Adelaide desalination plant in first full output mode in 2019 to help drought-hit farmers upstream on Murray

Adelaide desalination plant was built on the site of the former oil refinery at Port Stanvac on the southern metropolitan coast.
Image courtesy SA Water

Adelaide desalination plant at Port Stanvac, built by the South Australian government for $2.2 billion as a water-security response to the millennium drought (2002-07), went into full operation mode in December 2019 for the first time under a $100 million deal with the federal government.

The desal plant’s output would compensate for River Murray water being released to drought-struck farmers upstream. The Adelaide desal plant would produce 40 gigalitres (GL) of water until July 2020, with a review to decide on creating another 60 billion litres.

The other financial advantage for the plant was that it was now open to taking part in water trading, as against being restricted when it opened in 2013 to only producing water for emergency human needs. The federal government agreed to meet all costs associated with increased use of the desalination plant and would provide the extra water to farmers at less than market rates. Whether the plant would produce an 60GL in 2020-21 would depend on a review of its effectiveness, costs, water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin, and the state’s water security.  

The Adelaide desalination plant, and the state’s first at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island, both deal with processing seawater. SA water also runs seven other desalination plants around South Australia that treat groundwater to remove the salt and impurities. These plants are in Hawker and Leigh Creek, and at Indulkana, Mimili, Kaltjiti (Fregon) and Yunyarinyi (Kenmore Park) on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far north and at Yalata on the Eyre Peninsula west coast.