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Desalination but renewable only
We live on one of the driest continents and water is set to be the gold of the twenty first century. Desalination may well be part of the solution but it should not be seen as the solution. The decision to site a desalination plant at Point Lowly will cause not only unacceptable environment damage to land and Spencer Gulf with the release of hyper-saline solution, but it will be powered by fossil fuels, a non-renewable resource.
If we must have a desalination plant to supply us with water it should be a supplement to the recycling of all of our wastewater and not as a sole source of fresh water. However any water solution needs to address the drivers of our present water problems. These are uncontrolled human population growth and ever increasing consumption. Without addressing these, any solution will end up compounding our current problems rather than offering a long-term solution.
So if we are to have a desalination plant, where should it be located? The obvious choice is the west coast of the Eyre Peninsular where the plant can have a deep ocean outfall for the hyper-saline solution and where there is consistent wind to drive a wind farm to power it with renewable energy. We must do this for our children and grand children.
