Desal plant nets third in contest

THE Gold Coast can boast the third-best water in Queensland, but not many locals get to regularly drink it.

Yesterday, water from the desalination plant came third in the QWater Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test.

Since May, this water has gone to people in Brisbane and Ipswich while Mount Crosby treatment plant is shut down.

The desalination plant has been cranked up to 100 per cent providing up to 133 million litres a day.

In the past two years, the plant has been used four times to supplement Gold Coast water supply.

Unlike the other finalists in the water tasting competition, the desalination plant is an expensive drop.

Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey told the Bulletin last month the cost was $800 per megalitre during continuous production, including chemicals, energy and waste disposal.

That compared to $123 per megalitre at conventional treatment plants drawing water from rivers and dams.

At yesterday’s testing, QWater vice chairman Troy Pettiford said he could pick water from the desalination plant straight away.

“They are ones with hardly any taste at all because they go through that plant which strips everything out of it and they have to put stuff back in to give it taste,” he said.

Veolia, the company that runs the plant, declined to comment on placing third in the water taste test.