House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml

Contents

MOUNT BOLD RESERVOIR

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:16): My question is to the Minister for Water Security. What is the latest cost estimate for the doubling of the capacity of the Mount Bold reservoir or has the project been shelved? In June 2007, the government announced an $850 million plan to double the capacity of the Mount Bold reservoir, with the Premier qualifying the cost estimate at that time by saying:

It is still too early to put an estimate cost on what it would take to increase the size of Mount Bold ahead of further engineering and environmental studies.

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (15:17): Subsequent to that announcement, we have also made further statements in relation to exploring options right across Mount Lofty. That work is still being undertaken in relation to what are the possible options for expansion of the capacity within the—

Mr Williams: No water; no action.

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop will come to order!

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD: From memory, I think about 35 different options were being looked at and investigated, and were being progressively narrowed down to a smaller number for consideration by the government. We will consider that in the scheme of things and also in conjunction with the fact that we now have access to the Murray-Darling Basin storages of Hume and Dartmouth in the longer term, and I will report back to the house once that work has concluded.