By Sophie Perri

Point Lowly Whyamma. Image: yewen yi

BHP Biliton’s proposed desalination plant for its Olympic Dam expansion is causing a stir as they prepare to erect the plant at Point Lowly near Whyalla.

The proposal has had 4600 submissions to its environmental impact statement and just this week, celebrity chef Simon Briant and Maggie Beer from ABC’s The Cook & The Chef cooked in Rundle Mall in protest to the plan.

They say it’s going to destroy the giant cuttlefish and the gulf prawn in Spencer Gulf and have damaging consequences on the seafood industry.

Local Greens MP Mike Parnell described the level of opposition surrounding the proposed plant.

“Point Lowly is not the right spot for a desalination plant because we cannot guarantee the protection of our wildlife… whether its wildlife like the giant Australian Cuttle Fish, or wildlife like commercial species of prawns and fish,” he said.

Mr Parnell was also in favour of high-profile Australian’s who have been speaking out against the plant’s development. “Having some celebrity chefs and other icons of the food industry such as Michael Angelakis who is one of the doyens of the Seafood industry in South Australia, having them weigh into it adds an extra level,” he said.

David Noonan, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, says across Australia desalination plants are going to cause problems.

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“Australia has essentially rolled over for major desalination corporate interests, and instead of conserving water and reusing storm water in our cities, which we could readily do, we are simply turning on the tap further and plugging in major energy-intensive gadgetry that will put us at cost either for significant increased fossil-fuel use and greenhouse emissions, or that it may simply use up and expend a lot of our additional and new renewable energy sources,” he said.

Mr Noonan was also concerned by the energy-intensive nature of the desalination plants stating that “The major desalination plant proposed for Sydney is said to be powered by offset wind power but the wind farms that they’re citing for that could instead have been used to power the homes of some quarter of the people who live in Canberra and the ACT.”

Despite the water shortage in Australia, Mr Noonan believes the proposed desalination plants to be a dangerous misuse of funds, “Desalination should be a solution of last resort. We should be using all our available means in water conservation in storm water capture and reuse rather than paying a very much higher price for water and locking us into high technology solutions that are potentially, seriously highly unnecessary for our urban communities.”

Sophie Perri is a Producer on 2SER’s The Wire