Pilutti: September 29, 2007

September 29, 2007

Today I took a trip to the south side of Sydney to view the construction site. The desalination plant will be located in Kurnell (-34.024956, 151.205006) adjacent to the Caltex refinery. Nearby is an abandoned movie studio where The Matrix was filmed among other movies. The site was chosen because of its proximity to other industry and because of the consistently high quality seawater.

Project Sign

Desalination Plant Site

The shoreline in the area near the subsurface intake is sandstone and has very low turbidity. Here are a few photos of the shoreline.

Shoreline near the intake

Some guy at the shoreline who needs a haircut

The next photograph was taken at the Botany Bay National Park (-34.017522, 151.229982).

Botany Bay National Park

On April 29, 1770, Captain James Cook was the first European to land in Australia at Kurnell, where they have erected a monument to signify the event. The monument was erected in the early 1800's. On the monument is a plaque that gives credit to Cook for discovering Australia. The plaque however gives more credit to the guy that commissioned the monument, so I am not sure if the monument is to honor Cook or the guy who built the monument.

Captain Cook Monument

The general population in Sydney is opposed to the construction of the desalination plant since the reservoirs that supply fresh water to the City are at approximately 50% capacity, on the rise from several months ago when they were near 20% capacity. You can track reservoir levels at this website...

http://www.sca.nsw.gov.au/dams/bydate_index.html

Most residents believe that installing rainwater tanks is a better alternative to the desal plant. more information on rainwater tanks, what they are, how they work, and what they do can be found at...

http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SavingWater/InYourGarden/RainwaterTanks/

Construction of the desal plant, I believe, is an important and major component of Sydney's water portfolio as the plant provides a drought-proof source of drinking water, while other sources are dependent on the hydrologic cycle. Regardless, there are many vocal and visible opponenets to the plant.

Desal plant opponent

The project office is currently located in the suburb of North Ryde (-33.786045, 151.128547). However, the office will be moved to the plant site in the near future. The tentative move date is the beginning of November. If the move goes according to schedule, I will be relocated to the Quest Apartments in Cronulla. Cronulla (-34.051077, 151.154087) is a beach town just south of the plant site. Here are a few photos of the Quest Apartments.

Quest Apartments - looking west from the beach

View from the apartments toward the beach

Cronulla Beach

After departing Cronulla, I ventured north to the CBD as I was eager to play with my new digital camera and snap a few photographs of the harbor at sunset and night time. I went to the north shore near the Harbor Bridge (-33.848766, 151.205971) to set up and took a bunch of pictures. Here they are.