Liberal Candidate for Penrith, Tricia Hitchen and Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Hon Greg Pearce MLC, today launched a petition calling on the Labor Government to pursue water recycling instead of drilling the Leonay aquifer. 

"Drilling of the Leonay aquifer is only considered necessary because of Labor’s failure to plan for Sydney’s water needs,” Mrs Hitchen said.

“This drilling is already having an impact on local residents, and any future extraction of water from the aquifer will only make these disturbances even worse.  

“Labor has also failed to consider the impact the drilling and extraction of water could have on the health of the Nepean River,” Mrs Hitchen said.

Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Greg Pearce, said that instead of planning for the future of Sydney’s water supply, the Labor Government has only introduced stop-gap measures.  

“The drilling of Leonay aquifer is nothing more than a short-term political fix from a Labor Government without any long-term vision for Sydney’s water supply,” Mr Pearce said.

Sydney receives almost twice the annual rainfall of Melbourne, and twice that of London. Despite this, there is almost no stormwater harvesting, with most of our rainfall ending up in the ocean.  

In addition, the equivalent of 145 Olympic sized swimming pools of water are lost every day through leaking pipes and broken infrastructure – about ten percent of Sydney Water’s supply. On average it takes twelve days for Sydney Water to repair leaks.

“A Liberal Government will significantly boost water supplies by increasing recycling rates to recycle the output of at least one of Sydney's three main ocean outfalls within our first term of Government.  

“This will be used for non-drinking purposes, such as for watering sporting ovals, industrial uses and environmental flows.

“After twelve long years, Labor have failed to provide a realistic plan for the future of Sydney’s water. The time for excuses is over,” Mrs Hitchen concluded.

Additional copies of the petition can be arranged by contacting Tricia Hitchen on 4732 5807.