A Sustainability Strategy for a Desalination Plant
Abstract
South East Queensland is one of the fastest growing regions in the southern hemisphere. It also has a deepening water crisis, with the major dam supplying the region’s water at 28% capacity.
The authors were part of the team designing a 125 ML/day desalination plant to be located at Tugun on the Gold Coast. The plant was required as a reliable, new source of bulk potable water for the SEQ region. Upon commissioning, it will be the equal largest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere, and the only one situated on Australia’s eastern seaboard. This iconic piece of water infrastructure was to be sited, designed and operated along sustainability principles, which required a sustainability strategy for the plant to be developed.
This immediately raised the question: what does a sustainability strategy for a desalination plant consist of? What are its boundaries and critical elements? How does it meet the challenge of many community and other stakeholders' views that desalination plants are unsustainable?
This paper explores both the process of how the sustainability strategy was constructed, together with the key components and outputs. It also attempts to address perhaps the most important question: did it make a difference? How did undertaking this strategy influence key elements of the plant’s siting, design and operation?
Authors
Susanne Cooper, Alan Davie & Ralph Burch