$40 million worth of recycled water 'dumped' into Brisbane River Read more:

MORE than $40 million worth of water has been funnelled through Queensland's costly purification pipeline only to be dumped directly into the Brisbane River.

The daily waste of an average 25 million litres comes as the State Government struggles to attract industrial customers to recycled water but is still moving ahead with the pipeline's commissioning.

While southeast consumers battle escalating water prices, authorities have defended their flushing of about $38,000 worth of water a day.

SEQ Water Grid, which manages the Western Corridor scheme, claimed recycled water was "sometimes" produced for testing and operational purposes.

But The Courier-Mail can reveal nearly 40 per cent of the 70,000 megalitres of wastewater purified through the scheme since 2007 has been ditched into the river.

The 27,000ML would be valued at more than $40 million if sold to council-run retailers at the current wholesale price.

An SEQ Water Grid spokeswoman insisted the production costs were far lower at $425 a megalitre, or $11.4 million overall, and only about 10ML a day had been discharged over the past three months.

She said releasing the purified water also meant pollutants such as phosphorus and nitrogen were not pumped into Moreton Bay.

The water waste adds to a string of multimillion-dollar failures chalked up by the Bligh Government as it rushed to secure the southeast water supply at the height of the drought, including the mothballed Tugun desalination plant and failed Traveston Dam.

Opposition water spokesman Steve Dickson said the Bligh Government had invested unwisely and Queenslanders were now stuck with the consequences.

He called for the extra recycled water to be gifted to community groups or offered to industrial consumers at a reduced price, fearing steep prices were pushing away potential business.

Queensland Urban Utilities, which sets prices for industrial users, refused to disclose prices proposed during negotiations with industrial users.

The Government was forced to seek alternative customers after backflipping on a promise to add recycled water to the drinking supply amid community backlash in 2008.

But so far only two power stations have signed on.