Government wrong on desal-bloom links
It is with dismay that I read your article in the Times titled ‘Desal blooming’ (Port Lincoln Times, August 7).
In the article, the government and SA Water’s views about the cause of the current algae bloom in Gulf St Vincent are presented as facts, which they are not.
They claim in concert that the desalination plant at Port Stanvac is not to blame for the alga bloom.
No one had claimed that the desalination plant initially started the bloom, but there are reasons to believe that it is a contributing factor.
We know that in the past, similar toxic plankton blooms have occurred in conjunction with increased water run-off from the rivers.
To this day, neither the government nor SA Water have produced any scientific independent reports showing that the desalination plant has no effect.
Many times, the argument of ‘no effects’ has been repeatedly postulated with no reference to any scientific investigation.
As a matter of fact, there are studies clearly showing environmental effects, but these have been ignored.
The government and SA Water cannot escape the fact that desalination plants are polluting at an industrial scale.
Allow me to explain. A report from a SARDI plankton study characterise the impacts of desalination and that the alga causing the current bloom was found for the first time in the waters off Port Stanvac when the desalination plant was in operation.
The reference and the citations are here: Van Ruth, P.D. (2012). Adelaide Desalination Project Plankton Characterisation Study – Phase 2. Prepared for Adelaide Aqua. South Australia Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences, Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2010/000378-2. SARDI Research Report Series No. 606. 40 pp.
In the executive summary, Van Ruth writes: “Studies assessing the impact of desalination plants on marine ecosystems recognise that the intake can entrain plankton species. The brine discard from the desalination process also affects marine ecosystems, ultimately leading to changes in species composition, species diversity which may promote emergence/dominance of opportunistic or harmful species.
“It is possible that activities associated with the impact of the working desalination plant, such as increased entrainment in the intake structure of brine discard, will further change the ecology of the plankton in the region, and may promote blooms of harmful/toxic algae species…”
p. 31: HAB species detected in the Port Stanvac region in 2010-11 for the first time included the dinoflagellate Karenia micimotoi, a known cause of neurotoxic shellfish poisoning.” HAB = harmful algae bloom.
Then a report by the government also states the risks associated with desalination plant pollution.
This report has also been ignored by the government and SA Water when they against all advice decided to build a desalination plant in Port Lincoln.
An excerpt from the report is here:
DESALINATION (PORT BONYTHON), SIXTY FOURTH REPORT OF THE ENVIRONMENT, RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Published pursuant to s17(7) and s17(8) of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991 Hon JJ Snelling, Speaker 5 August 2009
3.1 What are the potential impacts?
– Energy use and resulting greenhouse gas production – the energy used in the desalination process is primarily electricity and heat. Large amounts of greenhouse gasses can be produced by desalination plants due to their high energy requirements.
– Entrainment (sucking in) or impingement (sucked up against screens at the intake area) of marine life: molluscs, weeds, algae, fish. Fish eggs, larvae and juveniles as well as plankton are especially susceptible to entrainment. Impinged organisms, typically juvenile or adult fish, usually die or suffer injury as a result of starvation, exhaustion, descaling by screen wash sprays, or asphyxiation.
– Waste – a heavily concentrated brine solution. After the brine solution is discharged into the sea, it has the potential to kill marine organisms through pollution (chemical and metal content) as well as rise in the salinity and temperature of coastal waters near the outlet.
In: South Australia’s Precious Inverse Estuaries: On the road to ruin – researchgate.net/publication/261174132
After discussing the environmental threats to the upper Spencer Gulf, professor Jochen Kemp writes: “In addition, a number of seawater desalination plants are proposed. Apart from BHP Billiton’s plant at Point Lowly, Breamar Alliance plans to construct a 50 gigalitres per year plants near Port Germein (20 km north of Port Pirie), and Centrex Metals a plant of the same size near Port Spencer. The biggest immediate environmental hazard of desalination brine discharges is the development of dead zones devoid of dissolved oxygen (Kämpf et al. 2009).” Kämpf J, Brokensha C, Bolton T (2009). Hindcasts of the fate of desalination brine in large inverse estuaries: Spencer Gulf and Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia. Desalination Water Treat 2:325–333.
A critical review has been published internationally in 2024. The review examines all published scientific papers on the ecological impacts of desalination plants.
This paper has been reviewed professionally, and the journal is highly respected for the quality of the science they publish.
The paper describes in detail all the impacts known to date and they are not trivial.
There are impacts of discarded brine and associated chemical additives, compounds which should never be in the marine environment.
This paper has also been ignored by the government and SA Water.
