Save our Gulf Coalition

There are many unanswered questions around the Port Stanvac Desalination plant including

Alternatives to the Desalination plant. 

• What work has been done to investigate the use of aquifers in the sourcing and storage of water for Adelaide?

• Has an integrated State plan setting out alternative projects, including stormwater recovery, been prepared and costed as part of the decision making process?

Impacts of the Desalination plant. 

Operation of the Plant/Infrastructure

• How much will the plant cost and how will it be funded?

• Where will power come from?

• If not from a renewable source, will off-peak power be used?

• What is power consumption per mega litre?

• Where will water enter the distribution system?

• If water is generated over winter, where will it be stored?

• Does the Government have any performance evaluation criteria documented and available for public scrutiny?

• Who will pay for remediation of the Port Stanvac site and what is the cost estimate

• What other chemicals will be used to treat the water such as anti-scalants, how much will be discharged, and what is the maximum spill risk and discharge from these chemicals?

• What is the projected cost per k/l from this plant and what is the energy cost and amount in that figure?

Disposal of waste

• What methods of utilising salt have been considered?

Environmental impacts

• Has any study of the effects of Desal at Penneshaw (where is best to ask for) been done?

• Does concentrated brine from Desal plants have any detrimental effect on local sea life especially squid eggs?

• Will any dilution or brine mixing be carried out during low tidal changes ‘dodge tides’?

• What have been the case studies considered internationally in regard to siting a plant of this type in a closed gulf environment and what have been the environmental failures in these plants?

• What hydrocarbons are at risk of disturbance and intake from the waters surrounding Port Stanvac and what is their impact on the plant and human health?

• What is the biomass component of the intake water and how will this be disposed off?

Quality of decision process. 

• Which individuals decided to build a desalination plant on this site?

• The report Waterproofing Adelaide released in October 2003 was a 20-year plan that mentioned desalination only once – ‘benefits are potentially unlimited but involve a very high power requirement’. Has this view changed? When and why did it change? Whose view is it?

• What organisations provided advice on this matter and what are their declared commercial interests and conflicts of interest?

• As United Water have been given a 15.5 year contract “to manage, maintain and operate the city's water and wastewater assets … [the largest water management contract in Australia]” what sort of profits will be going to them? 

Future of Gulf for stormwater/waste water. 

• How much will the government spend on stormwater capture, storage and treatment?

• It is known that stormwater is causing significant damage to the gulf including the loss of 50% of the seagrasses between West Beach and Brighton. What is the timetable and budget to stop this discharge?

• What has the funding of alternative technologies such as bioremediation of waste and stormwater been over the past 10 years?

• Why can only 20GL of stormwater be recovered as stated in the waterproofing Adelaide Plan, and what is the cost of that water?