The Western Australian Premier's 29 July press release announcing the go ahead for a reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination plant for Perth is below  the list of cities.
This page sets out Perth Water Users comments on the Premiers 29 July  2004 go ahead for RO desalination plant  

[1]   The Premier says; "The threat of a drying climate is with us now...".
We say that of course there is broad agreement that rainfall in SW Western Australia declined from the mid-1970's.   Water resource planners have had decades to come to terms with this new less variable rain regime. Data shows that since 1975 rainfall in Perth and catchment areas has reduced about 10% and has become less variable without the extremes of wet and dry years seen pre-1975.
Another perfectly valid view of the Perth rainfall history would be to say that the period 1915 to 1950 was an exceptional wet period characterized by the highest rainfall years with few years below 800 mm.   Perhaps the years pre 1915 and post 1975 are more normal.   See http://www.warwickhughes.com/water/  for graphic of Perth rainfall history 1876 to 2003.  Since when do we run State policy on the basis of data from more than 50 years ago ???

[2]   The Premier says;  "This will be the eighth year in succession that our rainfall has been significantly below average."
On the basis that only the years from 1975 should be considered because that is the rainfall regime we are experiencing, the average post 1975 for Perth is 791 mm and four of the last eight years have exceeded this.

1975-2003 seasonal rainfall for Perth

1975-2003 seasonal rainfall for Dwellingup

We say to the Premier and the WaterCorp,  stop quoting irrelevant pre-1975 rain data to justify current policy and the WaterCorp should stop wasting money on monthly media adverts showing Perth rainfall, when it is Darling Ranges rainfall that flows into dams.

[3]   The Premier also says; "Dr Gallop said the decision to go ahead was the culmination of years of research by the Water Corporation."
We remind the Premier that, reports by WaterCorp presented at the 2002 Water Symposium only mentioned desalination as a distant option for the future. In most development scenarios out to 2030 desalination is not included.
So we suggest that there has been a panic and a rush to bring forward the expensive desalination option and that WaterCorp have had all of their large range of other planning options vetoed by the Government dominated by Green dogmas and over rosy views on the reliability of  CSIRO climate model predictions..

[4]   The Premier goes on; "Our run of dry winters has driven our quest to investigate alternative water sources," he said.
We say rainfall data for Perth and Dwellingup, see graphics above,  shows there has been no "...run of dry winters...",  or for that matter dry run of any relevant season.  We ask, what is the Premier talking about ?

[5]   We wonder if the Premier realizes that despite a very poor start to the year rainfall for the months May to July 2004 (which does impact dam inflows) for the stations Mundaring, Karnet and Dwellingup that are near catchments has been  average for the post 1975 period.

[6]   We do not understand why the Premier and WaterCorp refuse to thin Perth catchments bush   There would be no "water crisis" if catchment vegetation had been managed over the decades to maintain flows with the interests of  Perth water consumers in mind. WaterCorp figures show 40 GL could be gained, which is on par with RO plant 45 GL.  The continuing clogging of  catchments with scrub will steadily reduce inflow rates in future years,  cancelling out any advantage gained from the RO plant.

[7]   Perth water catchments are only about 10 to 15% of SW forested areas and any thought that thinning some scrub can adversely affect regional wildlife and flora values has to be plainly ludicrous.  But then, that's the Greens for you.

[8]   We are puzzled that the WRC in 2000 found there were 1181 GL of potential sustainable yield groundwater available in the SW in the 3 main layers.
How come we can not find 45 GL PA ?
Two main reasons come to mind, assuming the recent evaluations were competently done. At every stage in considering any option, climate change "projections" are used to cut back future resources.
At the same time as "arm-waving" Green mantras lacking in scientific rigour are easy to throw up as objections to this or that option.
Whatever the exact reasons, the net result is that from this huge resource we can not utilise a 25th of what is stated by experts to be there.

[9]   There are engineering proposals by Agritech to use RO desalination to treat Wellington dam brackish water, currently wasted to sea, on a scale of the 45 GL proposed for the Rockingham RO plant and we wonder if this far cheaper option has been fairly considered.

[10]   We should be engaging the best international operators to trial cloud seeding utilising all the most up to date technology and research results. This is so cheap, low impact and only needs to have a low success rate to impact dam inflows with water worth many times the circa $1Million annual cost.

[11]   That the RO plant will add 6% to electricity loads has to be of concern considering our rickety power generation infrastucture.

[12]   RO technology is not without risk and costs might exceed initial estimates, as we have seen in recent times Government estimates for simple things like railway tunnels under Perth proved  hopelessly wrong.

