The South Australian Government is building a seawater desalination plant to help secure Adelaide’s drinking water supply.

A number of technical and environmental investigations have been undertaken and an an Independent Technical Review Panel for the marine environmental investigations has been established to:

• Ensure objectives of the environmental assessment process are achieved
• Verify the transparency and appropriateness of the process applied to the marine environmental investigations
• Provide independent technical feedback and advice to SA Water to ensure all significant marine environmental issues are identified and addressed
• Verify that the technical interpretation of investigation findings can be supported by the data presented.

Scope and Function

A series of Guiding Principles for the Panel are in place. These principles outline that the role of each panel member is to provide independent technical feedback and advice to ensure the objectives of the environmental assessment process are achieved by:

• Advising on the adequacy of environmental investigations and assessments, in terms of their nature, extent and scope, and ensuring that all areas of major environmental concern are addressed
• Advising on the robustness of investigation and assessment methodology, in particular ensuring these are scientifically and technically rigorous
• Providing an expert review of investigation outcomes and advising whether the technical interpretation of outcomes can be supported by data presented
• Providing feedback on assessment reports
• Advising on actions to overcome any identified gaps in knowledge following the investigations, including further investigation requirements
• Providing an aggregation of expertise and information to ensure timely delivery of an appropriate environmental impact assessment
• Providing a summary of the outcomes and recommendations from each meeting in the form of a meeting statement.

Panel Members

The Panel’s membership includes expertise in the environmental areas and issues to be addressed as part of the investigation work such as marine ecology, modelling, outfall dynamics and ecotoxicology, project management and environmental impact assessment.

Dr Des Lord is the Chair of the Panel. Dr Lord has more than 30 years experience in the fields of coastal engineering and marine science in South Africa, Canada and Australia, and has been associated with industry, academic institutions and private practice. Dr Lord has been involved in major coastal management issues around Australia such as the control and management of stormwater, wastewater and industrial wastes, dredging impacts, coastal erosion and seagrasses and port and harbour construction and effects on coastal circulation and water quality.

Dr Lord has held the position of Adjunct Professor in Marine Sciences at the University of Western Australia and has held the positions of:

• Chairman: Swan-Canning Cleanup Program (appointed by the Minister)
• Chairman: Adelaide Coastal Waters Study, Peer Review Group
• Chairman: Brisbane River and Moreton Bay Wastewater Management Study Scientific Review Group
• Advisor and technical reviewer to WA Water Corporation, Sydney Water, Melbourne Water, and the Power and Water Authority (NT) on coastal management issues and desalination plants.

Professor of Marine Biology Peter Fairweather is one of Australia’s foremost marine ecologists and has held the Chair in Marine Biology at Flinders University since 2001. He also previously held the position of President of the Marine Ecological Society of Australia and is a member of numerous scientific societies. Professor Fairweather has extensive research experience in examing the effects of water quality and pollutants on marine ecology. He has advised governments, non-government organisations and private enterprise on aquatic environmental issues. Professor Fairweather was a member of the Scientific Committee for the Adelaide Coastal Water Study and participated in the technical review committee reviewing the extension of Sydney’s treated wastewater outfalls. He has extensive knowledge of local marine conditions and has actively researched seagrass and reef habitats off Adelaide.

Dr Ian Wallis is Director of Consulting Environmental Engineers. Dr Wallis has extensive experience in environmental studies and oceanographic, air and water quality assessments. He is recognised as one of Australia’s experts in the design and construction of ocean outfalls and bas been involved in many of the major outfall projects in Australia, including the brine discharge outfalls for the Perth and Gold Coast desalination plants. Dr Wallis has undertaken research into sediment transport and the dispersion and flushing of wastes in tidal waters, and leads multidisciplinary oceanographic studies both throughout Australia and overseas. Dr Wallis has been responsible for many environmental water and air quality studies and has developed computer based models for predicting the movement, dilution and dispersion and concentration of pollutants in the environment.

Dr Anu Kumar is a Senior Research Scientist in the Environmental Biogeochemistry Research program at the CSIRO Land and Water. Dr Kumar has extensive research expertise in ecotoxicology including assessment of impacts of pollutants on ecosystems, evaluation of mixture toxicity, impacts of wastewater streams, sediment toxicity assessments and bio-monitoring. Dr Kumar holds the position of Adjunct Senior Lecturer with the University of South Australia, and is South Australia’s representative on the Australian Society of Ecotoxicology.