Gold Coast's desal plant - Anna Bligh plays politics with official opening ...

Excerpt from goldcoast.com.au

Testing time for desal's debut

29 November 2008

Unseasonal ocean swells and an electricity blackout have been blamed for the delay in the pumping of desalinated water into the Gold Coast's drinking supply.

The public will get its first taste test of desalinated water at an open day at the $1.2 billion Tugun plant tomorrow but the official opening has been put off, prompting speculation that the Bligh Government is saving it for an election campaign photo opportunity early in the new year.

Despite claiming it would be ready to be turned on in November this year and producing water at full capacity in January, the Government yesterday admitted the plant would not be operational until mid-January when it will be able to produce enough water each day for more than 700,000 people to meet the Target 170.

Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said tomorrow's Desal Day would mark the 'opening' of the Gold Coast Desalination Project at the nearby Tugun Rugby League Club's playing fields.

Premier Anna Bligh will attend the event and organisers said she would be pressing a button to kickstart seawater being sucked into the plant. She will also get the first taste of the purified water.

Although Gold Coasters who attend the community event will be able to taste desal water for the first time, it will not actually be ready to be piped offsite and mixed with water from Hinze Dam for several weeks.

"Some recent delays due to unseasonal ocean swells and an interruption to the electricity supply due to a workplace incident, mean it will be a little longer until we'll have the first desalinated water actually pumped into our drinking supplies," said Mr Lucas.

"Even so, the project team is working flat out to meet the January 15 target to have this plant producing its full capacity of 125 megalitres of water a day into our drinking supplies, enough for up to 700,000 people under Target 170.

"Commissioning and final work will now continue and we should see the first 40ML of water a day go into our drinking supplies by early January."

Mr Lucas urged locals to go along for a taste test.

"This will be a historic day for southeast Queensland with the desalination plant running and producing water," he said.

Meanwhile, the week leading up to tomorrow's open day has been a hive of activity as workers add the final touches to the exterior.

The site consists of 12 sheds, each housing a network of pipes, tanks and filters. When operational, the plant will require only 15 staff to run it each day.

The process of desalination begins at sea where a pipe draws in water. This goes through various stages of filtration at the plant, before eventually being fed into the SEQ water grid for dispersal to various reservoirs.

At the heart of the operation is the reverse osmosis shed of 1700 tubes through which water is passed under high pressure and comes out so pure that minerals have to be put back in.

Unused sea water (about 50 per cent) containing dissolved salts and minerals is returned to sea in water about 20m deep.

During construction, residents of Elanora, Currumbin and Palm Beach have had to be patient, with many fighting to have repairs made to homes damaged by the laying of the pipeline from the plant.

Some have reported cracks in ceilings, walls and driveways while a Tugun street had to be ripped up after a leak in one of the new pipes caused the surface to rise from the pressure.

Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey said Gold Coast residents had been told the plant would be officially opened this month but now it was just a 'public open day'. "It now seems the Premier wants to hold off the official opening for an election campaign photo opportunity," she said.

"The only conclusion anyone can draw is that the public open day will go ahead this Sunday, but that the official opening will be delayed for a future date to suit the Premier and, I strongly suspect, her campaign team."

She said the Government should just get on and open it.

"To their credit the people of Tugun have tolerated massive disruptions over the past two years ... dirt, dust, noise and general interruption to their daily lives," she said.

The Desal Day will be held from 11am to 3pm at the Boyd Street playing fields.

Visitors will also be able to tour the plant in a small bus to see how sea water is turned into drinking water.

See - Testing time for desal's debut.