Proposed Adelaide Desalination Plant

176 Pages·2009·2.79 MB·English

Proposed Adelaide
Desalination Plant
Environmental Impact
Statement

Response Document
January 2009

Contents
1  Introduction 1 
1.1  Background to Project 1 
1.1.1  Need for the Project 1 
1.2  Public Notification of the Proposed Development 2 
1.3  Submissions Received 2 
1.4  Structure of the Response Document 4 
2  Project Status 6 
2.1  The EIS Process 6 
2.2  Purpose of the EIS 8 
2.3  Project Update 9 
2.3.1  Additional Reports 9 
2.4  Environmental Management Plans 9 
3  Response to Major Issues 11 
3.1  Need for Desalination 11 
3.1.1  Need for Desalination Plant 11 
3.2  Consideration of Other Water Sources 13 
3.2.1  Alternatives to Desalination 13 
3.3  Economic Issues 17 
3.3.1  Costs and Water Price Increases 17 
3.3.2  Local Development and Employment Opportunities 18 
3.3.3  Additional Costs for Plant Expansion 18 
3.3.4  Volume of Water for Various Operational Scenarios 19 
3.3.5  Operations and Maintenance Arrangements and / or Shut
Down Costs 19 
3.4  EIS Process 21 
3.4.1  Assessment of EIS 21 
3.5  Planning and Environmental Legislation 23 
3.5.1  Assessment of the Desalination Plant 23 
3.5.2  Impacts of the Plant on Adjacent Uses 24 
3.5.3  Proposed Coastal Conservation Zone 24 
3.5.4  Desalination Plants as a Prescribed Activity 25 
3.5.5  Objectives of Fisheries Management Act and Marine
Parks Act 25 
3.5.6  Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Plan 26 
3.6  Site Selection 27 
3.6.1  Site Selection Process 27 
3.6.2  Proximity of Plant to Cliff Edge 29 
3.7  Energy and Carbon Neutrality 32 
3.7.1  Energy Requirements / Greenhouse Footprint 32 
3.7.2  Carbon Neutrality 36 
3.7.3  Renewable Energy 37 
3.7.4  Climate Change 39 
3.7.5  Sustainability 40 
3.8  Management Strategies 41 
3.8.1  Management Arrangements 41 

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3.8.2  CEMMP and OEMMP Preparation Criteria 42 
3.8.3  Contamination Management 42 
3.8.4  Waste Management Arrangements 43 
3.8.5  Storage and Spill Management Plans 43 
3.8.6  Native Vegetation Management 44 
3.8.7  Council Infrastructure 45 
3.8.8  Cliff Face Management 45 
3.8.9  Soil Erosion and Drainage Management Plan (SEDMP) 45 
3.9  Risks/Hazards 50 
3.9.1  Chemicals Management 50 
3.9.2  Fire Management 51 
3.9.3  Site Safety 51 
3.9.4  Corrosivity of Water 52 
3.10  Stakeholder Engagement 53 
3.10.1  Community and Stakeholder Issues 53 
3.10.2  Consultation Feedback 54 
3.11  Kaurna People 56 
3.11.1  Kaurna Consultation 56 
3.12  Community Impacts 57 
3.12.1  Social Impacts 57 
3.12.2  Residential Areas 60 
3.12.3  Housing Impacts 61 
3.12.4  Child Care 62 
3.12.5  Recreation 62 
3.12.6  RSPCA Animal Shelter 63 
3.12.7  Impacts on Adjoining Uses 63 
3.13  Terrestrial Flora and Fauna 65 
3.13.1  Habitat Conservation and Rehabilitation 65 
3.13.2  EPBC Matters 67 
3.13.3  Flora and Fauna Assessment 74 
3.13.4  Regulatory Compliance 77 
3.14  Visual Amenity 79 
3.14.1  Visual Assessment 79 
3.14.2  Artist Impressions 79 
3.14.3  Landscape Plan 80 
3.15  Traffic and Access Issues 81 
3.15.1  Traffic and Access Routes 81 
3.15.2  Green Travel Plan 82 
3.16  Noise, Dust, Odour and Waste Management 83 
3.16.1  Impacts During Construction and Operation 83 
3.16.2  Impact on Adjacent Community 84 
3.17  Geology, Soils, Surface Water and Groundwater 85 
3.17.1  Impacts on Geological Formations 85 
3.17.2  Impacts on Groundwater 85 
4  Response to Marine Issues 87 
4.1  Marine Hydrodynamic Modelling 87 
4.1.1  Modelling Approach 88 
4.1.2  Oceanography 93 
4.1.3  Nearfield 106 