[13]   We think it possible that Gallop Government will become famous internationally  for turning to the expensive seawater desalination option without sound reason.   Many cities around the world get by with rainfall near or lower than Perth
Some examples quickly pulled off the WWW with annual mean rainfall in mm.
Athens, Greece, 371
Los Angeles   302
Capetown 612.5
London Gatwick 611.3
Kew Gardens 615
Edinburgh  661
Birmingham  673
Rome Italy 792.9
Berlin 588.7
Ankara   374
Toronto 765
Moscow Russia 601
Beijing     635
Baghdad  154.8
Tehran, Iran, 240
San Fransisco  500
Cairo Egypt 28
Lima, Peru 20
Denver 391
Christchurch, NZ 647
Melbourne  656
Valparaiso, Chile 395,
Mexico City  634
Of course cities have always got their public water supplies from the most economical source, which may be dams, rivers or underground. We ask,  how many cities with 790 mm average rainfall and convenient dam sites nearby are turning to the desalination option ?

Desalination plant to become a vital source for State's water supply


29/7/04

Premier Geoff Gallop has announced that the State's next major water source will be a desalination plant to be built at Kwinana.

Dr Gallop said work on the $350million project would begin immediately to help secure future water supplies for Western Australia's Integrated Water Supply Scheme.

The plant would be built and owned by the Water Corporation and would provide an additional 45 gigalitres of water into the Integrated Scheme - or an additional 17 per cent annually.

When complete in 2006, it would be the biggest desalination plant in the southern hemisphere and would complement dams and groundwater schemes as a third water source for Perth, parts of the South-West and towns serviced through the Goldfields Pipeline to Kalgoorlie Boulder.

The Premier said the State Government would be playing Russian roulette with our future if the project did not proceed.

"The threat of a drying climate is with us now and desalination is a proven technology capable of delivering large quantities of water independent of the weather," he said.

"This will be the eighth year in succession that our rainfall has been significantly below average.

"Both our underground and surface water supplies are not being recharged to the appropriate levels.

"Desalination gives us a weather independent source and will bring balance to our portfolios of water sources. It will also reduce the risk of introducing job destroying sprinkler bans that would undermine the amenity of our beautiful city."

The project will create up to 200 jobs during construction and is expected to be delivering water within two years. WA will be the first State in Australia to use desalination as a major source for a public water supply scheme.

The impact of the project on water pricing will not be decided until the 2006-07 Budget and will take into consideration final project costs and the Economic Regulation Authority's report on water pricing.

It is estimated that the impact on the average household bill will be less than a dollar a week.

Dr Gallop said the decision to go ahead was the culmination of years of research by the Water Corporation.

"Our run of dry winters has driven our quest to investigate alternative water sources," he said.

"An alternative proposal to pipe 45 gigalitres of water a year from the South-West Yarragadee aquifer is currently not a viable option, because ongoing investigations into the environmental impact would not be completed for some time."

The desalination plant will use a reverse osmosis technique employed successfully in the Middle East, Spain, Malta, Cyprus and the USA. It is widely regarded as the most economically and environmentally friendly desalination technique.

Reverse osmosis is a process in which the seawater diffuses through a series of membranes at extremely high pressure, which remove salts and impurities from the water. It is used on most ocean-going vessels (including cruise ships and navy vessels) and by industries that require very pure water. The Swan Brewery, for instance, uses the reverse osmosis technique in its Canning Vale plant.

Dr Gallop said the water from the desalination plant would be of an equal, or superior, quality to the current water sources which supplied the Integrated Water Supply Scheme.

This decision comes on top of a range of initiatives that have been taken by the Government since coming into office, including:

the highly successful rebate program for households;
construction of a wastewater reclamation plant in Kwinana;
the creation of additional capacity from our traditional underground and surface sources; and
water trading within farms in the South-West.
Sprinkler restrictions have been introduced but total sprinkler bans have been avoided.

Government Enterprises Minister Nick Griffiths said he was pleased the desalination plan was set to become a reality.

"I have been a great supporter of desalination and given the reduced rainfall the South-West of the State is experiencing, it is a responsible course of action," Mr Griffiths said.

The chief executive officer of the Water Corporation, Dr Jim Gill, said the greenhouse emissions associated with the desalination plant would be completely offset by the Water Corporation.

"The Water Corporation is already recognised as a national leader in greenhouse gas abatement through its energy efficiency, renewable energy and carbon sequestration initiatives," Dr Gill said.

"We will now take on a new challenge - to entirely offset the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the energy used by the desalination plant.

"At this stage we are looking at planting trees in the salinity-prone catchments to offset the greenhouse gas emissions, reduce salinity and improve water quality."

Premier's office: 9222 9475