WATER NEWS- MELBOURNE VICTORIA

The Age. Saturday June 27 2009.

Household water bill will rise significantly in the next 4 years after Victoria's independent regulator yesterday approved price increases of between 51 and 64 percent.

But price rises approved by the Essential Services Commission--starting this July--to supplement the cost of other water saving measures will still add hundreds of dollars a year to water bills.

City West Water prices will rise for a typical household using 165 kilolitres of water a year from $568 to $858 in 2012. South East Water customers will go from paying $599 to $894 and Yarra Valley Water prices will increase from $585 to $960 in the same period. The increase will help cover the cost of major water infrastructure such as the Sugarloaf and North-South pipelines, Eastern Treatment Plant upgrade and the Desalination Plant.

The plan to pipe recycled water from the Eastern Treatment Plant to power stations in Gippsland to supplement their use of about 100 billion litres of drinking water a year was the cornerstone of the Government' water policies in the lead up to the 2006 election.

But the pipeline was abandoned yesterday because a business plan found the cost will run to $3.9 billion, well above the initial $1 billion price tag.

transcript taken from The Age, page 9 June 27 2009

Melbourne Water Website June 24 2009

Tarago pipeline reconnected. Boosting Melbourne's reservoirs by 0.7% bringing the reservoir level from 25.6% to 26.3% on June 24. As of June 28 the level has dropped back to 26.1%