HAWKESBURY MP Steven Pringle has condemned the NSW Govern-ment's plan for a desalination plant in southern Sydney as unfair to Hawkesury residents.
"The premier has previously condemned desalination as 'drinking bottled electricity'," Mr Pringle said last Friday.
"If you've got the money to spend, you should be looking to spend it on large-scale recycling instead of drinking bottled electricity."
He accused Premier Carr of "paying lip service" to water recycling.
Mr Pringle said the NSW Opposition was appalled 97.6 per cent of waste water from the Sydney metropolitan area, the Central Coast and the lower Hunter Valley was poured into the Tasman Sea by ocean outfalls.
"Ultimately, we'd like to see the abandonment of the use of ocean outfalls," he said.
The government should investigate the feasibility of closing the ocean outfalls and redirecting the water back to the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment, as proposed by the company Services of Sydney, he said.
This water could be used for environmental flows, irrigation and industry.
Mr Pringle also suggested diverting waste water from the Blue Moutains towns of Mount Victoria, Medlow Bath and Blackheath to supply power stations at Lithgow, instead of using potable water to generate electricity.
Labor Londonderry MP Allan Shearan rejected Mr Pringle's "lip service" claim.
The State Government planned to increase the amount of recycled water from 15 billion to 70 billion litres a year by by 2011, Mr Shearan said.
The planned desalination facility at Kurnell would be used for water supply on a contingency basis, he said.
Mr Shearan said large-scale water recycling needed "appropriate infrastructure".
"We've got to start being smarter about our water usage, and we've got to value our water usage as one of the cheapest in the world," he said.
Riverstone MP John Aquilina, also a Labor member, said Sydney couldn't afford to dismiss any solution.
"Water recycling itself will not solve all the problems," he said.
But Hawkesbury Mayor Bart Bassett is sticking to his campaign for more water recycling throughout Sydney.
"I encourage the minister (Frank Sartor) to complete a plan for mass recycling of water, so that all of Sydney can compare it to desalination before a final decision on this huge expenditure is made," he said.
According to Mayor Bassett, Mr Sartor argued it would be too expensive to send recycled water to Sydney via Warragamba Dam.
"There are many smaller reservoirs spread throughout Sydney where treated effluent from sewerage treatment plants could be directed to, which could be more cost-effective," the mayor told The Gazette. He said Sydney's water supply could be mixed with rainwater from Warragamba and delivered through existing pipelines.