Perth Seawater Desalination Plant

Australia's first plant providing desalinated seawater for large scale public consumption

The Perth Seawater Desalination Plant, Australia's first plant to provide desalinated seawater for large scale public consumption, was completed in late 2006 to produce up to 45 billion litres (gigalitres) of fresh drinking water per year.

Construction was undertaken by an alliance between the Water Corporation and Degremont, a French-based world operator in water treatment and desalination, and Multiplex, a large Australian construction company. The plant is owned by the Corporation which operates it jointly with Degremont.

Connection to the Integrated Water Supply System

The plant delivers water to the Integrated Water Supply System (IWSS) that supplies over 1.7 million people in Perth and parts of the South West. It is connected to a scheme supplying part of the Agricultural Region and Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the Goldfields almost 600 kilometres east of Perth.

At its inception the plant became Perth’s biggest single water source, providing some 17 per cent of the city’s supply needs.

The plant has attracted a lot of interest among the world’s water industry and media and has won numerous national and international awards including the International Desalination Association’s International Desalination Plant of the Year in 2007.

Average desalinated water production

Daily:

130 megalitres (130 million litres)

Yearly:

45 gigalitres (17% of IWSS water supply)

Environmental approvals

The reverse osmosis plant was subjected to the most rigorous environmental approval procedures ever imposed on a Corporation project. Stringent criteria were set for its operation and it was subject to the most intensive ocean monitoring program of any seawater desalination plant in the world. Additionally, the energy requirements of the plant are purchased from a wind farm north of Perth.

The Environmental Protection Authority has set stringent criteria for the plant, and the Water Corporation is implementing the most intensive ocean monitoring program of any desalination plant in the world. An independent report into the environmental impact of the plant has shown that oxygen levels in Cockburn Sound have not been affected by the discharge from the plant. The report was undertaken by the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia in August 2007.


 Environmental Management in Cockburn Sound
  

Underwater footage from the Perth Seawater Desalination Plant

Community tours

There are currently no public tours of the desalination plant.