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Speaking without notes, Meers launched into a smooth dleivery of his plan to save us from the sewage menace. He declared that the Labor Government had ignored the plight of Manly and now proposed too little too late,. He criticised the delay in completing the treatment plant, claiming that the Askin Government had initiated the North Head project with provision for full treatment but that the Wran Government "abandoned" this concept in favour of a "cheaper, less efficient plant", which was still not finished.

He had undertaken a study of the problem and had discovered an alternative scheme called a "deep shaft secondary treatment favility". This would involve pumping aerated sewage into a series of veritcal shafts sunk several hundred metres below North Head. According to Meers, this scheme could give Manly clean water on tis beaches in 18-24 months, at the same cost as the submarine outfall which would take ten years to complete.

I followed Meers with a speech which I hoped would capture the middle ground between the low-key stance of the Water Board and the extremists who wanted the submarine tunnel project abandoned in favour of some other scheme.  

After outlining the history of the outfall, and emphasising that beach pollution was not a new problem. I ran through the Water Board's timetable: The automated incinerator would be in operation within

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