In October 2021, eight vessels protested off Port Lincoln in South Australia against SA Water's preferred site at Billy Lights Point for a new desalination plant, for which the state government had budgeted $90 million. Fishers, tourism operators and aquaculture feared that brine would pollute the shallow, sheltered bays. SA Water pointed to 20 assessed sites, an intake of 30 megalitres a day, or 30,000 m³/day, and diffusers that preliminary modelling said would disperse the concentrate adequately.
The case showed how a dispute over a desalination plant can shift to site selection and brine discharge when fishing and aquaculture in poorly flushed bays are affected.
Source: ABC News