Coast Desalination Plant to supplement Brisbane’s drinking water

The Gold Coast Desalination Plant will run at increased capacity for up to three months as upgrade works are undertaken at one of Brisbane’s largest water treatment plants.

The plant will provide up to 133 million litres per day into the SEQ Water Grid – or up to 25% of Brisbane and Ipswich’s daily drinking water supply – while the Mt Crosby East Bank Water Treatment Plant is off line undergoing the first phase of a major upgrade.

The Water Grid also will be used to move water from the Sunshine Coast into Brisbane to help supplement supply during the upgrade works.

Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Dr Anthony Lynham said the project highlighted the importance of the desalination plant beyond emergencies and drought response.

“Having the desalination plant and the Water Grid available provides significant security of supply during times when we need to take major water treatment plants offline,” Dr Lynham said.

“It allows critical works to be undertaken in a cost-effective and efficient way.

“This is about being smart in how we use our water assets.’’

Seqwater Acting Chief Executive Officer Dan Spiller said the Mt Crosby plants were critical, supplying up to 50% of the region’s drinking water each day.

“The Mt Crosby East Bank and West Bank water treatment plants are the primary source of drinking water for the greater Brisbane and Ipswich areas and are increasingly being used to supply water to the Sunshine Coast. The plants have the largest production capacity of any across the region,” Mr Spiller said.

“The availability of climate-resilient assets like the desalination plant and the Water Grid helps us continue to deliver a safe and reliable drinking water supply while important upgrade works are performed.”

Project work for the Mt Crosby plants include replacing valves, installing a new stand-by generator, design investigations for a planned filter upgrade, replacing critical infrastructure and inspecting the condition of assets.

Mr Spiller said the desalination plant also was vital to the region’s drought response and would be operated at full capacity when the region’s dam levels drop to 60% capacity.

It also has been used in times of extreme weather events such as floods or cyclones where there may be water supply constraints or water quality issues.

During the past three years the desalination plant has been used on a number of occasions as the sole supply for 170,000 residents on the southern end of the Gold Coast while local treatment plants were offline for upgrades and maintenance.

Based on population growth and demand, the plant may be required to supplement peak demand on the Gold Coast during the summer as early as 2020.

Media enquiries: David Potter 0428 411 617

Gold Coast Desalination Plant facts

•          The desalination plant was built in 2010 and operates in ‘hot standby’ mode, ready to increase production if and when required. While in standby mode, it can reach 100 per cent capacity in 72 hours.
•          When running at 100 per cent capacity, the Gold Coast Desalination Plant can contribute 133 million litres of water a day (equivalent to 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools) to South East Queensland’s drinking water supplies.
•          The plant uses energy recovery devices to improve the energy efficiency of producing drinking water.
•          Seawater is filtered through a four-metre mushroom-like inlet structure on the seabed, one kilometre off the coast. Fish and marine animals are not drawn in, as the flow into the inlet is slower than the current.
•          The plant uses a process called reverse osmosis (RO), which forces the filtered sea water, at high pressure, through thousands of pressure vessels that contain semi-permeable membranes to remove all impurities, including salt and other minerals.
•          There are slightly less than 17,000 membrane elements at Gold Coast Desalination Plant.