Australia to Build Huge Desalination Plant
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 06.19.07
Southern Australia has been in the grip of serious drought; reservoirs are drying out, and water restrictions are in place. The government has planned a $4 billion project to provide more drinking water, including a huge desalination plant that is expected to be one of the worlds largest.
The project is planned to be sited in Wonthaggi, south-east of Melbourne, and the government expect that water bills could double to fund it. This, combined with news from the WWF warning that removing salt from sea water could worsen the problem, makes it a less than popular plan.
Desalination is energy intensive and emits a lot of greenhouse gases. The WWF said that Australia, Spain and Saudi Arabia have made significant progress by limiting water use and recycling supplies.
However, the water must come from somewhere, and desalination is a convenient solution. Although the energy use if a problematic side effect, one imagines that it would be entirely feasible to power the plant using solar cells. It would raise the cost of an already expensive project, but money must be spent in order to create a sustainable and appropriate infrastructure. ::ENN
See also ::Desalination: Now with Half the Energy ::Low Temp Desalination Technology From New Mexico Water Resources ...
This is horrible. I remember being really pissed off when this was first announced. It was also protested back then by people living in the area.
It's bad for the environment. If they need more water they should start by cleaning the tonnes of untreated waste they pump into the ocean further down the coast.
South Australia is not the only state building a huge desalinator. Desalinators are planned for or under construction in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. My concern is where is all of the electricity (required to run the desalinators) coming from? From what I understand many energy generators are holding off plans to build new power stations until the Federal government detail how emissions trading and carbon taxes will be implemented.
If the Federal government don't quickly sort this out and drought conditions continue or worsen, then all of Eastern Australia could face power and water rationing in a few years time.
This is a desperate measure, however there is a six turbine wind farm next door to the proposed site and another larger one near by that is expected to power the plant.
you people have to make up your mind for how much this desalination plant is going to cost and I think this is a really bad idea.
Why is everyone forgetting the biggest problem with desalination?.... If they're taking the salt out of the sea water where are they going to put it? Back into the ocean to cause a chemical imbalance like at the Dead Sea, or the land rendering it infertile? Remembering we already have a problem with expanding saline areas in Australia.
It's important to remember that as desalination component manufacturers get the chance to build bigger systems, their processes become more efficient, as does their equipment.
In the 12 years I've been working with desalinators, I've seen their energy footprint drop by around 30%.
10 years from now, technology will hopefully be at a point where we're able to produce high quality water from seawater economically using alternative power supplies.
But we'll never know unless we keep building desal plants and coming up with new ideas.
Why do people keep on about salinity increase from desalination? As long as the plant is anywhere on our huge long coast the salty discharge is diluted immediately and harmlessly.
Energy & greenhouse gas is a valid concern, however desal is ideal for wind & solar power because it can handle the variable supply.
BTW the original article is about Victoria, not South Australia.
This is really bad On face value, desalination seems a sensible solution to Victoria’s “water crisis”.
However expert opinion almost invariably differs.
Continuing ignorance of our environment is a short sighted path to disaster for society.
Desalination has its place and must be considered, but only as a last resort.
Why?
1. Desalination contributes to global
warming. Desalination has a massive
continuous energy requirement, contributing
greatly to global warming. Ironically
global warming is thought to be the prime
cause of dwindling water supplies, which
is perpetuated by desalination. The
claimed use of “green energy” to run desalination
plants is misleading. If it
weren’t for desalination plants, that “green
energy” could (and should) be used to
reduce current greenhouse emissions.
2. Desalination wastes water. Desalination
provides extra water, but will promote
further water wastage (our government
even advertises the lifting of water
restrictions in Melbourne as one benefit!),
rather than encouraging water savings.
Thus it is self defeating.
3. Desalination produces truckloads
of waste every day. Desalination
produces truckloads of dry waste (salts,
chemicals and organic sludge) daily that
must be disposed of in landfill.
4. Desalination pollutes our ocean.
Desalination produces huge volumes of
waste every day (brine, chemicals and
dead aquatic life) to be discharged back
into our ocean. This has detrimental impacts
of unknown severity on marine
communities. Nearby communities here
include the Bunurong Marine Park and
Coastal Reserve.
5. Desalination reduces our aquatic
life. Desalination kills tonnes of aquatic
planktonic life and other organisms which
are taken in with the water to be treated,
depleting life throughout the food chain
over a wide area.
6. Desalination plants are big, ugly
and noisy industrial sites. Locating
one on this coast contravenes this government’s
Coastal Strategy for preventing
the spread of urban development along
the coast. It also contravenes our Bass
Coast Shire’s planning guidelines.
