Premier unveils multibillion-dollar desalination plant plans to avoid recycled water debate

A new $8bn desalination plant for Queensland will likely be built between Caloundra and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, the Premier has revealed. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

• ‘Idiotic’: Fury as Premier’s plan savaged

A new $8bn desalination plant for Queensland will likely be built between Caloundra and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, the Premier has revealed.

Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday confirmed reports in The Courier-Mail a desalination plant, thought to cost up to $8bn, would be built north of Brisbane - likely in the Sunshine Coast council area - as part of SEQ Water’s 30-year plan.

The desalination plant will be built by 2035 - three years after the region’s Olympic Games.

Ms Palaszczuk, an advocate for desalination over recycled water, said a second facility would complement the existing Gold Coast Desalination Plant and ensure the region’s resilience in drought and flooding.

She said the existing Western Corridor Recycled Water scheme would “remain as an insurance policy” for industrial and agricultural businesses.

The project was endorsed by Cabinet on Monday.

Construction of the plant allows Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to avoid a politically sensitive debate about adding recycled water to the region’s drinking supply for household consumption.

The decision comes following months of disagreement between Ms Palaszczuk and Water Minister Glenn Butcher, first reported by The Courier-Mail in August 2022, over the significant cost of desalination at the expense of using more recycled water.

A business case on the desalination plant to determine a more accurate cost is expected to soon get underway.

Water Minister Glenn Butcher said desalination would improve “climate resilience” by pumping water directly into the grid, rather than dams.

“We lose hundreds of thousands of megalitres off our dams each year through evaporation,” he said.

Mr Butcher said purified recycled water was being used by Queensland industry “right now” and Seqwater would investigate its use in agriculture.

“All of this reduces the draw down on Wivenhoe Dam here in southeast Queensland,” he said.

Queensland Water Minister Glenn Butcher. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Ms Palaszczuk, a member of parliament and later minister during the millennium drought, advocated splashing cash for the construction of a new desalination plant to avoid restarting a public debate about recycled water within 12 months from an election.

It put her at odds with Mr Butcher, who has privately lobbied for the increased use of existing infrastructure to treat wastewater, noting it was something “countries around the world continue to use”.

Construction of the new multibillion-dollar desalination plant could also add up to 15 per cent to residents’ water bills to cover the cost.

Tuesday’s release of the updated SEQ Water Plan is thought to centre around the increased use of desalination and notes the affects climate change is having on the reliability of dams for long-term water storage.

The Tugun desalination plant.

Under the plan water from the new desalination plant would be pumped directly into the water grid, avoiding evaporation from Wivenhoe Dam.

This, one person familiar with the plan said, would allow Wivenhoe to sit emptier, creating a “greater flood buffer”.

The government is also expected to promote better use of existing water infrastructure, including the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme, to ensure continued long-term water security.

Then-premier Peter Beattie and then-deputy premier Anna Bligh with recycled water at the Advance Wastewater Treatment Plant at Bundamba.

Ms Palaszczuk said the exact location of the desalination plant was yet to be confirmed but said an option that had been mooted was Kawana – a Sunshine Coast area between Caloundra and Maroochydore.

She said the process to decide on the location will be similar to how the Tugun desalination plant was settled.

“It was worked out in conjunction with the council, and the government and SEQ Water,” the Premier said.

“My understanding is that it will happen with relation to whereabouts on the Sunshine Coast – one option that has been mooted has been around Kawana.”

Water Minister Glenn Butcher said discussions for an exact location were yet to take place, only stressing the Sunshine Coast was a key general location given the region’s significant population growth in recent years.

Mr Butcher said the region will need water supply from both the recycled facility as well as another desalination plant.

“Once the Western Corridor Recycled Scheme comes on, it gets pumped into Wivenhoe Dam,” he said.

“We know climate change is evaporating water off our dam at massive amounts every year, so desalination makes sense.”

Despite the Tugun plant largely running in low flow mode, Mr Butcher said the Gold Coast facility was critical for water supply.

He said it was critical water supply was secured in the coming decades given rapid population growth and climate change evaporating water.

“Last financial year, they used about 3710 megalitres, that’s average around 55 megalitres a day,” he said.

“But just be mindful – it’s also part of a plan in Queensland here under the Southeast Queensland water plan for drought and to make sure that we can utilise that when we need to.

“If the dams are full, like they have been, we don’t need to use Tugun to its full capacity.

“It’s just pointless when you’ve got rain in the dams and the dams are full, that is the cheapest form of water that we can supply.”

The Gold Coast Desalination plant, built under the Beattie government in response to the millennium drought, remains largely under-utilised in “low flow production” due to high dam levels

Internal polling commissioned by Seqwater, revealed last month by The Courier-Mail, revealed almost 70 per cent of Queenslanders were “comfortable” drinking recycled water.

The state’s existing Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme supplies industrial businesses but Seqwater said it remained an “important drought response measure”.

Southeast Queensland’s water grid is at 68.8 per cent, triggering Seqwater’s “drought readiness” response.

Modelling previously done by the water entity predicts the grid could hit 50 per cent by September, when restrictions would be enforced.