Will Gulf Desal poison us?

Local Greens Candidate for the Federal seat of Grey, Dr Andrew Melville-Smith welcomed the opportunity for Whyalla and the Upper Spencer Gulf to become an innovative water technology hub as a great companion to the mining industry, but cautioned about the specific location of desalination plants.

 

Dr Melville-Smith said, “Whilst the region’s construction, manufacturing and fabrication skills base makes it suitable for a water technology hub, the physical location of the desalination plants needs to be carefully considered.”

Andrew said, “Windesal should reconsider locating desalination plants in the Upper Spencer Gulf due to the high levels of heavy metals from 120 years industry.” He said the water produced could potentially be poisonous to drink, based on publicly available reports produced by the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

The EPA report titled ‘Heavy metal contamination in the northern Spencer Gulf – A community summary’ was published in April 2005. View it here.

He said “Either the EPA, all the research done by Universities, SARDI and the CSIRO is wrong, meaning their credibility is in shambles, or it is right – and upper gulf desalination should not proceed.

Quoting directly from the report, Dr Melville-Smith said page 2 states, ‘Studies conducted over a number of decades have shown elevated levels of metals in the upper section of the gulf.’ And that page 5 states, ‘While improved industrial practices in the region have reduced heavy metal emissions, there are still large quantities being released into the gulf.’

He said, “It is an established scientific fact that Lead Smelters, Steelworks and Coal Fire Power Stations are some of the biggest environmental polluters in terms of discharge of heavy metals into the environment.” See the map on right.

“Everyone knows about Port Pirie’s historical and present issues of high lead levels in children's blood.  This indicates the environmental incidence of lead is at a level that can be detrimental to human health.  If this lead dust is getting onto the land and into children's blood, it is a safe bet there is a steady stream of Lead entering Spencer Gulf.”

“Its great to hear Windesals continued interest in the region, but the Gulf is an inverse estuary – and this means low flushing, so contamination released into the environment remains there.”

Any new industry established in the Upper Spencer Gulf region must therefore consider the current sea water quality, the potential impact of it and the total, combined impact on it of all existing and new developments.

A recent episode of the ABC’s CATALYST program (Thursday 3rd June 2010) had a story about Sydney Harbour and how heavy metal contaminants remain in sediments for many years and are easily re-mobilised by tide action.  Andrew said, “The same processes will in all likelihood apply to our Gulf.”

“The most viable location for us is the West Coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Here we can access high volumes of continually flushed, clean sea water, 100% renewable wind power and we can return the hypersaline waste water to the Great Australia Bight with minimal environmental impact.”

“The resource super profits tax (RSPT), once the bugs are ironed out, should give us the funding for a capable desalination project like this.”

“This would provide water for mining so that can get one with what they do best, mining, water for the Eyre Peninsula communities and secure, sustainable infrastructure in place for our children to use in the future.” Below: Major cause of heavy metal contamination of the Upper Spencer Gulf, The Port Augusta power station.