Sydney's Kurnell desalination plant nears completion ...

Four years after former NSW premier Bob Carr announced plans to build it to drought-proof Sydney, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the project is on track to begin operating this summer.

At full capacity, it will supply 15 per cent of Sydney's water supplies each year.

Water will be sucked from the sea and cleansed of salt by a process that is so thorough the result will be too pure to be piped straight into the existing system.

As a result, the operation will include another step where vital elements and minerals are added back into the finished product so it matches the existing water supply.

The desalination plant, dubbed Sydney's water factory by workers there, is now 80 per cent complete. Testing is due to begin in June.

It comprises a maze of underground and deep-sea tunnels connected to a filtration plant.

The final links are an 18km pipeline which will connect the plant to Sydney's water supply at Erskineville, which is one-third built, and an 8km deep-sea pipe, construction of which is due to begin this week.
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See - Sunday Telegraph - Wraps off Sydney's desalination plant.