A ship will be positioned offshore of the Belmont Wastewater Treatment Works undertaking investigations ahead of construction on the Desalination Plant.
The Belmont Desalination Plant was announced last year as part of the Lower Hunter Water Security Plan and will have the capacity to pump up to 30 million litres of water per day, even during drought.
As a part of the project the offshore and onshore investigations at Belmont South will start this week.
Hunter Water’s contractor John Holland Group and their contractors will be assessing the condition of the seabed. To do that, from this week a ship will be positioned offshore to conduct cone penetration testing on the seabed. It’s a common practice and involves drilling a pilot hole into the seabed with a special cone then driven through the hole into the ground to measure the density of earth on the sea floor.
From Monday, a jack-up barge will be positioned offshore as well to take core samples from the seabed using a drill rig.
The investigations will take about a month to complete. From Monday January 30, investigations on land will continue.
All going according to plan, Hunter Water said construction of the desalination plant is expected to start in 2024, pending final planning approvals.