# Brad Crouch From: Sunday Mail (SA) July 18, 2010 12:02AM
A SECRET plan to dig up dozens of Adelaide roads, compulsorily acquire land, disrupt businesses and erect huge pumping stations in parks will not be released until after the federal election.
Homeowners already caught in the network are being bullied into signing confidentiality agreements, with government agents bailing up retirees after dark with little more than Google Earth maps showing them how their homes will lose value, then leaving without passing on any paperwork to examine.
People who seek more information are being told to sign documents preventing them from speaking about the issue.
The plan, affecting thousands of people in around a dozen suburbs - triggered by the $1.83 billion desalination plant, which will not reduce the draw on the River Murray by a single drop while sending water bills soaring - is set to move into its construction phase by November.
Significant noise, dust, vibrations, road closures, power shutdowns and lingering odour are being factored into the secret plan.
SA Water sources have told the Sunday Mail the project is being carefully managed "to minimise political fallout" in the lead-up to the federal poll, with the marginal seats of Sturt, Boothby, Adelaide, Hindmarsh and Makin all being affected.
The State Government is fully versed in the plan, as are selected industry partners now vying for lucrative contracts for the $403 million project.
Despite this, the government's only public words so far have deliberately avoided naming key suburbs involved in crucial marginal federal seats, the extent of the works or how long they will take.
However, the Sunday Mail has obtained internal briefing papers on the masterplan and can name the streets where roads will be dug up and pumping stations erected.
map
As well as a network of quiet suburban backstreets, the major roads facing disruption to sink pipes up to a metre wide include Glynburn Rd, Marion Rd, Holbrooks Rd, Grange Rd, Nelson Rd, Fullarton Rd, Belair Rd, Hackney Rd, Walkerville Tce, Sudholz Rd and Lyons Rd.
The new pipelines also will cut across the O-Bahn track and will cross the busy Glen Osmond Rd intersection of the South Eastern Freeway.
Of the major roads affected, Marion Rd and Nelson Rd will each have 7km of pipework laid, Grange Rd will have more than 3km, while the snaking route from Gilberton to Hope Valley through backstreets will have more than 9km of pipework, and the suburban Clapham to Wattle Park via Springfield route will have more than 12km of pipeline.
Five huge new water-pumping stations - as high as three storeys - will also be built in Glenelg, Springfield, Wattle Park, Gilberton and Clapham, while seven enormous pressure-regulating valves will be built across the city.
Businesses on the affected roads will be facing the same drama that furniture store Pine City faced during the South Road overpass construction, which caused them to lay off staff, lose an estimated $300,000 in revenue and finally erect signs condemning the State Government.
The massive earthworks will eventually link the separate networks of the Happy Valley Reservoir in the south and the Hope Valley Reservoir in the north, as part of SA Water's plan to safeguard Adelaide's water supply and deliver water from the desalination plant.
According to SA Water, the $403 million North-South Interconnector will "fully integrate the Adelaide metropolitan water system by connecting the northern and southern parts, creating operating flexibility and reinforcing supply security across the metropolitan area."
The feasibility side of the project was endorsed by SA Water and the Desalination Plant Steering Committee in April, and the construction phase is scheduled to start from November.
SA Water has given confidential briefings to building firms as it seeks tenders for the lucrative contracts for the massive earthworks.
However, residents affected by the work have not been given full details, and some whose houses will lose significant value due to the work have been coerced into signing confidentiality agreements before being given limited information about the scheme.
In May - after the project was signed off by SA Water and the Desalination Plant Steering Committee - Water Minister Paul Caica issued a press release which referred to "upgrading existing pipelines" and noted that pumping stations will be constructed, without naming the ones at Wattle Park, Springfield or Clapham or detailing the extent of the new pipelines.
"We want to ensure that we can minimise the inconvenience to residents, businesses and commuters during the construction phase of this important water security project," Mr Caica stated.
"As part of the preferred option, some existing pump stations are to be upgraded and some new booster pumping stations are to be constructed at locations that include Gilberton and one on existing SA Water land at Glenelg North."
The lack of detail has been criticised by the Opposition, with Federal MP Christopher Pyne and State MP Vickie Chapman accusing the government of a stealth attack on unsuspecting homeowners.
Yesterday, Mr Caica said he had ordered SA Water not to force people to sign confidentiality clauses in future.
"We want to be transparent, we're not trying to be sneaky," he said. "We have issued three press releases on this.
"It is still in the conceptual stage and we will be informing residents as we go along.
"We know where we want to go with the pipework but haven't finalised anything."
Lots of questions, no answers
IN QUIET Simpson Rd, Wattle Park, residents are fuming at the surprise plan to build a 27m-long, 8m-high pumping station with three pumps pushing out up to 76 megalitres of water a day.
Eileen and John Day, who live opposite Wattle Park Reservoir - the proposed site for the plant - put their home on the market 10 days before they were informed of the plan by SA Water.
The couple said two representatives knocked on their door one evening and presented them with a Google map, but left them no paperwork to examine.
"Our house is now unsaleable. I am 74 and John is 85 and, due to health reasons, we planned to move to Victoria to be closer to relatives to look after us," Mrs Day said.
"We've lived here for 22 years and the reserve has been a parkland of trees and birds for 80 years - now they want to turn it into an industrial site towering 8m high directly opposite us.
"Burnside Council won't tell us anything and, when SA Water finally responded to our questions, they ordered us to sign confidentiality agreements before they would tell us anything, which we refused to do. It is very stressful."
Another Simpson Rd resident, Des Blake, sent SA Water a list of more than 100 questions after he refused to sign a confidentiality agreement about what they planned to do on the site. His questions remain unanswered.
"No wonder there has been no public outcry - no one knows what they are doing and they won't know until they do it," Mr Blake said. "The whole process is out of control. Ordinary citizens are being steamrolled by secrecy.
"Clearly the Simpson Rd site is too small for such a facility and inappropriately placed."
Suburbs to be affected by the pipelines include a swathe across the marginal federal seat of Sturt.
Liberal MP for Sturt, Christopher Pyne, and State MP Vickie Chapman will hold a public meeting on August 5 at 6.30pm at the Burnside Community Centre, and are circulating a petition opposing the pumping station.
"The Labor Party is trying to sneak a massive water pumping station into suburban Wattle Park in the dead of the night with little consultation. The entire project has been veiled in mystery," Mr Pyne said.
"I am opposed to how the Labor Government has gone about this and treated residents, and I am very concerned about the impact of such an enormous structure on the local area.
"As well as this monstrosity they are planning to dig up major roads and suburban streets, which will adversely affect thousands of residents."
