Shelve pipeline plan, state told

State Government must shelve plans for locking the Geelong region into “expensive” desalinated water from Melbourne, according to the opposition.
Coalition water spokesperson Peter Walsh warned that the Government’s plan would leave the region’s households paying for desalinated water even when it was not needed.
Mr Walsh urged the Government to instead re-examine existing supply options, including a new dam.
State Government plans to build the $120 million pipeline from Melbourne in conjunction with a $3.1 billion desalination plant at Wonthaggi.
Mr Walsh said the energy requirements for desalinating and pumping to Geelong would leave consumers paying for the “most expensive water” when much cheaper alternatives were still available in the region.
Federal Government’s introduction of a carbon emissions trading scheme in 2010 would push up the price further, he said.
State Government’s plan to build and operate the plant by 2012 as a “public-private partnership” meant Geelong would pay regardless of whether its traditional supplies were seasonally adequate, Mr Walsh warned.
“The builders and operators will want a guaranteed income stream, so you will be locked into taking the water or paying penalties if you don’t,” Mr Walsh said.
“The Coalition does not believe the pipeline is in the best interests of Geelong users.”
Mr Walsh said an Essential Services Commission approval for Barwon Water to increase rates around 75 per cent over the next five years left the door open for further rises to cover desalination costs.
“The EES (decision) excluded desalinated water and said costings for the future would be taken into account if or when the plant was built.”
Mr Walsh said the Government had been unable to answer in parliament how much desalinated water would cost.
He urged the Government to reconsider existing options such as a new dam on former dairy farmland at Dewings Creek, in the Otways. Barwon Water bought the land in the ‘80s with plans for a dam.
Mr Walsh said expansion of recycling and harvesting of stormwater also had “enormous” potential.
“Everything should be on the table,” he said.
Barwon Water chief executive officer Michael Malouf said in May that his organisation’s plans to tap into an Anglesea aquifer could lead to the Government deferring the pipeline project.
Mr Malouf said Barwon Water was running final environmental tests to determine whether plans to extract 20 million litres a day from the aquifer were “viable”.
The aquifer project could boost the region’s supply 30 per cent, he said.
A spokesman for Water Minister Tim Holding had not responded to the Independent’s call for comment on Wednesday before the paper went to press yesterday.