one billion dollar desal plant about to go ahe

Water Corp looks at dam role

17th May 2007, 7:00 WST





Water in Collie’s Wellington Dam could eventually be desalinated using the proposed Binningup desalination plant, sources inside the Water Corporation said yesterday.

A day after the State Government announced that WA’s next major water source would come from a plant to be built north of Bunbury, it emerged that the plant could become the focus of the State’s water-producing efforts for the next two decades.

The near $1 billion Binningup plant will initially produce 45 gigalitres of water a year, the same as the recently commissioned Kwinana plant, but with the capacity to expand to 100GL. That would make Binningup the State’s second and third desalination plants.

Alan Carpenter conceded in Parliament yesterday that the extension of the Binningup plant to 100GL would be done at “substantial cost� on top of the $955 million allocated to phase one.

“We haven’t costed that but obviously it would be a substantial cost, not as substantial as this original part of the project because much of the infrastructure will be put in place during what you might call stage one,� the Premier said.

“What it allows if we build the inflow and outflow pipes to sufficient capacity, it provides very ready expansion of the project should it be required and I’m quite certain that at some point it will be required.�

The Water Corporation’s desalination manager Gary Crisp said yesterday WA could have five major desalination projects in another 10 years.

Mr Crisp counted Kwinana, two plants at Binningup and a major private desalination facility on the Burrup Peninsula but also the desalination of the 185GL Wellington Dam.

And The West Australian understands the Water Corporation will also examine the possibility of pumping water from the Wellington Dam, which sits in the hills above the Harvey coastline, to Binningup for processing. “Who is to say Binningup wouldn’t become the hub of everything,� a Water Corporation source said. “You could come straight down the Collie valley, gravity feed down to that plant.�

The West Australian also understands that the new Binningup plant, contrary to claims by Mr Carpenter on Tuesday, will need extensive environmental examination because it will require an 800m discharge pipe into the ocean compared with just 300m at Kwinana.

Mr Carpenter said he believed the environmental approvals process could be conducted quicker than at Kwinana, meaning Binningup could be on line as early as 2010, but the Water Corporation said yesterday shallow waters off the coast meant a much longer pipe.

The State Government will apply to the Commonwealth for funding for the second desalination plant, estimated to cost $1 billion, but will not compromise on the scope of the project if rejected.

Federal Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office would not comment on the chance of the State receiving funding yesterday.

ROBERT TAYLOR and GRAHAM MASON