professor Bursill advised Cairns Water that maintenance of chlorine residuals in distribution is not necessarily effective in dealing with distribution system contamination.  The levels of chlorine are too low generally and the mixing in piped systems is far from ideal.  It is better to find and eliminate contamination sources through good system management and maintenance.

Adding chlorine to our beautiful, sweet mountain water does not eliminate the problem; it simply masks it. Cairns Water needs to locate and eliminate the source of faecal contamination that set off this sorry series of events. End of story. And then stop adding chlorine to our water.

There have been many studies by experts that confirm that it should be possible to return Douglas to chlorine-free water.  Cairns Water has made the case against this course of action by using worse case cost estimates.

In his report to Council today, Bruce Gardiner, General Manger of Cairns Water, notes that the CRC adopted Professor Bursill’s recommendation to keep Douglas water supply chlorine-free.He then concludes that a final report from the consultants Black and Veatch was provided to Council and that the matter is now considered closed.  This is double speak, and makes absolutely no sense.  Despite recommendations by Professor Bursill, Black & Veatch, and the aspirations of this community, Cairns Water has shown that it is incapable of meeting the expectations of the residents of Douglas.

IV. CONCLUSION

This deputation is now making a formal request that:

1.    Council reverts to Professor Don Bursill’s  recommendations that Council seals the reservoirs and identifies and eliminates the contamination in the network whether or not the system is chlorinated.

2.    Council supply the full income figures enjoyed by CW from Douglas since amalgamation.

3.    Council supply full expenditure figures for Douglas for the same period separated into capital works and what would be normal operating expenditure.
As CRC has a relational database these figures can be extracted on any parameters chosen very quickly.
These figures have already been requested several times (unsuccessfully) through different channels.  If the information is not provided in a timely fashion we will seek redress through the Right to Information Act.

4.    That the few Councillors who continue to push their misinformation mantra by continually denigrating the performance of the former DSC staff, desist. They did their job and they did it well. Many of them no longer have those jobs.