One wonders what Central Coast Council is thinking with their proposal of a desalination water treatment plant at Noraville (Coast News September 19).
The plant will have an extraction pipeline at either Pebbly Beach or Jenny Dixon Beach, with the leftover brine being discharged at Norah Head ocean outfall.
This area is one of the most significant beauty spots on the northern sector of the Central Coast, with high tourist attraction during the Summer season popular with both locals and tourists enjoying holidaying and swimming at the beach and the safe swimming enclosure of the Norah Head rock pool, as well as enjoying the natural beauty of the surrounding area.
This is all put at risk with a desalination plant in this location.
The increased size of this proposed plant located in what is a residential coastal area is of concern together with the detrimental impact of discharging toxic brine and other toxic chemical contaminates into the ocean at this location impacting the marine environment, coast ecosystems, and swimmers alike.
Central Coast Council needs to seriously reconsider the location of this desalination plant.
Email, Sep 27,
E. Williams, Buff Point
in Australia, desal plants are extremely hard to justify from eitheran economic or environmental perspective. To avoid a waste of funds,
ratepayers are entitled to see the analysis underlying the decision to build desal plant on the Central Coast. Is it the result of a thought bubble or of a rigorous benefit-cost analysis?
This is madness
Just allow all residents to install rain water tanks and reduce the demand on council supply.
I completely agree with Eileen Williams. The whole idea of a large desalination plant at the northern end the Central Coast is complete madness. It is another great example of some bearucrat wanting to waste millions of ratepayers hard earned money on another hair brained scheme. We might be quiet folks up here in the north but we’re not stupid. Dump it in someone else’s beach.
I agree with other posters. This Desal Plant is a $500 Million dollar wish list we cannot afford It is at least 12 years away to consider. Drought conditions for stored water, now at record levels, has been reached because of the Mardi Mangrove Pipeline installed which Council opted for in 2012. This is a bureaucratic nightmare where Council will be asked to fund millions ahead on consultants fees and an EIS. No,no,no.
One wonders what council bureaucrat has this on their vanity project wish list to push through while under administration. Who benefits financially from this costly vanity project? It certainly isn’t the residents of the Central Coast.