Public Works Committee: Lock to Iron Knob Water Pipeline Reversal

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:47): I move:

That the 130^th report of the committee, entitled Lock to Iron Knob Water Pipeline Reversal, be noted.

The Eyre water system encompasses a vast sector of South Australia, bound by Spencer Gulf to the east, the Great Australian Bight to the south, stretching all the way to the Western Australia border. The system supplies drinking water for approximately 35,000 people through 20,000 customer meters.

Over time, it has suffered a significant reduction of available source water. The strained groundwater basin in Uley South currently supplies 75 per cent of the region's source water, with the balance largely supplemented by water from the River Murray via a pipeline that travels from Iron Knob to Lock on Eyre Peninsula.

With the increased water supply provided by the construction of the desalination plant at Billy Lights Point, the extra supply provided by the pipeline will no longer be required. This water can instead be utilised for SA Water's supply to Upper Spencer Gulf, increasing water security, as well as allowing for growth opportunities in the region.

The proposed works will allow for the reversal of water flow by making changes to the existing pipeline infrastructure between the townships of Lock and Iron Knob. The proposed works will:

construct a new surge tank at Lock;

upgrade the Iron Knob tank site and pump station;

replace the existing flow meter at Caralue pump station;

provide upgraded water quality dosing stations;

install a new check valve at the Darke Range tank;

upgrade the pump station at Kimba;

install new inlet and outlet pipework at the Smeaton tank; and

make upgrades to system controls, automation, supervisory control and data acquisition.

The works are anticipated to commence in the third quarter of this year, with the expectation of completion by mid-2026. The project will be undertaken on SA Water-owned land and improved easements, and the operating and capital costs are provided in SA Water's regulatory determination budget.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Lock to Iron Knob Water Pipeline Reversal project. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Emma Goldsworthy, Senior Manager, Capital Delivery, SA Water, and David Henchliffe, Eyre Peninsula Desalination Project Director, SA Water. I thank the witnesses for their time. Based upon the evidence considered and pursuant section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (11:50): I rise to speak on this report of the Public Works Committee, not just as a member of the Public Works Committee but also as the local member with which this project is associated.

I can say that it was a fascinating example of a lack of preparation for presentation to a committee on a project which, really, is an interesting one. The way it has been explained certainly did not fill me with any extra certainty or give transparency about what is actually included within the expanses of this project.

In essence, what this project is assumedly doing is allowing for the capacity for water to flow from an as yet unconstructed desalination plant in the southern part of Eyre Peninsula back through the Eyre Peninsula water distribution network all the way to Iron Knob. The project is one of several million dollars, and it is a project that has a timeline, which has been spoken about already, of expected completion in mid 2026 (I think that is what the member quoted).

I have been on my feet in this place speaking about the Eyre Peninsula desalination project and the concerns of the local community around that project, but that one has an end date, at this point, of the end of 2026. So here they are reversing the pipeline to have the capacity to be able to deliver as yet undelivered water.

At the moment the uncertainty around the supply of water on Eyre Peninsula is one that is incredibly worrying for my community, and one where there is still there so much ambiguity and lack of transparency. It is pretty murky water indeed, because at the moment there is a review happening of the supply and demand of water that is being done by the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board. Their findings have not been finalised yet, but they will be making their recommendations to SA Water around what level of supply they will be able to take out, extract, from the Uley South Basin and supply to Eyre Peninsula.

At the moment water is flowing from the Murray through Iron Knob all the way down and making its way to Lock from the Murray. When we talk about the capacity to reverse the line from Lock to Iron Knob, currently the water is flowing from the Murray, and the numbers quoted at the committee, off the top of my head, were around 1.7 gigalitres. My understanding is that previously just over 2 gigalitres of water was coming through and supplying the central and western part of Eyre Peninsula with Murray water, and the southern part of the EP is still being served by the Uley South Basin water, which is around some 5 gigalitres of water.

It is astounding to me that this project has been made a priority, when all the numbers I see around the need for the EP desal plant to be put in place show that that EP desal water, and any water they may be able to continue to get from the Uley South Basin, will still be only just on the edge of what the current supply needs are on Eyre Peninsula—yet they are talking here, in a project of several million dollars, of the capacity to be able to send water back the other way.

I have to cast my mind back now, but it must be only in the last 15 years that the pipeline from Iron Knob to Kimba was completed. At the time, it was an interesting decision but one which, now looking back, we on Eyre Peninsula would not have been able to live without because of the lack of any furthering of the project throughout those years to fast-track a desalination plant. Still this uncertainty hangs over Eyre Peninsula.

To have a project where they are talking about reversing the pipeline–during the committee, I asked a number of questions around some of the nuances of aspects put by the member around which pumping stations service which communities and about different aspects of the line. In attendance in the committee was the Eyre Peninsula desal project officer, and I was hoping that we might have a little transparency around some of these pumping stations and some of these tanks.

Before the pipeline came through from Iron Knob to Kimba, Kimba was serviced by that southern supply. It was the Tod Reservoir before, and it was a southern basin after that, so there was already the capacity seemingly—and this is what I was asking questions about—to have water going from the southern part of the peninsula all the way up to Kimba, yet now there are works which are needed to reverse the pipeline in that section in particular. This is why I was hoping to get, on behalf of my community, some answers, and there are still so many unanswered aspects to this.

At the moment, it seems to be putting the horse before the cart to be spending millions of dollars to reverse the pipeline for a supply of water which will still, on face value, barely be enough to hit the existing needs of Eyre Peninsula, yet they are talking about the potential for that water to help service mining projects or the like, when it is only going to be a 5½ gig desalination plant, and the existing pull on the southern basins is around five gigalitres, and the existing pull from the Murray is around two gigalitres. The maths does not work, yet this has been something which has been made a priority by SA Water. I have been frustrated, as the local member and as a member of the committee, that the questions that I asked within that committee were not answered on the day, and I am still sitting here wondering why different aspects of this project were necessary.

It again highlights to me the frustration in my community, and it is reflected by my frustrations, with some of the decisions that SA Water have made, not just in the last few years but historically, especially around the water supply and distribution on Eyre Peninsula. If you are going to be spending millions of dollars on the Eyre Peninsula water network, why are you not spending it on the line from Poochera to Streaky Bay, for instance, or the distribution system at Streaky Bay? Why are you not extending the line from the Polda Pumping Station to Elliston, which currently is not on the reticulated system?

The priority for SA Water at the moment on Eyre Peninsula is to spend millions of dollars reversing the capacity of a line to service Iron Knob with water that does not exist yet, yet I have communities on the West Coast in particular that cannot expand. I have customers, who are hoping to get a water supply, who cannot connect because there is not the water supply there at the moment, yet SA Water are prioritising this.

I hope that SA Water actually take a good hard look at the report which was tabled by the select committee into the Eyre Peninsula water distribution and supply network. Challenges are being faced by communities at the moment. Get your priorities right, because at the moment Streaky Bay, Elliston and communities around Eyre Peninsula are frustrated, because SA Water have got it wrong. They continue to get it wrong, and they continue to have priorities which seemingly are not serving the actual needs of the people of Eyre Peninsula.

Motion carried.