Ryan Sirota, Gidon Winters, Oren Levy, Joseane Marques, Adina Paytan, Jack Silverman,Guy Sisma-Ventura, Eyal Rahav, Gilad Antler, and Edo Bar-Zeev (2024). Impacts of desalination brine discharge on benthic ecosystems. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2024, 58, 5631−5645
Sadly, it is therefore unbelievable and unacceptable that the representatives from the government and SA Water publicly maintain their misconceptions.
It would be fair to suggest that both entities deliberately mislead the public.
Dr Ib Svane, marine ecologist
Billy Lights desal should not proceed
We are amongst many in Port Lincoln dreading the completion of the desalination plant on the edge of our marina and our magnificent Boston Bay.
Yes, we need a desalination plant, but not in Boston Bay.
As a past oyster grower for some 30 years, we experienced two devastating naturally occurring Karenia mikimotoi algal blooms in Coffin Bay impacting production for a year each time.
From our experience, this bloom is markedly different and far worse, definitely compounded by man-made factors.
We have also willingly given up unpaid business time to participate in every consultation process offered by the government on major issues relating to aquaculture, knowing we would often not be heard and ‘we’d had our chance’ if we didn’t participate.
The desalination plant consultation committee (including seafood businesses and agency stakeholders) agreed Sleaford Bay, exposed to fast moving cold oceanic waters, as the better site.
Yet the Malinauskas Government overturned this recommendation to save money.
Port Lincoln City Council also opposed its current location. Our voices are simply not heard and don’t matter.
We watched Mr Malinauskas answer questions on Channel 7 last week relating to the impact of the Adelaide desalination plant on the algal bloom.
He addressed salty water discharge but not increased temperature discharge, with increased temperature being an agreed major factor in this current bloom.
How much is recreational fishing and tourism, wild catch fisheries, and aquaculture industries, directly and indirectly, worth? Answer, billions!
But more importantly, how much is the health of our precious marine environment worth?
The evidence is mounting. Our SA gulfs are not the right locations for desalination plants.
Jill and Michael Coates, Port Lincoln
More research on algal bloom
After more research on algal blooms I found I was right! Copper oxychlorate in a weak solution will kill the algae bloom.
The muck washed up on the beaches should be sprayed with drones to kill the algae.
The heavily affected areas trapped in waterways should be sprayed as well.
Planes spraying the long streaks of the bloom in the ocean would also help.
Boats pumping the water through large pumps into the air to re-oxygenate the water would also help.
This bloom is like a fire; the source should have been attacked when it was first detected.
Similar to the Wangary and Kangaroo Island fires, where the actions to stop these fires was banned so the people near the fire and on the ground were not allowed to take action – feel proud Mr Malalinged Premier.
The 2009 report on the desalination plant at Port Lowly describes the killing of prawn larvae and also the cuttlefish eggs.
It also talks of the potential algal bloom being started by the plant. This is why BHP did not proceed.
The 2009 report stated these plants could cause very dangerous problems for the fishing industry.
An algal bloom in Proper Bay could decimate our fishing industry and create problems with our clean green marketing of our products.
Building artificial reefs seems to be like putting blinkers on the public so they do not see the main problem.
Jim Calderwood, Port Lincoln
Corporate control
What the people of Port Lincoln are being subjected to, might now be seen as an abuse of corporate power.
Despite the opposition from Eyre Peninsula councils, despite opposition and realistic concerns from the fishing and aquaculture industries, despite other scientific evaluation, despite public opinion, and despite having alternative sites available and having already purchased land at Sleaford Bay, the executives of SA Water pressed on with using the Billy Lights Point as their preferred location for a desal plant.
Added to all that, is the still unproven assurance of any future harm not being caused to the marine environment.
Now, the public are being exposed to traffic disruptions, damaged road surfaces, higher volumes of heavy vehicular movements and inconveniences to local businesses, schools and
residents.
What has also happened, due to SA Water’s delaying tactics, is the inevitable expense blowout that has taken the Billy Lights Point project beyond the initial argument of Sleaford Bay being too costly.
The imbalance between corporate power and community is being demonstrated on our doorstep.
Such might be the same scenario for the proposed rocket launching facility at Whalers Way.
Dennis Lightfoot, Lock
Desal and bloom science
As SARDI is the government expert on marine science, can they please confirm the following?
Does the discharge into the ocean of massive amounts of hypersaline water and toxic desalination cleaning chemicals have any direct or indirect effect on an algal bloom, either pre, during, or post-bloom outbreak?
SARDI was contracted by SA Water and produced the science that the proposed desal in shallow Boston Bay would have no effect on mussel spat entrainment or pose any risk to the marine environment.
The relationship between a bloom and the overall risk to the marine environment from desalination requires urgent attention, and all documentation released to the public.
Glen Ingham, Port Lincoln
