Toolibin salt study released

20/4/04
Environment Minister Judy Edwards today released a feasibility study into establishing a commercial salt harvesting operation using saline water beneath Toolibin Lake.
"To tackle salinity we must develop economic ways of better managing saline discharge as well as using more water," Dr Edwards said.
"At the same time, we want new developments to meet the environmental and social needs of the community."
The Toolibin Lake Recovery Team, which includes representatives of the departments of Conservation and Land Management, Agriculture and Environment and local landholders, provides advice on strategies to help conserve this important wetland.
One of these strategies involves pumping saline groundwater from under Toolibin Lake to help protect it from rising ground water.
The recovery team also is working with catchment landholders and others to improve the catchment water balance, but this will take many years before it completely replaces ground water pumping.
A more economic and environmentally sound way of managing the salty discharge from ground water pumps is being examined by the team.
"In natural diversity recovery catchments such as Toolibin, we are not only aiming to protect an ecologically important public asset, we are also researching and developing methods of better managing land and water for everyone," the Minister said.
The feasibility study concluded that although the site, climatic conditions and water chemistry at Toolibin were suitable for the operation of a solar saltfield, existing capacity to supply saline ground water, transport costs and market prices would not allow the project to be commercially viable.
"While this is disappointing, the information from the feasibility study will help many others investigating salt harvesting elsewhere in the South-West," Dr Edwards said.
The report, compiled by Maunsell Australia, has been made widely available through the Department of Conservation and Land Management's NatureBase website at http://www.naturebase.com.au/projects/salinity/toolibin/pdf/solar_saltfield_study.pdf
Minister's office: 9220 5050