A desalination water treatment plant at Noraville is on the agenda, with Central Coast Council submitting a State Significant Infrastructure project to the NSW Planning Department.
The proposal is to build and operate a desalination plant, including a seawater extraction pipeline at either Pebbly Beach or Jenny Dixon Beach, needing a pipeline at least two kilometres in length.
The leftover brine would be added to the Toukley Waste Water that is discharged at the existing Norah Head ocean outfall.
Council is seeking approval to build the desalination plant adjacent the existing Toukley Wastewater Treatment Plant on vacant Council-owned land in Noraville
“The project is required to enhance water security for the Central Coast region, particularly during drought events, and to supplement the demand-supply shortfall forecasted for the Central Coast region in the 2040s,” the report to the planning department states.
The project is intended to “contemporise” the current approval that applies to a Gosford Wyong Water Supply Desalination Scheme, granted in July 2007.
Changes include an increase to the capacity and size of the desalination plant, and a change to the location and method of seawater extraction.
Following a review of environmental legislation and consultation with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, it was determined that a new state significant infrastructure approval would be the appropriate pathway for the modified scheme.
Council is now calling it the Toukley Desalination Water Treatment Plant.
The project includes construction and operation of a seawater extraction pipeline with an intake point approximately one kilometre off the coastline at either Pebbly Beach, located about three kilometres southeast of the desalination plant, or Jenny Dixon Beach, located about two kilometres northeast of the desalination plant.
The project will encompass a seawater pump station at either of the locations nominated; a reverse osmosis desalination plant to treat up to 30 megalitres of potable water per day, the brine discharge pipeline connection with a brine volume of about 45 megalitres per day, a water pumping station and a connection to the existing potable water trunk supply network at Toukley, along with upgrades to power and water supply connections.
The Council report said ongoing refinement of the proposed layout and technology would continue throughout the environmental impact statement process in response to engineering concept design refinements and outcomes of environmental and social assessments.
The first step is the current request for a SEARS, which is a list of environmental factors that Council will need to address as part of the project’s plans.
The desalination plant is identified as a long-term supply option with the flexibility to be implemented as a drought response measure as part of the Coast’s June 2023 Water Security Plan.
The desalination plant is Sydney is a disaster. What hope is there that this will succeed. Follow the money trail
Shock, horror, why would you build a Desalination Plant at Jenny Dixon Beach or Pebbly Beach. Two beaches used by residents & tourists. It is bad enough Chris Bowen proposing a wind farm out at sea from Norah Head. Come on now are you trying to ruin the Central Coast altogether. We do not need another “White Elephant” replica like Sydney on the Central Coast on our prime beaches.
Sydney desal plant build in 2010
and yet to be required with ratepayers paying additional water costs, indexed yearly, just to keep maintained. How much more will coasties
pay in additional water costs for another white elephant. Get priorities in order. Pacific hwy through Wyong is a disgrace and still waiting for action.
Why the hell would you destroy a pristine eco system and local landmark for something that has proven asolutely useless in Sydney?
A waste of taxpayers funds and will distroy my local beach where I take my daughter. This beach is clean and has an abundance of wildlife which relies on it.
The central coast depends on holiday makers and tourists. How the hell are people going to want to visit and live near a concrete bunker (expensive, useless and drawing on significant energy resourses for no result).
You could create a large water reserve/tank on vacant land further inland. Or give a grant for water tanks for dwellings both domestic and private. My parents house has this and all the water for their washing machine, toilets and garden comes from a tank next to ther house. You need to rethink this plan.
What a joke Central Coast council have become. Destroy the environment and the beach rather than real sustainable water options. Watch them try and get this through silently