Victorian desalination plant marine environmental monitoring program

Professional Marine Science Services are currently gathering ecological and water quality data as part of the Marine Environmental Monitoring Program for the Victorian Desalination Plant. Information being collected includes the composition of existing invertebrate communities, gathered using standardised size photographs and the recruitment of new organisms using settlement plates which were installed by Professional Diving Services in August. Professional Marine Science Services scientists are now identifying and counting the organisms present in photographs and settlement plates in the laboratory. This data will then be used to access the level of any impact caused by the release of concentrated brine effluent from the desalination plant outlets on the marine environment offshore of Wonthaggi.