Marine Utilities
Toukley puts the pump station inland and the intake 1 km offshore
Central Coast Council; crop of the current preferred project map, not construction evidence
Central Coast Council's current Toukley concept keeps the seawater pump station beside the treatment site and sends a 2.4 km microtunnel to an intake about 1 km off Jenny Dixon Beach. Brine would use the existing Norah Head ocean outfall through a short connection.
What changed
The Planning Portal confirms Prepare EIS, SSI-75724228 and the controlled-action pathway. Council's current page and map establish the preferred inland pump-station and offshore-intake concept. EPBC 2026/10457 supplies the tunnel, caisson and existing-outfall details. These are concept and assessment records; they do not prove funding, tender, award or mobilisation.
Why it matters
The change removes a permanent pump station from the beach reserve, but it does not remove the marine works. Delivery now turns on an intermediate shaft, a long bored route, an offshore caisson and the tunnel-to-intake connection. At the discharge end, using an existing outfall still leaves hydraulic capacity, mixing and plume behaviour to be demonstrated for the combined flow.
Decision read
What remains open
This is a planning baseline, not a construction start. NSW records the project at Prepare EIS and the Commonwealth portal at Assessment Approach Determined. Council is planning an initial 30 ML/d plant within an assessment envelope up to 40 ML/d. No construction funding, detailed-design award, marine contractor or procurement programme is public. The referral's 2036 assumption and early-2040s outlook are scenario dates, not commitments.
Next watchpoints
- EIS publication and public exhibition
- Final intake alignment and shaft footprint
- Marine ground and ecology investigation results
- Far-field plume modelling and existing-outfall capacity
- NSW and EPBC approval conditions
- Detailed-design funding and procurement route
- Microtunnelling and intake-caisson package awards
- Hydraulic testing, water-quality trials and environmental acceptance
Knowledge context
Related knowledge topics
Continue through the topic collections to compare this record with related projects, evidence guides, briefs, articles, reports, and performance records.
Sources used 6
- Toukley Desalination Water Treatment Plant major-project record NSW Planning Portal, Current record reviewed 20 July 2026
- Toukley Desalination Water Treatment Plant project page Central Coast Council, Updated 2 March 2026
- EPBC 2026/10457 referral summary Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Current record reviewed 20 July 2026
- EPBC 2026/10457 referral application Central Coast Council via EPBC Act Public Portal, 11 March 2026
- Toukley Desalination Water Treatment Plant FAQs Central Coast Council, 2 March 2026
- Toukley Desalination Water Treatment Plant consultation and preferred route Central Coast Council, Your Voice Our Coast, Current page reviewed 20 July 2026
Corrections and methodology
Facts are dated to the source record above. IMWO updates the brief when procurement, award, delivery, or scope evidence materially changes.
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