The Queensland Government and the Gold Coast City Council have just signed-off on a deal to build a desalination plant – the first for Queensland.
It is expected to be completed by the end of November2008 and provide 125 megalitres a day. That’s a substantial 46 gigalitres a year.
This is perhaps the first significant water infrastructure project for south east Queensland to be approved since the Wivenhoe Dam which was completed in 1985?
I mention some of the history of water infrastructure development for this region in a piece I wrote for the Courier- Mail published yesterday. I also suggested the desalination plant be fast-tracked.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Unless my mathematics is incorrect, that amounts to a supply of 45625ML a year. So my questions are these: what is the the cost (not price) to the the urban user/taxpayer in SE Qld and how does this cost compare to the cost of water derived from planned storages in SE Qld?
Blair
Still, no-one has been able to explain why any rational person would choose to spend lots of money removing 35ppm of salt from sea water when the natural flows in un-damed rivers and creeks can be captured near the river mouth just before it mixes with sea?
This would access source water, including storm water runoff from suburban roads, and require removal of salt loads as low as 1 or 2 ppm and involve commensurate cost savings.
Full on ocean desalination has an overwhelming stench of jobs for the science boys about it.
does it cost alot to run?
I thought that Dalby had a desal plant (RO) that has been in use for about ten years
Your new seawater desalination factory is the same capacity as ours in Perth which is 45GL PA. Costs were estimated at $387Mill and have blown out to an official $434Mill Our proposed second facility has an estimated cost of $500Mill. Think quietly how much money that is translated to other better social outcomes, health, education etc.
The Govt claims costs will be $22Mill PA but most of what they say has had a rosy tinge to it; the power requirement was stated to be 24.1MW average demand.
Seawater intake av per day will be 300ML and the process will emitt 180ML per day of water with a salinity of 65,000 mg / L.
Just for a moment, stand back, look at a map of annual average rainfall contours (isohyets), for SE Qld / NE NSW and think from first principles about providing water for Brisbane. The border ranges provide the obvious high rainfall zone and supply dam sites but here there is a state border plus national parks.
So there you have it, a good water source is out of bounds.
Eerie that we are such a clever country to be turning to seawater desal so close to rainfall zones in ranges of plus 1 metre per year.
Why are we building the plant so late, we are going to have two dreadful years of water crisus. Unless the rains pick up we will be left on level 4-5 water restritions for two years were we suffer in a hot drout
But the things is if we wait for our fresh water resources to run any lower than QLD will recieve much stricter resource cuts. Also the uses for a desalination plant outweighs the cost enormously. Australia is running out of water…face it!!!!
i think that peanut butter jelly sandwiches are like the best thing since desalination (sliced bread) desalination is the new sliced bread, back to you sam