[Greens-Media] MARK PARNELL MLC: Secret Plan for Roxby Water

[Greens]

Media Release
16 June 2007

Secret Plan for Roxby Water

BHP Billiton and the State Government should scrap the controversial desalination plant planned for the Upper Spencer Gulf in favour of a bold plan by SA Water to service the Roxby expansion with Adelaide's waste water, says Greens MLC Mark Parnell.

Secret documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal a so-called 'Bolivar to Billiton' plan prepared by SA Water in mid 2006 that, for an "equivalent cost":

§              Uses much less energy

§              Produces half as much greenhouse pollution

§              Requires no hyper-saline discharge into the delicate Upper Spencer Gulf 

§              Stops Adelaide's dirty effluent from polluting St Vincents Gulf, and

§              Produces a more reliable supply of water (200 days storage)
 

"This is a rare and exciting win-win solution - for no extra cost, BHP Billiton gets a reliable source of water that preserves the fragile marine ecology of the Upper Spencer Gulf and stops the dumping of effluent off Adelaide's beaches, for half the greenhouse pollution of desalination.

"I simply can not understand why Mike Rann has hitched his wagon so completely to BHP Billiton's desal option, when a better one for SA is available. 

"We have to get much better at matching water sources with water needs.  It is crazy for expensive, energy guzzling desalination to be used to make pristine A grade water, when cheaper B grade recycled effluent will do just as good a job. In the case of the Roxby desalination plant we'll be paying for an expensive process we don't need.

"Instead, the SA Water proposal is a world class solution for a major environmental problem.  We will be able to prevent a significant source of pollution and turn it into a money earning asset. This is the essence of sustainability.  Congratulations must go to SA Water for thinking outside the square.

"The Rann Government should demand BHP Billiton take a good hard look at this exciting proposal, and immediately withdraw its $160 million desal subsidy," he said. 

The documents obtained by Greens MLC Mark Parnell under Freedom of Information laws reveal an advanced stage of preparation by SA Water with detailed maps and water quality analysis.  Seven pages of costings comparing the recycled water option with the desalination option have been made exempt.  

It is clear from the documents:

§              SA Water were very keen on the proposal, 

§              Water quality was not the reason the proposal was rejected - BHP Billiton  'have given a verbal indication the quality is OK'

§              SA Water were confident they could supply enough water  
 
The State Government has already publicly committed $160 million, matched by another $160 million from Kevin Rudd, to help fund the controversial Roxby desalination plant, which has attracted fierce criticism from marine experts and the aquaculture industry with its plan to dump hyper saline waste into one of the most delicate marine areas in SA.

"Why risk damage to the delicate Upper Spencer Gulf if we don't need to?" Mark Parnell said.

A major argument for the Upper Spencer Gulf desal plant is its potential to supply potable water to the Upper Spencer Gulf and Eyre Peninsula.  However, if desalination is warranted, a smaller, targeted plant could be built at a better location, with direct ocean outflow to clear the brine, and used only to produce drinking water.  

 "We need to plan more wisely - use grade A for water, and grade B for industry. Otherwise we are literally pouring money and energy down the drain.  Also, we have to stop our one-use water mentality.  Before we start trying to create new water, let's think about how we can re-use what we've already got.

In one of the documents revealed under FoI, John Williams, SA Water Head of Strategic Projects writes in support of the 'Bolivar to Billiton' option:

Good planning now will ensure that recycled water is used for appropriate use and the desal water is used later for potable use, rather than the other way round.

"Instead, both BHP Billiton and the State Government appear hell bent on the desal option. 

"Yet, this proposal will see us dump about 150ML of grade B water into the sea a year at a major cost to the environment, and then pull out of the sea about the same amount again - but this time we have to spend vast amounts of money and energy making it usable.  Then we go and pollute arguably the most fragile part of the whole coastline, as we dump the waste from the desalination back into the sea.  How smart is that?"  he said.
 

For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893

	
 
 


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