BHP insists Point Lowley best for desalination plant
SARAH MARTIN
January 08, 2010 12:01am
BHP Billiton says building its proposed desalination plant anywhere but Point Lowly on the Spencer Gulf would cost "hundreds of millions" more dollars.
The desal plant's location has divided the State Government and the Opposition, with the latter calling for BHP to investigate an alternative site on the West Coast beyond Ceduna.
Labor member for Giles, Lyn Breuer, also wants the plant built elsewhere, saying the risk to the giant cuttlefish population in the gulf is too great.
The desalination plant is included in the company's Olympic Dam Expansion draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is still being considered by the state and federal governments.
In a report to Parliament in November, Ms Breuer said the State Government had asked BHP to look at alternative locations, but a spokesman for Minerals Resources Minister Paul Holloway yesterday said that was not the case.
BHP head of external affairs Kym Winter-Dewhirst said the only site under consideration was Point Lowly.
"We are certainly conscious of the fact that there are others who believe we should be looking at other sites (but) we have studied a whole range of areas and we have concluded that Point Lowly is far and away the best location," he said.
Mr Winter-Dewhirst said he was confident the research undertaken by the company was sufficient, and questioned the Government's ability to block the site without blocking the project. "You either approve the whole project or you reject the whole project," he said.
Opposition leader Isobel Redmond, who wants the plant built near Penong, said she believed the Government was "over-anxious" for the project to go ahead.
"Is the Premier saying that no matter what environmental impact there may be, he is giving BHP the go-ahead to put the desal plant there?" Ms Redmond said.
"The Government would have the authority to tell them where they can't put the desal plant or where they can."
The State Government said the Liberal Party's position would add $500 million to development costs and threaten the multi-billion dollar project.
"The election of a Redmond government would be catastrophic to the project," Premier Mike Rann said in a statement.
Mr Winter-Dewhirst said if the project were to blow out by half a billion dollars, financing the expansion could be more difficult.
"If suddenly at the whim of a special interest group or a government we were to dramatically alter the financial fundamentals of a project it would have to come under a lot of scrutiny," he said.
Cant wait for you guys to defend Rann on this one
BHP are always going to go for the cheapest option
Let me repeat Mike's statement: "The election of a Redmond government would be catastrophic to the project," Premier Mike Rann said in a statement
So he is quite prepared to allow a potential Ok Tedi in Australia at the expense of the Gulf so the project (to provide water to a project that he so vehemently opposed) can go ahead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_Tedi_Mine
I might add - it is Rann saying the cost will $500m more - Mr Winter-Dewhirst said if the project were to blow out by half a billion dollars, financing the expansion could be more difficult.
