Northern Water

Northern Water is a major water infrastructure proposal intended to provide a secure, climate-resilient water supply for industry in South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf and Far North. It combines seawater desalination, marine intake and discharge infrastructure, a substantial water transfer pipeline and associated pumping, storage and supporting infrastructure.

The project brings together complex marine, terrestrial, social and economic considerations. Its assessment requires an integrated understanding of the marine receiving environment, extensive pipeline corridors, sensitive habitats, land use and the communities connected to the project.

We were engaged to undertake multi-criteria analysis for desalination plant site selection, providing a structured basis for comparing alternatives and understanding the implications of each location.

This work brought environmental considerations into the wider site-selection process alongside engineering, constructability, social and commercial factors. We helped identify material constraints, assess competing priorities and document the reasoning underpinning project decisions.

We also supported pipeline route selection, integrating environmental information with the practical requirements of a major linear infrastructure project. This included using spatial information and specialist advice to identify constraints, inform corridor refinement and support decisions about where further investigation was required.

By contributing at this early stage, we helped ensure that environmental considerations informed the project footprint and the scope of subsequent technical investigations.

We led and managed the Environmental Impact Statement process and the full programme of supporting technical studies. Our role extended from defining assessment scopes and procuring specialist advice to managing delivery, reviewing technical outputs and coordinating their integration into the EIS.

This required close management of the interfaces between specialist consultants, engineering teams, project leadership and regulators. We coordinated programme and budget requirements, technical reviews, requests for information and decision records, while maintaining alignment between the developing design and the assumptions used in environmental assessments.

A central part of our role was ensuring that individual studies formed a coherent assessment. Findings from modelling, field investigations and specialist analysis needed to inform one another, support consistent impact conclusions and translate into practical mitigation and management commitments.

We managed specialist inputs across marine and terrestrial environments, together with the social and economic assessments needed to understand the wider implications of the project.

Marine and coastal investigations

• Marine ecotoxicology: investigating biological responses to discharge characteristics and informing the assessment of potential effects on marine organisms.
• Marine hydrodynamic modelling: assessing circulation, mixing and dispersion to understand discharge behaviour and exposure within the receiving environment.
• Marine water quality: establishing baseline conditions and assessing potential changes associated with construction and operation.
• Benthic and epibenthic environmental assessments: characterising seabed habitats and associated biological communities, and evaluating potential disturbance and discharge-related effects.
• Marine sediment assessments: investigating sediment characteristics and quality to inform assessment of seabed disturbance and marine works.
• Plankton assessments: characterising plankton communities and informing consideration of potential intake and discharge effects.
• Integrated marine impact assessment: bringing ecological, ecotoxicological, sediment and modelling evidence together to inform impact conclusions, design considerations and management requirements.

Terrestrial, social and economic investigations

• Terrestrial biodiversity and native vegetation: coordinating specialist assessment of vegetation, habitat and fauna values, potential disturbance and avoidance or mitigation requirements.
• Hydrology and surface water: assessing drainage, catchments, watercourse interactions and potential effects on surface-water flows and quality.
• Soils and land disturbance: assessing soil characteristics and the implications of excavation, erosion, reinstatement and rehabilitation.
• Social impact assessment: examining potential effects on communities, landholders and other affected groups.
• Economic impact assessment: examining potential economic benefits and effects associated with project construction and operation.
• Environmental offsets: developing strategies to address relevant State and Commonwealth requirements for residual impacts.
• Integrated terrestrial impact assessment: connecting specialist findings with pipeline routing, infrastructure design, construction methods and environmental management requirements.

Our technical leadership drew on Dr Antony Lockyer’s PhD in Marine Ecotoxicology and experience across major infrastructure assessment. This supported detailed scrutiny of scientific evidence and clear communication between technical specialists and project decision-makers.

We managed the environmental regulator interface throughout our involvement in the EIS process, coordinating engagement on assessment requirements, technical approaches, emerging findings and proposed management measures.

This included bringing the appropriate technical specialists into discussions, coordinating responses to regulatory questions and ensuring feedback was incorporated into assessment workstreams. We maintained a connection between regulatory expectations, technical study delivery and project design decisions.

We also supported community and stakeholder engagement by translating complex environmental information into clear explanations of potential impacts, assessment methods and proposed mitigation. This helped the project team communicate the evidence underpinning its decisions and respond to environmental concerns.

As a newly formed delivery organisation, the Office for Northern Water Delivery required environmental systems and processes to support its expanding programme of work. We designed and established the project’s environmental management system, creating a foundation for consistent management across planning, investigations and future delivery activities.

Our work connected environmental obligations with responsibilities, management plans, contractor requirements and assurance processes. This included developing environmental management frameworks and operational planning requirements, together with processes for technical review, decision-making and the management of environmental risks.

We also developed environmental technical requirements for procurement and major contracts, supported tender evaluation and helped translate assessment commitments into clear delivery expectations.

This provided continuity between the strategic assessment of the project and the practical arrangements needed to manage environmental performance.

Our contribution spanned the decisions that shaped the project, the studies needed to assess its effects and the systems required to manage work on the ground.

We brought together site-selection analysis, pipeline routing support, EIS leadership, specialist study management, regulator engagement, environmental governance and contractor oversight. This gave the project a consistent environmental interface across disciplines and stages of development.

The result was a stronger foundation for informed project decisions, coordinated assessment and practical environmental management, with clearer connections between technical evidence, regulatory obligations and delivery responsibilities.

Northern Water is a major water infrastructure proposal intended to provide a secure, climate-resilient water supply for industry in South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf and Far North. It combines seawater desalination, marine intake and discharge infrastructure, a substantial water transfer pipeline and associated pumping, storage and supporting infrastructure.

The project brings together complex marine, terrestrial, social and economic considerations. Its assessment requires an integrated understanding of the marine receiving environment, extensive pipeline corridors, sensitive habitats, land use and the communities connected to the project.