Issues specific to a desalination
plant at Williamsons
Beach;
1. It will be a huge industrial site up to
5 stories high, on current farming land
where land owners will be forced to sell.
2. Desalination plants are noisy, 24
hours a day. It will be heard for many
kilometers depending on climatic conditions
at the time.
3. It will be lit up through the night.
4. This plant would be highly visible
to all in the district, dominating an otherwise
magnificent and unique rural coastal
view from Anderson, through Kilcunda
and Dalyston towards Wonthaggi, and
the hills above.
5. The associated power supply will be
likely via new large steel pylons stretching
across the Strzelecki Ranges from Morwell,
directly impacting on farming communities
along the route. Only a small
final section may be underground. Pipelines
with pumping stations will be a similar
impediment for rural communities.
6. Local fishing grounds and the adjacent
Bunurong Marine Park &
Coastal Reserve will be jeopardised
due to water currents dispersing the effluent
7. Industrialising this area will open it
to further development, including
nuclear power (which is now being seriously
considered by the federal government;
Wonthaggi has been mentioned as
a potential site), because a precedent of
heavy industry is set and infrastructure is
present.
8. There will be very few local jobs for
locals in this development. There will be a
corresponding drop in tourist / visitor
numbers thus supporting less real local
jobs. Efforts for job creation should be
redirected into continuing to build tourism
based on our very unique environment.
What should we demand
before desalination
is considered?
1. Save more water via continued water
restrictions including stronger demands
on industry which uses the majority of our
water and by being tougher with water
restrictions in Melbourne to match ours.
2. Water tanks. Legislating all homes,
government and public buildings to have
significant water tank capacity for rainwater
collection and aiding this via government
subsidy. This will be cheaper to
the consumer in the long term than paying
for the higher price of desalinised water.
Theoretically, collecting water from 1.5
million average Melbourne house roofs
would supply the same water as the proposed
Victorian desalination plant.
3. Storm water collection locally and
regionally. ie. get it BEFORE it enters the
ocean, not after as with desalination.
4. Water recycling locally (home waste
treatment plants) and regionally.
Most or all respected relevant scientists and
environmental organisations strongly advocate
the above.
Unlike desalination, the above 4 point approach
is sound economically.
So, why are our council and state government
contributing to such broad scale environmental
degradation while ignoring or not seeking expert
opinion? They perhaps follow this knee
jerk reaction as a vote winner and assume the
public will not find the facts.
If water shortage persists after the above
measures have been taken, then desalination
must of course be considered, but only as a
supplementary measure for backup water supplies
rather than the major source.
The above discussion is all extensively supported
through factual information, so if anyone
is confused through conflicting advice or opinion,
or if further information is desired
please contact us via our website;
www.yourwateryoursay.com
D E S A L I N A T I O N
This is a calculated, sinister, political exercise by the Bracks’ Government to use a safe Liberal seat as a dumping ground. Imagine the outrage if they tried this
on the West coast or on the Peninsula! This decision is being irresponsibly bullied through against all objective advice for the political advantage of Mr Bracks
to the detriment of our shire, our country and our planet . We must all take responsibility now for our home and the environment; for us and more importantly
for future generations. Send a message to the Bracks Government and our Council that we won’t be bull dozed into this really bad situation;
“No Way Mr Bracks, Our Coast is Not For Sale, not for this!”
I think that we're all forgetting something, or maybe haven't heard of it quite yet.
While yes, desalination is a very expensive project which has massive effects on the environment- wasting energy left right and center, a new method has been produced to complete the process.
This is called the Jetwater system, which I came across because I am currently doing a project on it. This process uses simple filteration and evaporation to purify the water, and heat energy is collected to be recycled and heat new impure water from the source.
This is reducing the cost of desalination from about $3.50 per kiloliter (1000 liters) of water to $1.50, and also quaters the energy use.
This process can also, depending on the size of the plant, purify up to 10 million Liters of water per day.
While I'm unsure as to why Wonthaggi has been chosen for the site, I think everyone should stop and actually think aobut how this can benefit us through our environment, drought, economy, farmers, locally, crops, the list is endless.
Oh, and please note that this article only outlines the disadvantades for desalination.
Well, the pamphlets are out, 150 billion litres a year..... That equates to a strain of 6 BILLION kilos of salt a year that the local waters of the wonthaggi region will be increased by. The waste water from the plant will have double the salt content of regular water. The multi billion dollar contract is most likely going to go to Voila environment, parent company of connex and collex; giving Voila Environment private ownership of melbournes public transport system, water assets and waste dispoal services.