The Desalination Plant (2 Viewers)

[Meldrum]

The desalination plant is huge, built with Australia's best technitions, using the latest technology...I hardly think shit would be so difficult to filter out.

 

[malkin86]

Botany Bay has the highest feacal count of any body of water in NSW and is pretty polluted in other ways as well, I daresay that there are heavy metals and chemicals from the heavy industry that (used) to be in the area....

We just don't look after our heritage, do we?

 

[supercharged]

The desalination plant is huge, built with Australia's best technitions, using the latest technology...I hardly think shit would be so difficult to filter out.

Not matter how good the technology, eventually human error, machine malfunction and poor maintaince will occur, who wants to be the one drinking accidentally contaminated faecal/urine water?

 

[loquasagacious]

So Gavrillo Australias best technicians etc etc can filter out shit..... then why build a desalinisation plant which would entail desalinating and filtering when you could just filter it???

 

[neo o]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sewage-to-star-in-water-plan/2005/07/14/1120934364087.html

On water recycling in Toowoomba...

Toowoomba's plan involves indirect potable re-use. About 5000 million litres of water will be purified to six-star quality (suitable for kidney dialysis; drinking water is five-star), pumped into Cooby Dam and piped to the city's 130,000 residents.

Personally, I'm not sure whether it's as feasible to create drinking water for Sydney through effluent treatment as it is in smaller country towns, but we could definately treat water for use in agriculture and industry. As I said before, the only way to solve the problem isn't through something like a desalination plant but a restructuring of water prices for industries, subsidies for the uptake of green technology by home owners, regulations enforcing the installation of green technology in new developments and effluent treatment.

 

[loquasagacious]

As a city with sanitation and town water Sydney already has the infrastructure, simply upgrade the STPs and connect them so that they discahrge into the mains...

 

[malkin86]

There will be a public meeting this Sunday 'to voice our opposition' to the desalinisation plant, at Wanda Beach Carpark, North Cronulla at 11am.

 

[Rafy]

Desalination plant dumped: it was a stinker with voters, to be frank

By Anne Davies State Political Editor
February 8, 2006

SYDNEY'S unpopular desalination plant will be put on ice by the State Government after a community outcry and fears that it would cost the Labor Party votes at the March 2007 election.

Cabinet met yesterday and was presented with the initial results of drilling in western Sydney, which revealed there might be up to 30 gigalitres a year of groundwater in aquifers. That would nearly match the 45 gigalitres a year that might have been produced by the Kurnell desalination plant.

The groundwater has been known about for several years, but the scale of the reserves was untested. The most recent testing provides the Government with the political figleaf to put the plant on hold for several years. The reserves are large enough to provide additional water for several years. But mining the aquifers will raise questions of the environmental effects of extracting groundwater on this scale. Cities such as Perth have used groundwater to augment supply.

Eammon Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the Premier, Morris Iemma, confirmed last night that "the Government is looking at alternative sources of water … We will make no comment on the status of desalination."

The two consortiums bidding to build the plant have been given signals in the past fortnight to go slow on their submission because the $1.3 billion plant at Kurnell was going on the backburner.

They had expected the tender documents to be available last month but were told by Sydney Water that they should stop work on the proposal. The Government is still likely to buy the Kurnell land and build a pilot plant, but a full-scale plant will not be built unless needed. The new trigger is likely to be when the dam system falls to 30 per cent full.

The backflip follows two weeks of angry community meetings at which the Government has attempted to explain the detail of the planned 125 megalitre a day plant. The most recent meetings in Marrickville, a seat where the Government faces a threat from the Greens, were just as hostile.

The plant has faced universal opposition from the environmental movement because of the massive power consumption needed to run it. The Government's estimates recognised the plant would add 2 per cent to Sydney's power consumption.

The former premier Bob Carr approved the plant last year, weeks before retiring. He was convinced to back the plant after the then utilities minister, Frank Sartor, told him Sydney needed an alternative source of water.

But Mr Iemma has struggled to sell the idea. Dam levels have risen with recent rains and are now 45 per cent. The change of heart follows a report from two experts, Dr Stuart White and David Campbell, to the water subcommittee of cabinet. As well as the aquifer water, they identified recycling opportunities of up to 70 gigalitres a year.

The newly discovered aquifers are in the Southern Highlands and western Sydney, near the Hawkesbury River.

- SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/desalination-plant-dumped/2006/02/07/1139074234090.html

 

[Rafy]

The Great Carr Crash
By Anne Davies State Political Editor
February 9, 2006

THE State Government will squander $120 million on its desalination plant debacle. It is yet another of Bob Carr's costly legacies for his embattled successor, Morris Iemma.

THE Iemma Government will outlay at least $10 million to compensate the two consortiums bidding to build the stalled desalination plant, part of $120 million it will still spend on the project even though it has been shelved indefinitely.

This is the latest in a series of policy U-turns as the Premier, Morris Iemma, tries to grapple with the political legacy of his predecessor, Bob Carr.

The spending on the plant will raise new questions about Labor's competence in managing the state, especially as the Government is now trying to find savings of at least $300 million in an audit of expenditure.

-SMH

You picked a fine time to leave us this way
Dump the plant forever, say critics
Despite the backpedal, recycling still on nose

 

[leetom]

Stupid SMH. I think the Iemma Government deserves at least some credit for acknowledging the wishes of the community and deciding against the plant for the forseeable future.

 

[banco55]

Stupid SMH. I think the Iemma Government deserves at least some credit for acknowledging the wishes of the community and deciding against the plant for the forseeable future.

Too bad they now owe the companies involved a $120 million cancellation fee. Good work Iemma.

 

[leetom]

The State Government owes the companies involved $10 million, not $120 million. The rest is for the purchase of the Kurnell land and the construction of a pilot plant.

 

[leetom]

I thought they dumped the desalination plant plan because they discovered aquaifers (sp?) under Penrith.

They have, for now. It is still apart of a tiered response plan to any fall in future damn levels. If capacity falls to 35%, the aquifers will be mined. If capacity falls to30%, the desalination plant will be built.

Why though they plan to recycle only 13% of Sydney's water, I don't know. Structural complications I suppose.

 

[Enlightened_One]

Yeah, but given the that the newly discovered water beneath Sydney is not inexhaustible the debate is still relevant because some years (perhaps not too many) than the topic will arise once more. Perhaps it is Iemma's wishful thinking that this underground supply will last until he is out of office and thus the problem will be someone elses.

And in related news, did you hear that fool Iemma wanting to lessen, or completely remove, water restrictions in Sydney because of this new water supply. As I mentioned above, this wter won't last forever and the sooner it is used up then the sooner the desalination plant is back on the agenda.

Unless, of course, the state government becomes proactive and uses this respite to research and implement new schemes of water management and, possibly, water reusage and recycling. I doubt they will, unfortunately...

 

[malkin86]

I heard some saying that the drought has officially broken... I think there's been more rain as of late, but I don't trust that it'll last.

 

[Generator]

*bump*

ABC Online: Govt ad raises desalination plant questions

Govt ad raises desalination plant questions


The New South Wales Government is calling for new tenders to build a desalination plant in Sydney.

The Government announced in February it was backing away from building the controversial plant at Kurnell, saying that $120 million would be spent on keeping the plant as a contingency plan.

A tender on Sydney Water's website says the successful contractor would need to be able to construct the dam within 26 months if Sydney Dam levels fall to around 30 per cent capacity.

Utilities Minister David Campbell says there is additional water from deep access points in Nepean and Warragamba dams and the Government hopes it never has to resort to desalination.

[continued - see link]