Desalinization Plant

Eric is an engineer at the local desal plant and kindly arranged a tour for us.  Rosemary, our guide, was very friendly and knowledgeable.  Her pride in every aspect of the plant was obvious.  In case you didn't know, Australia experiences severe droughts and they have positioned several of these plants outside their larger cities to ensure an adequate supply of drinking water for the people.  They are not inexpensive but at least the seawater is free.

One of the giant intake valves.  The water comes in from the ocean then goes through
a multi-stage process from saltwater to tapwater.

A large holding pond with the berm behind it.  To provide pleasing aesthetics
for the surrounding area, you can't see the plant at all from outside the berm .

The intake valves from the ocean.

The outside of the main plant building is landscaped with native plants.
Quite a bit of effort has gone into making the place as pleasing to all
the various constituencies that might have objected to the plant.

To lend some perspective, this is just one row of one type of filter. This
is the largest desal plant in Australia and 3rd or 4th in the world.  It is
equivalent to the 2 plants in Perth.

One of the many racks of filters.  The water goes through
three phases of cleansing then three steps of salt removal. The
desalinization process removes everything so some minerals need
to be added back in to make it palatable for drinking.