Wayno wrote:The Pipeline officially opens tomorrow!
Opening 6 months ahead of schedule. I'm not surprised only 1/3rd of the water has customers (ACC for the parklands) at this point. Suspect more customers will arise once the parklands start looking green.
Warning: Typical AdelaideNow negative spin on what's a truly positive project.
A $75 MILLION project to pump billions of litres of treated wastewater into Adelaide and its parklands still lacks customers.
The 40km Glenelg-to-Adelaide pipeline, which includes 30km of piping around the parklands, is supposed to transfer up to 3.8 billion litres of water from the Glenelg wastewater treatment plant instead of flushing it out to sea, reducing the state's dependence on the River Murray.
The project - which the Sunday Mail understands has overrun its budget by about $2.5 million - is expected to be officially opened tomorrow by Premier Mike Rann.
SA Water, which is managing the project on behalf of the state and federal governments, has said only Adelaide City Council has so far agreed to tap into the piped water in the city.
The council is expected to use up to 1.3 billion litres to irrigate the parklands - leaving a considerable surplus.
SA Water spokeswoman Courtney Blacker said the utility was "in negotiations" with 30 potential customers for the remaining 2.5 billion litres, but would not disclose who they were.
The lack of customers for the wastewater pipeline project has cast doubt on the viability of the Adelaide Airport stormwater re-use scheme, due to launch in 2012 - the same year Mr Rann has declared water restrictions will end. The $9.8 million stormwater scheme - announced in June 2009 as part of the Government's Water for Good plan - will treat water from Brownhill and Keswick creeks by biofiltration, reportedly for use by the airport, industry and councils.
It is not certain if this water will ever replace drinking water - and therefore help increase Adelaide's water security. Originally planned to produce one billion litres of water a year, the airport project has apparently been downgraded to 400 million litres, and still has no customers locked in to use the water.
The Glenelg pipeline and airport projects are expected to compete for the same customers. The lack of committed customers for either project has raised doubts about the sense of the combined investment.
Documents submitted to Parliament's Public Works Committee have revealed the $9.8 million airport project cost does not include infrastructure to deliver the water to any users beyond the airport. The cost of laying pipes and retro-fitouts to accommodate a dual (mains/stormwater) supply will be the responsibility of customers - who may be several kilometres away.
It is not even certain the airport will be a customer, as access points to the Glenelg pipeline have been installed throughout the airport precinct.
An airport spokesman said the airport had "an option" to take 150 million litres from the Glenelg pipeline to cater for future expansion.
The airport master plan, which was approved last month, also revealed wastewater from the Glenelg pipeline "is sufficient to meet the demands of Master Plan developments" - raising doubt whether the airport would ever need the stormwater.
Ms Blacker said water from the stormwater scheme would be "supplied to local users to irrigate parks, ovals and (for) commercial purposes", but would not specify if any businesses were in talks to sign up.
She said the Glenelg pipeline had been delivered six months ahead of schedule, and any cost overruns were due to extra engineering work done to circumvent previously unknown infrastructure in the parklands.
Work on the pipeline began in September 2009. Wastewater will be treated at United Water's Glenelg wastewater treatment plant and piped towards the city.
Wow this sort of story really gets under my skin. This project is such a good news story - and very innovative mind you - and yet the newspaper bad mouths it with ignorant and incorrect comments. SA Water and the SA Govt should be applauded for taking a considerable risk in investing in recycled wastewater which, let's face it, is not looked upon favourably by the public as an alternative water source (even though the water quality is very good).
I am almost certain that once a few city business tap into the recyled mains network, other businesses will hear about it and jump onto the scheme. After all, it has the capability to significantly save them money on water bills - now there is a big incentive for big offices. Plus this treated wastewater will REPLACE potable water - sounds like a very positive story to me. I am baffled as to why the Adevertiser would not choose to portray it as such.
And regarding Adelaide Airport - I am involved in this project and could not believe the garbage that has been written about the project. Firstly, water is not being sourced from Keswick Creek - only Brownhill Creek. Secondly, the currently funded scheme was never meant to produce one billion litres of water a year. Thirdly, the statement "It is not certain if this water will ever replace drinking water" is ridiculous. The fact that the customers of the scheme will use treated stormwater instead of potable water (even if only to irrigate) EXACTLY MEANS THAT DRINKING WATER IS REPLACED!!! you dont need to be drinking the treated water for it to replace potable water! Fourthly, the line "still has no customers locked in to use the water" - the project funding was approved only 1 month ago. hence, the design of the scheme is in its EXTREMELY early stages. so naturally the pipeline route, water quality, flow rates, etc are nowhere near finalised. so how can customers be locked into contracts at this stage, when they do not even know if they are on the pipe route???
I think i have vented enough. the real motto of my post is that public sources of information (such as the advertiser) should be ashamed of themselves for printing incorrect information, and for portraying a hugely impressive project as such a negative. in the current situation (GFC, global warming, drought, etc) we really do need good news stories, and this one had the potential for Adelaide to be really proud of it.