Desalination plant builder AdelaideAqua insists it is still on target to deliver the first water in July.
This is in spite of Department for Water officials’ now cautiously saying it could be as late as “by the end of the year”.
The possibility of further delays follows suspected problems with the plant’s seawater tunnels, according to detailed information supplied to the Sunday Mail by workers at the site.
Engineers and scuba divers have been working off-shore to overcome problems with blocked seals in the pipes.
The so-called “first water” - the production of fully desalinated seawater from Gulf St Vincent - was supposed to have been produced last December and millions of extra taxpayer dollars were spent in a vain attempt to meet the deadline. It was then extended to April, then June, and now July.
Just last month Water Minister Paul Caica said: “I’m very confident that the 100GL component will be completed by December 2012 and I’m confident that first water will be supplied around the end of July.”
AdelaideAqua said it was still aiming to produce first water in July - however, the Department for Water’s latest glossy Water For Good News publication released during the week said it now expected first water to be delivered “by the end of the year”.
SA Water is reserving its right to impose multi-million dollar penalties on AdelaideAqua over its failure to meet key milestones until it actually produces some water.
Asked for a definition of “first water”, an AdelaideAqua spokesman said it would be seawater drawn through the tunnel network, desalinated in the main plant then pumped to the Happy Valley reservoir. It would consist of “the continuous and safe production of 10 per cent of the expected full capacity of the first 50GL plant”.
SA Water chief executive John Ringham said AdelaideAqua continued to advise first water would be supplied in July and the “end of the year” phrase in Water For Good appeared to be bureaucrats paraphrasing the situation.
“The desalinated drinking water produced by the plant will be delivered through SA Water’s Transfer Pipeline System to the Happy Valley Water Treatment Plant where it will be shandied with treated water from our reservoirs before being distributed into our existing customer supply network,” Mr Ringham said.
“After this we will progressively work towards ramping up the first 50GL plant’s production to its full capacity of 150 million litres per day.
“The contract requirement for first water describes a stage of the works when the desalination plant could be ready to deliver up to 15 million litres per day of desalinated drinking water into the treated water storage tanks at the ADP site. Due to a range of factors this was not met.”
SA Water’s desalination plant director Milind Kumar said there were no serious problems with the tunnels.
“SA Water has been reassured by AdelaideAqua that the outfall tunnel has been successfully flooded,” he said.
AdelaideAqua is expected to make almost $500 million from the plant, while consumers face a 50 per cent rise in the cost of water to pay for the plant.