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4.1.4  Midfield 114 
4.1.5  Whole of Gulf 125 
4.2  Marine Ecology 129 
4.2.1  Impact on Marine Species and Communities 129 
4.2.2  Marine Risk Assessment and Analysis 135 
4.3  Water and Sediment Quality 137 
4.3.1  Validity and rationale of the water quality testing
undertaken to inform the Adelaide Desalination Project 137 
4.3.2  Potential Discharge Impacts on Receiving Water and
Sediment Quality 138 
4.4  Ecotoxicology 144 
4.4.1  Potential for impact from the saline concentrate (and its
constituents) upon the marine ecology of Port Stanvac
and Gulf St Vincent. 144 
4.4.2  Ecotoxicity Testing Program 145 
4.4.3  Ecotoxicity impacts from the drilling mud utilised during
construction of the proposed Desalination Plant 148 
4.5  Dredging and Blasting 149 
4.5.1  Sediment and turbidity issues during construction 149 
4.5.2  Impacts on Marine Environment from Dredging and
Blasting 150 
4.6  Marine Management and Monitoring 152 
4.6.1  Construction in the Marine Environment 152 
4.6.2  Baseline monitoring 152 
4.6.3  Future Monitoring 156 
5  Conclusion 161 
6  Glossary 162 
7  References 168 
Appendix A – Summary of Issues  
Appendix B – Draft CEMMP  
Appendix C – ITRP Statement  
Appendix D – EPBC Notice  
Appendix E – Artists’ Impressions  
Appendix F – Ecotoxicology Report  
Appendix G – Marine Ecological Characterisation Study  
Appendix H – Water Quality Characterisation Survey  
Appendix I – Habitat Survey  

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vi Proposed Adelaide Desalination Plant - EIS Response Document
1 Introduction
This Response Document has been prepared in accordance with Section 46B (8) of the
South Australian Development Act 1993 as the South Australian Water Corporation’s
formal response to matters raised during the public notification period for the proposed
Adelaide Desalination Plant Environmental Impact Statement.
1.1 Background to Project
The proposed Adelaide Desalination Plant will be located at Port Stanvac, approximately
30 kilometres south of the Adelaide Central Business District. The proponent is the
South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water) and the proposal is to establish a
seawater Desalination Plant comprising the following elements:
• A Desalination Plant based on reverse osmosis technology, with an initial capacity of
50 GL of drinking water per annum (or 150 ML/day) incorporating infrastructure for
100 GL of drinking water per annum (or 300 ML/day); and
• Intake and outfall pipelines and structures to draw seawater into the facility and return
saline concentrate to Gulf St Vincent.
1.1.1 Need for the Project
The primary objective of the proposed Desalination Plant is to secure and diversify the
sources of metropolitan Adelaide’s water supply by delivering a climate independent
supply of water. As discussed throughout the EIS, the security of Adelaide’s water
supply is a matter of critical concern to the South Australian community, particularly in
light of the substantially reduced flows into metropolitan Adelaide’s water reservoirs and
the Murray-Darling Basin experienced in recent years as a result of climate change and
severe drought. Based on analysis of the most recent and reliable information available,
the dramatic reduction of inflows into the Murray-Darling Basin catchment is expected to
worsen and result in an average decline of 30 GL per annum.
The South Australian (SA) Government established the Desalination Working Group
(DWG) in March 2007 to investigate water security options including the feasibility of
developing a Desalination Plant to augment metropolitan Adelaide’s water supply. The
DWG study recommended that a Desalination Plant be built to increase the security of
metropolitan Adelaide’s water supply system with the SA Government subsequently
announcing its decision to construct the proposed Desalination Plant in December 2007.
A number of submissions to the EIS have queried the need for the proposed
Desalination Plant and called for a greater consideration of other potential water sources
to secure Adelaide’s water supply into the future. SA Water’s response to this issue is
discussed in detail in Section 3.1, although it is worth noting that the SA Government
announced a suite of water security measures that have been carefully developed to
improve the reliability and diversity of water sources and avoid reliance on any one
source. For instance, the Water Proofing Adelaide Strategy and the Four-Way Water
Security Strategy both seek to increase the reliability and security of Adelaide’s water
supply while reducing our reliance on the Mount Lofty Ranges and River Murray systems
which are currently experiencing severe stress after a period of prolonged drought. The
Four-Way Strategy in particular involves measures to diversify Adelaide’s water supply
as follows:

Proposed Adelaide Desalination Plant - EIS Response Document 1
• Demand management: Reducing the overall demand for water through a host of
water conservation measures, a water pricing regime that encourages people and
households to use less water, water efficiency plans for industry and a $24 million
rebates package;
• Recycling: Increasing the amount of treated stormwater and wastewater used for
irrigation, watering of parks and gardens, flushing of toilets and other non-drinking
uses;
• Catchment management: Improving the health of our river systems and water
catchments, including the River Murray, is a key element in enhancing Adelaide’s
water supply. SA Water is also investigating the potential to increase the storage
capacity of the Mount Lofty Ranges.
• Desalination: Ensuring that there is at least one climate independent water source to
better manage, diversify and secure Adelaide’s water supply into the future.
This suite of water supply measures demonstrates the SA Government’s commitment to
ongoing investment and upgrade of Adelaide’s water supply system in order to reduce
dependence on any one source. This will ensure that Adelaide’s residents and
businesses continue to benefit from a secure, reliable and balanced water supply system
well into the future.
1.2 Public Notification of the Proposed Development
The project was gazetted as a Major Development on 17 April 2008 and an
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was prepared by SA Water outlining the proposal
and providing detailed and comprehensive information of its potential impacts and
management/mitigation strategies to address these impacts. The EIS was lodged by
SA Water on 11 November 2008 and was publicly notified in accordance with the
provisions of Section 46 of the South Australian (SA) Development Act 1993. The public
notification process provided the public and Government agencies with an opportunity to
examine the EIS and provide a submission to SA Water over a 6-week period between
12 November and 24 December 2008. This Response Document summarises the
issues and questions raised in the submissions and provides SA Water’s response to
these issues and questions.
1.3 Submissions Received
A total of thirty nine (39) submissions were received in response to the proposed
Adelaide Desalination Plant Environmental Impact Statement. These submissions
comprised:
• Thirteen (13) SA Government agency submissions.
• Twenty Six (26) Public submissions.
The submissions are listed in the Table 1.1 below with ‘G’ and ‘P’ signifying Government
and Public submissions respectively.

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Table 1.1 Submissions received

ID Number Source of Submissions
G1 Department for Environment and Heritage
G2 Department of Planning and Local Government
G3 City of Marion
G4 City of Onkaparinga
G5 Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation
G6 Department of Health
G7 Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board
G8 Department for Families and Communities
G9 South Australian Research and Development Institute
G10 Environment Protection Authority
G11 Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure
G12 Department of Trade and Economic Development
G13 Native Vegetation Council
P1 Sue Collins
P2 South Australian Recreational Fishing Advisory Council Inc
P3 Roger Grund, Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc
P4 Conservation Council of South Australia Inc
P5 Joy Forrest
P6 Patricia Walsh
P7 Christopher Stain
P8 Kim Thomson
P9 Name Withheld on request of Author
P10 Ralf Grandison
P11 Peter Tapley

Proposed Adelaide Desalination Plant - EIS Response Document 3
P12 Viv Rayner
P13 Daniel Drew
P14 Environmental Defenders Office (SA) Inc
P15 Dr Kirsten Benkendorff
P16 Trevor Pearce
P 17 Friends of Gulf St Vincent (John Caldecott)
P18 S.A. Ward
P19 Mark Parnell MLC (Australian Greens)
P20 Save Our Gulf Coalition (Peter Laffan)
P21 South Australian Blue Crab Pot Fishers Assoc Inc (Justin Phillips)
P22 Gulf St Vincent Prawn Fishery Licence Holders (Justin Phillips)
P23 Lenore Bienert
P24 Alison Rawling
P25 J R Lewis
P26 Friends of Willunga Basin
1.4 Structure of the Response Document
The Response Document has been structured to provide a readily accessible and easy
to follow account of the submissions received on the proposed Adelaide Desalination
Plant EIS as well as SA Water’s response to those submissions. A brief description of
each chapter is presented below:
• Chapter 1: Introduction provides background information about the proposed
Desalination Plant and details the number of public and Government agency
submissions received during the 6-week public notification period.
• Chapter 2: Project Status details the EIS assessment process and clarifies the role
of this Response Document in the assessment of the proposed development. This
chapter also provides an update of the project, details additional reports of studies
undertaken to support the project and discusses the Environmental Management
Plans to be implemented during construction and operation of the proposed
Desalination Plant.
• Chapter 3: Response to Major Issues provides SA Water’s response to terrestrial
environmental, social, economic and management issues raised in the submissions
received from Government agencies and the public.

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