NSW Premier Kristina Keneally yesterday defended the purity of the drinking water filtered through Sydney’s $1.9 billion desalination plant.
The Premier mounted the defence after a report claimed the seawater drawn into the facility contained dangerous levels of sewage bacteria.
The Sydney Water report found that the seawater being piped into the Kurnell plant, in the city’s south, had much higher levels of E. coli bacteria than the water in the city’s dams. However, Ms Keneally said the data in the report that referred to the presence of E. coli was incorrect.
“I can’t put it any plainer than this - the drinking water from the desalination plant is safe,” the Premier said.
“Indeed we get it in our house, we drink it, my children drink it, I have no qualms about it.”
Ms Keneally said she had sought clarification from Sydney Water and she understood it was “human error” that caused the incorrect findings to be published.
She said the problem was with the report and not with the water, and Sydney Water was investigating how that happened.
NSW opposition natural resource management spokeswoman Katrina Hodgkinson said the admission of errors in the report highlighted the need for an independent contamination review of the plant’s inputs and outputs. She said the proximity of two sewage pipelines to the plant’s intake pipe had been a concern for locals since the facility opened in January.
