Port Lincoln, South Australia: Regional city faces running out of water in two years – but residents can’t agree on how to fix the problem

The water situation in an Australian city is so dire that it could go dry in just two years if something drastic isn’t done now.

Residents of Port Lincoln and the wider Eyre Peninsula in South Australia drink water from an underground basin. but over extraction means 28,000 water users are now at risk.

“We are running out of time and we must take action,” SA Water Minister Nick Champion said ABC’s 7:30 program. ‘The aquifers are becoming salty.

“We have exhausted our capacity to use Mother Nature as a water source. We just have to move on and look at the solution to it.”

One of the main proposals to tackle the problem is a desalination plant, but many of the city’s 15,000 residents disagree on where it should go.

Mark Andrews, CEO of Eyre Peninsula Seafoods, believes installing a desalination plant at Billy Lights Point could ruin his multi-million dollar business.

“Why would you want to put a desalination plant in an aquaculture zone,” he said.

“We are the largest processor, farmer and marketer of mussels in Australia, representing 65 percent of the industry, employing 76 people between the factory boats, office and marketing.”

Mr Andrews said his business was dependent on spitting or baby mussels in the waters off Port Lincoln, which he fears could be destroyed by a huge pipe that will carry seawater to the desalination plant.

“Let’s call it a vacuum cleaner, and that vacuum cleaner sucks the water through the desalination plant and my spit goes with it,” he said.

‘It is sucked into the inlet of the desalination plant and therefore cannot be collected by me.’

However, the Water Minister said following feedback from the industry, the pipes would now be placed in deeper water than originally planned.

Mr Champion said scientists had looked at the potential impact on aquaculture and there would be no impact on the baby mussels.

“We could investigate this forever if we wanted to, but we don’t have the luxury of time,” he said.

‘The Eyre Peninsula will run out of water.

“It will have catastrophic consequences for the people of Eyre Peninsula, including the fishing industry.”

Billy Lights Point is the cheapest option to locate a desalination plant with an estimated bill of $13 million.

Initially, another location was chosen, further away from the aquaculture farms, but this was abandoned because construction there would cost at least $500 million.

“It’s just not a practical place to build one,” Mr Champion said.

“It’s twenty kilometers from Port Lincoln, you have to pump the water up… It’s a foolish investment if we throw good money after bad.”

But Mr Andrews said spending the extra money would be worth it as the region’s fishing industry is worth more than $200 million annually.

“Everyone on the Eyre Peninsula wants water security… a little extra money spent now for the long-term growth and benefits of a region will pay off,” he said.

Farmer Jamie Siviour, whose tap water comes from the over-exploited underground basin, said the situation is urgent and must be resolved.

“We can’t run sheep without piped water,” he said.

“We don’t have a river… this area around here is not conducive to dams.”

While Mr. Siviour is sympathetic to the aquaculture industry, he is concerned that further delays in the construction of the desalination plant could result in the aquifer’s water becoming undrinkable.

“It would mean reducing the number of sheep, even if we don’t have any sheep at all,” he said.

Mr Champion said now is the time to act.

“I think there’s been a lot of wishful thinking here, permissive thinking, honestly, not just in the bureaucratic world or the political world… but also in the community, and that continues today,” he said. said.