Eden Project hangs in the balance

A concept image of the Eden Project.

EDEN Project chief executive officer David Harland had both good and bad news to deliver at the Eden Project Community Update on Monday.

While the issue of who the planning authority for the proposal will be has not been fully resolved, Eden are content with the progress that has been made.

This was reaffirmed by Surf Coast Shire chief executive officer Keith Baillie, who said at the public meeting at the Anglesea Senior Citizens Club, that the shire was “ready to go” if the project went ahead.

Mr Baillie said the shire was discussing ways it could influence the state government’s plans for the project so they could support the community’s interests.

Mr Harland said that finding enough water to create a 100-hectare body of water in Alcoa’s old mine would now likely give the project great momentum.

“If we can deal with that, then we can move forward pretty quickly.”

Eden flagged getting the water for the mine as a critical issue in August, but as Eden’s self-imposed deadline of the end of 2019 nears, there is still no consensus on how this should be done.

Alcoa site manager Warren Sharp said with regards to a solution to the water problem, “we had hoped to be closer to it by now”.

The two main options continue to be diverting Salt Creek or building a pipeline to pump water from Black Rock Water Reclamation Plant.

The first has raised environmental concerns, while the second has raised economic and planning ones.

Mr Harland said progress had been made getting the state government and other involved parties to look at possible options, but also urged haste.

“We really need that bureaucratic work to keep going. We’ve been working on this since 2018, now is the time to get things moving.”

Eden have set the end of this year as a deadline, as they are conscious that investors may lose interest in the $150 million project if it stalls for too long.

Mr Harland said it would be regrettable if this were to happen.

“This will be one of the greatest missed opportunities.”

Speaking in Parliament in support of the proposal on Tuesday, Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party MP Stuart Grimley urged the state government to “come to the party” and support the Black Rock Water Reclamation Plant option as soon as possible.