Qld Government considers mothballing water projects

Sounds like a great idea to me.

Anna Bligh says:

"We're looking at every possible option and if that means mothballing some of the facilities we don't need because our dams are full, then that's what we'll be doing."

"I want to bring water bill downs as much as we possibly can, even if it's only by a few dollars, because every dollar counts."

Ms Bligh said several money-saving options are available.

"One is operating these facilities at a significantly reduced rate to keep them ticking over but without producing very much water; [another] is to close them down entirely for a period of time."

and

The government's $9 billion southeast water grid features more than 450km of pipeline and eight facilities including the Tugun plant, the Western Corridor recycled water project and the Cedar Grove Weir.

Furthermore, the Wyaralong Dam near Beaudesert and the Northern Pipeline Interconnector are under construction.

Once complete, the grid is expected to deliver about 350,000 megalitres of additional water a year.

Additional water? That much? Is it that much? Additional water? Are they going to make water, surely the desal plant won't make that much water...

Build a bloody dam or several instead.

Update:
I'm sure I saw a headline about the Victorian desalination plant which said that the union was ensuring certain union members were getting jobs on the site... but all I can find is this and this.

Oh, wait. Here we are:

Unionists 'forced desal hirings'

UNIONISTS at Victoria's desalination plant have been using strong-arm tactics on job recruiters to force the hiring of preferred union members.

This is according to intelligence from operatives who conducted a spying operation code-named Pluto Project.

The extraordinarily generous wages and conditions on offer, the forcefulness of union figures and the pressure on builders to meet tight construction deadlines for the Brumby government's $5 billion-plus plant had led to numerous unacceptable hirings, sources said yesterday.

"A number of people hired on that site have never even worked in construction or on a site before," said one senior source.

"Managers have been giving in to compulsory unionism because the union dictates who will work on the site. Supervisors go through the induction office and say 'to keep sweet with the unions, put these people on'.

More here.