At around $100 million to pipe water just two kilometres, it could be Australia’s most expensive water pipeline.
Curtis Island will soon be the home to four coal seam gas to liquefied natural gas plants.
However getting clean, fresh water on the island has proven an issue.
In an Australian first, the Gladstone Area Water Board is laying a pipe 70 metres under the Gladstone harbour to avoid the environmental issues that come with desalination.
Canadian drilling expert Jim Murphy is heading up the operation and he says they have some of the best equipment in the world on site.
“We are using directional drilling technology to install water and sewer to Curtis Island,” he says.
“We are actually drilling from the island as well, we have a total length to drill of about 2,200 metres and we have got a drill on the island drilling in one direction, and we have got a big drill on the mainland drilling from the other direction.
“In the background we have what is known as an American Auger 1080; it has a push-and-pull capacity of one million pounds, and it is one of the largest in the world.”
Gladstone Water Board CEO Jim Grayson says the environmental benefits of the pipeline justify the large price tag.
He says directional drilling technology has meant the pipeline has had minimal effect on the harbour and there will be no need for desalination plants on the island in the long-term.
“The LNG proponents on the island were going to have to meet their water needs by desalination which would result in brine having to be put into the harbour,” he says.
“They would also have some waste water requirements that would also, ultimately- after being treated- also find their way out into the harbour.
“There was a raft of problems that we saw around just laying it over the sea bed but the biggest one was it just wouldn’t work with a very busy harbour.
“The total project price will be somewhere in the order of $100 million.
“All of that will be funded by the beneficiaries of the new infrastructure - that is the LNG proponents themselves.”
