Tunnels at Adelaide’s $1.8 billion desalination plant have been flooded with seawater for the first time.
It is a major breakthrough for the trouble-plagued project.
The Advertiser understands the plant’s builder, Adelaide Aqua, has pumped seawater into its under-sea tunnels in the first step to having water desalinated at the plant by the end of July.
The Government is understood to be planning to announce the milestone at the Lonsdale site today before Premier Mike Rann is due to appear before a Budget estimates hearing this afternoon.
Adelaide Aqua and SA Water have refused to confirm the milestone, but a spokesman for the Premier confirmed a minister would be inspecting the site’s progress today.
More work on the reverse osmosis plant is understood to be needed before water can be treated at the site, with key components still needing to be installed.
Problems have plagued the project since late last year, when Adelaide Aqua missed the plant’s first water deadline of December, resulting in a delay until April this year.
The Government initially blamed the delay on an industrial accident at the site which resulted in a worker’s death.
The desalination plant was later further delayed until July this year.
The project has also come under fire for its impact on base water prices, which have been hiked by more than 50 per cent to pay for the 100 gigalitre plant, and by about 285 per cent since it was first announced.
The Productivity Commission has also questioned the Government’s decision to double the plant’s capacity from 50 gigalitres to 100 gigalitres.
The plant’s management has previously been criticised by SA Water, with internal documents showing the organisation believes that Adelaide Aqua “is largely responsible for the problems, through mismanagement and lack of planning”.
SA Water and the Government have not ruled out legal action against Adelaide Aqua for the delays, and compensation may be sought once the project is completed.
When the Government announced the plant’s capacity would be increased to 100 gigalitres in November 2008, it paid $79 million to the consortium to accelerate the first water milestone by 12 months.
