South Australia plans largest desalination plant in southern hemisphere ...

Excerpt from Adelaide Now:

Seawater plant gets go ahead

3 April 2007

Construction of a pilot desalination plant system will begin almost immediately after the State Government announced it had approved the project yesterday.

Pre-filtration equipment - which needs to be tested as it is the only component of any desalination plant that needs to be customised - will now be built by BHP on the Santos jetty at Port Bonython.

Urban Development and Planning Minister Paul Holloway yesterday signed the planning approvals required for the project to begin. BHP expects the plant to be built within the next two months.

Its chief operating officer of base metals, Roger Higgins, who is accompanying Premier Mike Rann during his week-long tour of Chile, yesterday said the system would be trialled for about 18 months.

"That is the only part of the process that is different depending on where you are because it depends on the quality of the seawater that you are taking in, and what the particular local algae and biological organisms in the water are," Mr Higgins said.

The pilot plant will not produce fresh water but once it has been completed and successfully tested it will pave the way for the construction of the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere.

The completed plant would provide two-thirds of its desalinated water to BHP's Olympic Dam, whilst the remaining water will be pumped to Upper Spencer Gulf and some Eyre Peninsula residents.

It would produce more than 1400 litres of water a second once completed.

Premier Mike Rann said the plant - which will be three times the size of the desalination plant he toured yesterday - would help reduce the amount of water being taken from the ailing River Murray.

See - SA commits to desalination.