Company chosen to deliver desalination plant

The chosen location for the plant is Par

A company has been appointed to deliver the first desalination plant in Cornwall.

South West Water's (SWW) plans will see seawater turned into drinking water at a desalination plant in Par and water treatment works at Restormel.

SWW has appointed Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions.

David Harris, drought and resilience director for SWW, said it would help the region to become "less reliant on rainfall and more resilient against the impacts of climate change in the future".

The desalination process will involve extracting seawater from St Austell Bay to receive initial treatment at the desalination plant.

SWW said the water would then be transferred to Cornwall’s biggest water treatment works at Restormel for a secondary phase of treatment before being circulated for consumption to about 300,000 people in Cornwall.

It is part of a £125m package of investment by SWW, which includes desalination.

Ben Harding, regional vice president for UK & Ireland, Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions, said it looked "forward to helping increase access to clean water and protecting the environment".

SWW is undertaking a programme of public engagement on the project prior to the submission of a planning application.

'Gold standard'

Some people have told the BBC they do not agree with the area chosen to place the plant.

Brian Sheen, who worked in research for Imerys for 25 years and knows the area well, said: "I'm not impressed with the route they've chosen.

"To be honest though they probably looked at Fowey Docks from the waterside and it didn't look very promising.

"If you go down the road you can see the benefits of putting it there."

Caroline Stephenson runs a Climate Change Education Centre in Par.

She said: "I kind of want them to do it because I understand the argument about not, in drought years, going down and down into only rain water sort of sources and rivers.

"I think we need something else but I think we need to do it at the gold standard."

There are some concerns it could affect wildlife.

Jenny Tagney, chair of Friends of Par Beach, said: "St Austell Bay has the largest seagrass beds in the UK and anything they're proposing out in the bay is likely to disturb the seagrass."

South West Water said it had explored potential sites across Cornwall's coastline with considerations for any impacts to the public, wildlife and environment.