AUSTRALIA – The South Australian state government has released a climate action vision plan, including the construction of a new desalination plant as a key component, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The new desalination plant will be located at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. SA Water recently held an information night at Penneshaw to discuss its plans to expand the existing desalination plant. The funding linked to the Climate Change Action plant includes a $19.8 million contribution to the new SA Water desalination facility on Kangaroo Island. (The Islander)

CHINA – A large desalination plant in Tangshan City in the north of China’s Hebei Province recently started operations. The thermal-membrane hybrid seawater desalination plant is capable of producing 10,000 m³/d of fresh water and is operated by Shougang Jingtan United Iron & Stell Co., Ltd. The plant combines thermal and membrane desalination technologies, using waste heat produced by factories to distil seawater in combination with ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis membranes. The water produced by the plant will be used directly in the steel plant’s smelting process and will also provide daily fresh water for its employees. (The Star)

SCIENCE – Researchers in Environmental Science & Technology report that the Sydney Desalination plant has the unexpected benefit of attracting species of fish at the facilities discharge site. The researchers used scuba divers to record videos of fish at the outlet sites and at multiple reference sites several miles away, over a 7-year period prior to and after the plant’s operation, as well as during a timeframe when the plant was temporarily shut down.

Fish, including several commercially important species, were three times more prevalent around the outlet during the hypersaline discharge than before or after. These differences were not found at the reference sites. The largest increase was observed for fish that feed on zooplankton, such as the one-spot fuller. The scientist think that the turbulence caused by the high-pressure release of the salty solution could have attracted the fish, as local changes in seawater salinity and temperature are relatively small following hypersaline discharge. (ScienceDaily)