Executive Summary
As a community group based in Melbourne, Australia, we firmly believe that the Australian federal and the corresponding state government, as well as the stakeholders involved in the construction of the Wonthaggi Desalination plant have been transparent and cooperative enough to merit the trust not only of our group but also of the entire Australian community. We are an environmental community group that is not driven by self-interests despite knowing how having the Wonthaggi Desalination plant unbreakably established in the marine flora and fauna rich shorelines of Australia could help reduce the federation’s residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural sectors’ apprehension to expand. Egoism played a big role in the federal and state governments’ decision to support the project despite knowing the different moral, ethical, and even legal implications of the steps they have taken in relation to their decision. Countless studies and environmental experts issued statements regarding the negative environmental effects of the brine expelled by the plant into the open-ocean. There were of course others, who also appear to be experts in the process of desalination and reverse osmosis who counter the opposing statements, and that is the thing here, there is so much conflict present in the case to issue approval and allow the plant manager to start operations. Nevertheless, the Victorian government, together with Aqua Sure has arrived at a compromise which would lead to the continuation of the construction operations as long as Aqua Sure and all its stakeholders would be able to guarantee their cooperation in minimizing or totally avoiding negative environmental implications of the decision. This is what actually happened and so we are here now, supporting the government’s intentions and efforts.
Environmental Issues
Aqua Sure has agreed to work with the government in making the Wonthaggi Desalination plant as environment-friendly as possible. The plan was to offset as much non-renewable energy required in operating and maintaining the plant as possible with renewable energy sources. The company would for example, construct a wind farm near the vicinity of the desalination plant in order to offset the huge demand in energy and the carbon footprint if for example the source of the power would be the burning of fossil fuels.
Aside from projects designed to offset the plant’s huge energy requirements, the government and Aqua Sure also assured that they will be partners with the residents of Australia in protecting the marine life and making sure that the establishment of a desalination plant there would not lead to any harm nor endanger any marine creature specie. They plan on doing this by restoring coastal habitats—about 4 million native marine floras have already been regenerated; sand dunes were also created which could serve as artificial habitat for marine coastal animals. The government announced that they will spend some 12 million USD for the rehabilitation of the vicinity of the desalination plant, focusing on environment protection—making sure that the plant construction and operations would have very little to no reversible effects on the environment as a whole, and boosting economic growth through tourism, and the welfare of those living near the plant’s vicinity.
Converting inconsumable ocean water—because of its salty or brackish properties, is an energy-consuming process . However, after recent advancements in desalination technology, that limitation has been overcome. Studies have proven that with the latest desalination technologies and strategies to optimize the energy consumption to output volume ratio, a modern desalination plant like the Victorian Desalination Plant, would require 2KWH of energy, which is roughly equivalent to the energy consumed by a motorized washing machine that just spun for 10 times, to produce a cubic centimeter of clean, potable water that will be delivered to the people of Melbourne’s homes. Before, desalination plants eat up 5 KWH of energy to convert the same volume of sea or brackish water into a clean and potable one. The numbers speak for themselves and they just show how practical building a desalination plant in that area at this point is.
Brine is basically a significantly more concentrated solution of salt and water that normally comes out of a desalination plant as a waste product which would then be excreted to the ocean , increasing the level of water salinity in nearby waters, which could potentially endanger the marine flora and fauna in the area. Aside from brine, other chemical by-products of the process of desalination that may potentially harm the environment are chlorine, heavy metals such as copper and nickel alloys, anti-scalants, coagulants and coagulant aids, anti-foaming agents and cleaning chemicals. Although it is highly likely that these group of substances being released to the ocean would lead to long term negative environmental implications, it has not been 100 percent proven that they will. In fact, according to one of the plant managers working in the Wonthaggi desalination plant, their team managed to observe the reactions of the nearby marine ecosystems to the alleged pollutants and they have found out via underwater cameras how marine plants and creatures reside right next to the discharge pipes themselves, which suggest that the by-products released from the plant do not harm the environment at all or at least, they were small or negligible enough to cause significant negative changes.
We support the government’s giving the go signal to start the construction of the multi-billion dollar plant. However, this leads us to the topic of egoism which is a philosophical term that describes how a person predictably places himself at the center of the universe, focusing on his intellectual, physical, and social interests without considering the interests of others .
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the intention of the federal and state government behind their giving permission to start the construction of the plant was for the welfare of the Melbourne citizens and so as to not deprive them of their rights to have access to one of the most basic human necessities—water. There were of course environmental and other ethical issues that the government as well as Aqua Sure had to face. The good news is that they managed to get rid of and solve such issues ethically. All environmental issues and concerns were properly addressed and now, there is not a single reason for the government and the residents of Melbourne, Australia to be wary of the possible consequences of the decision because everything has been well taken care of.
References
Davidson, K. (2008). Water Policy is based on Flawed Figures. The Age.
Hopner, T. (2005). Potential Impacts of Seawater Desalination. Sabine Lattemann.
Lenntech. (2012). Desalination Pretreatment: Seawater Chlorination. Lenntech .
Melbourne Water. (2007). Seawater Desalination Plant Feasibility Study. Melbourne Water.
Stanford University Press. (2010). Egoism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
