Location
Australia / Asia Pacific
Project record
Toukley desalination intake and existing-outfall connection
Central Coast Council has settled the current EIS concept for a Toukley desalination plant: the seawater pump station stays beside the existing sewage treatment plant, a 2.4 km microtunnel reaches an intake about 1 km off Jenny Dixon Beach, and a short connection sends brine through the existing Norah Head ocean outfall. NSW lists the project at Prepare EIS. Council has neither decided to build nor funded construction.
Segment
Marine utilities
Status
Prepare EIS; the current concept fixes a 2.4 km intake tunnel and existing-outfall connection, but no construction decision or funding is public / Confirmed
Evidence reviewed
20 July 2026
Controlled taxonomy
Related sectors
The detailed segment above is the primary work classification. These broader sector links connect the project to related delivery and market research.
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.
Project anatomy
Scope, counterparties, and execution logic
- Client / authority
- Central Coast Council Water and Sewer
- Delivery parties
- GHD - concept design and statutory approvals support, Construction and marine contractors - not appointed in the cited public record
- Contract route
- Council appointed GHD to support concept design and statutory approvals. The public record does not identify a funded detailed-design, tunnelling, intake-caisson, process-plant or construction contract. Any later procurement remains conditional on approvals, water-security triggers, funding and a Council decision to proceed.
- Execution window
- Council is seeking a plan-ready approval rather than an immediate build. The EPBC referral uses 2036 as a conservative planning assumption, says construction could take about 36 months and says the plant may be needed in the early 2040s if drought triggers do not bring it forward. Council's March FAQ uses a broader three-to-four-year construction estimate. Neither is a committed start or completion date.
- Works package
- The current proposal allows an initial 30 ML/d reverse-osmosis plant and an assessment envelope up to 40 ML/d. Its marine scope includes a roughly 2.4 km, 2.5 m diameter microtunnel from the plant through an intermediate shaft to an intake about 1 km offshore; a roughly 12 m diameter intake tower with concrete caisson rings, a steel support frame, GRP dome, removable grills and rockfill scour protection; and a roughly 180 m brine connection to the Toukley sewage treatment plant outfall tank. A separate 1.4 km, 600 mm treated-water pipeline connects to the potable network.
- Marine interfaces
- Moving the pump station to the plant site removes the permanent beach pump-station option but concentrates delivery risk in the long microtunnel, the Jenny Dixon Beach construction and maintenance shaft, offshore caisson installation and tunnel-to-intake connection. Brine is proposed to co-mingle with treated effluent through the existing Norah Head ocean outfall, with no physical change to that outfall. Hydraulic capacity, near-field mixing, far-field plume behaviour and discharge approval therefore remain system-level gates rather than assumed benefits of an existing asset.
- Commercial read
- There is no current marine construction opportunity supported by an owner tender or award. The next market evidence would be an exhibited EIS, approved project description, funded detailed design, geotechnical and marine survey packages, tunnelling or shaft procurement, intake-caisson fabrication and installation, or owner-issued process and integration packages. GHD's planning role should not be read as an EPC or construction award.
- Next milestone
- Publication and exhibition of the EIS, including the final intake alignment, shaft footprint, marine ecology work, hydraulic and far-field plume modelling, followed by NSW and EPBC determinations. Funding, detailed design and construction procurement would be later and separate gates.
Material change register
What changed, when, and what it proves
Only source-bound events that alter phase, scope, counterparties, delivery, completion, commissioning, or acceptance are listed. A change can advance the record without proving the next gate.
The Commonwealth referral described the offshore intake and existing-outfall connection
EPBC 2026/10457 documented the 2.4 km microtunnel, intake about 1 km offshore, caisson concept and 180 m brine connection. The portal currently records Assessment Approach Determined, not final approval.
Read controlling sourceCouncil fixed the current pump-station and intake-route concept
The preferred concept moved the pump station to the plant site and retained only a construction and maintenance shaft near Jenny Dixon Beach. It defines the EIS basis but does not authorise construction.
Read controlling sourceCouncil opened the next planning and consultation stage
The owner began route and intake option work to make the scheme plan ready for a future drought response. That planning start was not a construction commitment.
Read controlling sourceDelivery watch
Evidence needed next
Publication and exhibition of the EIS, including the final intake alignment, shaft footprint, marine ecology work, hydraulic and far-field plume modelling, followed by NSW and EPBC determinations. Funding, detailed design and construction procurement would be later and separate gates.
Decision watchpoints
- EIS publication, exhibition and final project description
- NSW and EPBC assessment decisions and approval conditions
- Intake alignment, intermediate shaft and Jenny Dixon Beach access footprint
- Marine geotechnical, bathymetric and ecology investigations
- Far-field brine-plume modelling and existing-outfall hydraulic capacity
- Detailed-design funding and procurement strategy
- Microtunnelling, caisson fabrication and offshore installation packages
- Pressure testing, flushing, water-quality trials and environmental acceptance
Project availability status
This public project page is a tracked market record rather than a tender notice, contractual commitment, or commercial instruction. Use the status, confidence label, evidence-review date, and source note together when judging how much weight to place on the signal.
Read featured analysis Review methodology Submit stronger evidence or a correction Open project trackerSource record
The NSW Planning Portal controls the Prepare EIS status and SSI-75724228 record. Central Coast Council controls the current preferred concept, 30 ML/d initial capacity, possible 40 ML/d staging and plan-ready purpose. EPBC 2026/10457 supplies the 2.4 km tunnel, 1 km offshore intake, intake-tower concept, 180 m brine connection and existing-outfall boundary. The current map is a planning route, not an as-built alignment. Keep the referral's 36-month estimate separate from Council's three-to-four-year estimate, and keep the 2036 and early-2040s assumptions separate from approved or contracted dates.
Phase: planning. Evidence reviewed: 20 July 2026.
Project sources 7
- 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
- Planning underway for future water security on the Central Coast Central Coast Council, 11 August 2025