Harvey Leschenault Reporter
05/06/2007 Page: 1
MORE than 300 people attended a fiesty desalination plant information meeting at Binningup last Tuesday night. Residents were obviously angry that the project was announced as a "fait accompli" and concerned that the public consultation process would achieve little.
In the words of one resident: "how can we have input when the decisions have already been made?" But Binningup Community Association president Marie Dilley says the real issue is the siting of an industrial plant near a pristine beach and close to the backyards of residents. She believes it is not too late to change the decision. Mrs Dilley said she was pleased with the outcome of the meeting where residents were able to convey their concerns. She said it was well conducted and the Water Corporation representatives were forthcoming with information.
Issues of particular concern were noise pollution, the visual impact on future northwards residential development, beach access, chlorine storage, waste disposal and marine life degradation. Some residents were yet to be convinced that Kemerton was not a better option and were concerned that the future of the water treatment plant at Binningup was yet to be resolved.
Senior Water Corporation staff including South West manager Chris Elliott, executive projects manager John Wallis, project director Nick Churchill and environment branch manager David Luketina were there to give an overview of the project and answer questions. Mr Elliott told the gathering that the announcement by the Premier was a surprise to many people including some of his staff.
He said there was still a lot of work to be done but the corporation saw the need to start the consultation process as soon as possible and the senior project people at the meeting would endeavour to give informed answers. "This is the first step in a consultation process that will continue for the next four years," he said. "We will be targeting the communities of Binningup and Myalup and key stakeholders such as farmers along the linking pipeline route and the Harvey shire." Mr Elliott said Binningup was his "water spot" so he knew it well and had interests in common with residents of the area. "Our mission tonight is to listen and inform," he said.
Project director Nick Churchill gave a brief overview of the water resource dilemma facing the corporation and its integrated water system, which provides a linked water supply to most of the South West land division including Perth and the goldfields. He said sites from Lancelin south had been investigated and Binningup was the stand-out choice. Advantages were that it was on a 4Oha site owned by the Water Corporation, its proximity to open ocean, environmental aspects in relation to the site location, reasonable access to power and the integrated water system. It is planned to connect the plant via a pipe to the main near Harvey.
Mr Churchill said Kemerton had been ruled out because of limited space at the corporation's site and the huge cost of pumping water to and from the ocean. He said the Binningup plant would be gravity fed from the ocean. The plant will initially produce 45 gigalitres of water annually and it would be expanded to 100gL at a later date. Daily intake would equate to 140 Olympic size swimming pools and the equivalent of 70 salt loaded pools would be pumped back into the ocean. When at full capacity the plant would require 2Oha allowing a 2Oha buffer area.
Mr Churchill displayed an aerial view of the Kwinana plant to give the meeting an insight into the infrastructure requirements. The biggest structure is a "Bunnings" sized shed which would be screened from the residential areas about 1km to the south. There will be no big smokestacks or big tanks. Mr Churchill said beach access would be restricted during construction but after rehabilitation the dunes and beach areas would be back to their original condition. Pipes would be buried several metres under the sand and the ocean outfall and intake would be several hundred metres offshore with no impacts on coastal reefs or seagrass areas.
Mr Luketina assured the meeting that there would be no impact on marine life and the buffer would ensure that there was no impact on nearby residents. Evidence from 30 other similar plants worldwide had shown that there had been no impact on marine habitats and this was evident at Kwinana. Mr Luketina said there would be no emissions from the plant and residue from the treatment process would be trucked to the nearest suitable landfill site. This would amount to one truckload per day.
He said the project needed to go through a stringent EPA approval process and would be subject to exhaustive environmental monitoring during and after construction. Mr Elliott said the time frame for construction would be a start date of 2009 and completion by 2011. Preliminary design work had been done. The plant would use big amounts of power and the State Government's requirement was for this to come from renewable energy sources. However these would be remote and there were no plans to establish a wind farm locally.
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