A protest at sea off Port Lincoln has been held to vehemently oppose the South Australian Government’s $90 million plans to build a desalination plant close to the city’s major aquaculture industries.

Key points:

  • Tourism and fishing interests oppose SA Water’s plans for a desalination plant at Billy Lights Point
  • There are environmental concerns about hyper saline discharge entering surrounding shallow bays
  • Water supply on Eyre Peninsula has been an issue for decades

Eight vessels took part as tourism operators and recreational fishers joined commercial fishers to show their opposition to SA Water’s proposed site at Billy Lights Point.

The protesters have environmental concerns that hyper saline water discharged from the proposed site will pollute Port Lincoln’s protected and shallow bays, and have a negative impact on surrounding aquaculture farms.

Stehr Group founder and leader in the tuna industry Hagen Stehr said the proposed site could seriously jeopardise South Australia’s major fishing industry.

“You’re blowing it all up, what for?” he said. 

Tuna leader Hagen Stehr said the proposed site could jeopardise South Australia’s major fishing industry.(Evelyn Leckie)

“It should not happen, it can’t happen, because somebody has to take the consequences and the consequences will happen.”

Bay can’t cope: scientist

Flinders University oceanographer Jochem Kaempf said earlier that SA Water’s draft documents submitted on the proposal do not seem to be familiar with environmental impacts. 

“The Boston Bay and Proper Bay area have a poor connectivity to the ambient Gulf waters, so these regions are not suitable for the discharge of any pollutants,” Mr Kaempf said.

Mr Kaempf said the Port Lincoln fish kills of 1996 from a large-scale phytoplankton bloom were scientific evidence that showed a lack of “flushing” in the protected bay areas.

“All the results of these studies are there, the scientific evidence that you need is there to argue not to discharge desalination brine into these shallow sheltered bays,” he said.

Federal weigh-in

Independent senator Rex Patrick met with the stakeholders to inspect the proposed Billy Lights Point site and said that at face value it was not the right position for a desalination plant.

“This isn’t the right site, it’s got too much industry around it, it doesn’t seem to have the flows necessary to clear discharge,” Mr Patrick said. 

Senator Rex Patrick met with concerned industry stakeholders close to the proposed site.(Supplied: Mark Thomas)

Suitable location

SA Water general manager of sustainable infrastructure Amanda Lewry said the department acknowledged the concerns of local industries.

“We have assessed 20 sites around Port Lincoln and lower parts of the peninsula for a potential new location for the plant, with a site at Billy Lights Point firming up as the preferred location, as it best satisfies our range of criteria,” she said.

Ms Lewry said there was existing scientific data about the nearby Boston and Proper bays.

“The monitoring and analysis we complete through the development and approval processes will build upon this, and be assessed by independent regulators.

“What we already know is that a new desalination plant at Billy Lights Point would draw a total of 30 megalitres of water from the ocean each day, which is 0.0017 per cent of the volume of the bays. 

“Preliminary independent oceanographic modelling shows saline concentrate from the plant will be adequately dispersed using a series of specialised diffusers, assisted by a flushing rate in the bays many times greater than what the plant will discharge.”

In June 2020 it was announced construction would begin on the desalination plant in early 2021.

Posted , updated