This made page 1 and 3 of this week's edition of the Queensland Telegraph here
http://www.queenslandtelegraph.com/read/ It follows on from the recent debate about the virtues of reverse osmosis plants as proposed for treating CSG excess contaminated water.
The pristine waters of Bustard Bay, home of CQ's first ocean desalination plant at Agnes Water near the township of 1770.
By John Mikkelsen
CENTRAL Queensland now has its first ocean desalination
plant, with taps soon to flow fresh water from the sea at Agnes Water.
The $40 million plant is in the final commissioning stages
for Gladstone Regional Council, after five years of battling protestors and
Mother Nature.
Initially it is expected to meet about half of the small
community’s water needs in coming months, with cheaper existing underground
supplies providing the remainder.
Boasting Queensland’s most northern surf beach and a
thriving tourism industry, Agnes Water overlooks the pristine waters of Bustard Bay first explored by
Lieutenant James Cook in 1770.
A section of the $40 million desal plant.
Gladstone Regional Council inherited the scheme from the
former Miriam Vale Shire in 2007
following the Beattie Labor government’s forced amalgamations. When it decided
to press ahead with the desalination plant and sewerage treatment project
rather than risk losing a $27 million State subsidy, a determined protest was
launched based on environmental concerns and claimed exorbitant costs.
THE
Community Over Desalination (COD) protest group fought the long campaign with
the backing of former member for Burnett Rob Messenger, claiming the site
between Agnes Water and Deepwater National Park would place a nesting beach for
endangered loggerhead turtles at risk.
However
this was denied by council and the Bligh government, with construction starting
in January 2010 after studies ruled out alternative schemes including a costly
pipeline from Gladstone’s Awoonga Dam..
It was
claimed that dwindling underground supplies would be unable to meet the growing
community’s needs. During the
desal plant’s planning stages, scientists including chief climate change commissioner Tim Flannery were warning
Australia’s prevailing drought would never end and major rivers would cease
flowing.
The same
claims inspired the Bligh government to press ahead with the state’s other
major multi- million dollar desal plant at Tugan on the Gold Coast, a recycling
plant and hundreds of kilometers of pipelines linking storages in South East
Queensland.
Irony
prevailed when record floods occurred
in late 2010, 2011 and again this year, filling dams and replenishing
underground supplies including those at Agnes Water.
Council CEO Stuart Randle yesterday said the new desal plant was expected to
meet the community’s needs for six months of the year, with cheaper underground
supplies providing the remainder.
He told the Telegraph total cost of water and electricity
when the plant was at full capacity was expected to be about $2 a kilolitre.
“The
desal plant option was chosen by the Miriam Vale Council in 2007 when the
existing town supply was under stress and population growth was very strong.
“Since
that time the population growth has stalled and successive good wet seasons
have replenished the aquifer.
“The
result is that the town is currently able to be serviced from the much cheaper
groundwater supplies. The next drought and renewed interest in the Agnes Water
region will change that at some time”.
Mr Randle
said the present commissioning process was “complex” and would include cleaning
of the inlet lines using specialist contractors.
“ Once
that is complete the process moves into the acceptance testing phase which will
take a further month to complete”.
TRILITY,
a water infrastructure management firm, will operate the plant on council’s
behalf.
“ It will
be paid for fixed and variable costs, much the same way that phone bills are
separated into line rental and call charges. The fixed portion is shared across
the service connections so, as the community grows, the plant will become more
cost effective.
“The
variable cost of treating seawater at full capacity, excluding electricity, is
about 24 cents per kilolitre. The cost of electricity at present equates to
about 50 cents per kilolitre.Total cost of production at full capacity is
expected to be around $2.00 per kilolitre”.
Cr Ren Lanzon told The Telegraph he had inspected a similar
ocean desalination plant during a recent visit to his homeland of Malta, and he
did not envisage environmental problems.
“The
outflow of the plant fell from a cliff face into the sea, giving the Maltese a rare sight, a waterfall.
“The
famously Blue Mediterranean is about three times more salty than our blue
Pacific. Oddly it's still a favourite fishing spot for the Maltese. Apparently
the fish don't mind the mineral outflow from the plant,” Cr Lanzon said.
"It follows on from the recent debate about the virtues of reverse osmosis plants as proposed for treating CSG excess contaminated water."
ReplyDeleteThis debate can be found in the comment section of a previous post on this site, Wyoming: Aftermath of a Drilling Boom
It's my belief that reverse osmosis is far more efficient in the removal of salts from sea water rather than application for coal seam gas produced water because of the amount of cations found in CSG water.
It is also fairly expensive Dale, as can be seen from the above anticipated costs.
ReplyDeleteWe also get a variety of the black cockatoo here on the coast too Dale, either A or more likely G in the pics, Dale. They appear regularly once a year in Spring and move along the line of she-oaks above the dunes from the north to the south, systematically stripping acorns and twigs from the branches. The trees don't seem any the worse and I suspect it's part of nature's regenerative process. But they do it one tree at a time, then disappear somewhere to the south doing the same as they progress.
ReplyDeleteWe get the yellow-tailed black cockatoos - they come at different times of the year, hang around for a few weeks and then disappear again. I don't know what attracts them but they arrive 3-4 times per year.
ReplyDeleteOne of the varieties of Black Cockatoo lives primarily on termites and they rip old trees and termite nest infested with "white ants" apart to get at the prized food inside.
ReplyDeleteHere at Mt Larcom we get Black cockatoos on a regular basis. They cone to get the fruit of the Burdekin Plum tree in the back yard and sometimes have a crack at the Macadamia nuts. The sulphur crested cockatoos like the Macadamias too and they bith crack the nuts in their beaks.
Bloody hell, I would not like to get a finger in the beak of one of those.
Hey not sure how or why I posted a comment about the black cockatoos here and you guys followed (like a flock of galahs :0)
ReplyDeleteI thought I was commenting on Dale's cocky pics post. But Peter the beak sure looks and is powerful but when you get a tame one you could put your finger in it and worst you would get is a playful nip. At least mine was like that. You wouldn't want to pick up a wild one tho.
Cos we are like a pack of galahs. One takes off and the whole bloody lot take off and don't even ask why.
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