1 APR 2008 

BRIBIE ISLAND: An environmentalist has backed plans to build a desalination plant on Bribie Island.

Bribie Island Environmental Protection Association president Ian Bell said, with climate change, desalination was the only 100 percent secure water source.

Mr Bell, an environmental engineer specialising in water supply, thought the potential for environmental damage was limited, especially if renewable energy was used to supply the power-hungry process.

He said the brine produced by the process would be completely dissipated within 150m if the ocean outfall was far offshore, as at the Gold Coast plant currently being built.

The draft South East Queensland Water Strategy identified State land on Bribie Island as one of six possible sites for desalination plants to secure the region’s water needs after 2028.

The Queensland Water Commission (QWC) report also says a purified recycled water plant could be built to enable wastewater from Sandgate and Pine Rivers sewage treatment plants to augment water from North Pine Dam (which supplies part of Caboolture).

State Member for Pumicestone Carryn Sullivan said she had concerns about the environmental impacts, but was pleased the QWC was looking at sites away from urban areas.

 She said QWC experts told her desalination plants could be powered by renewable energy.

Sites proposed for desalination plants include Bribie’s surfside, the mouth of the Brisbane River, the Sunshine Coast and North and South Stradbroke islands.