Investigation of alternative water sources for fish farming using life cycle costing approach: A case study in North West Tasmania

Abstract

In this case study, we investigated the options for freshwater sources for a medium-sized aquaculture business in North West (NW) Tasmania. We considered four different options for water sourcing including from local rivers, groundwater, drinking water from local water supply utility as well as from nearby irrigation schemes. Our investigation employed the life cycle costing (LCC) approach for assessing the different options. Based on the locations of the future aquaculture plant, water demand, water availability from various sources, local topography, net present worth of total capital cost, operational and annual maintenance cost of required infrastructures, we found that both the river and groundwater options performed equally well. However, given the uncertainties in the long term environmental and hydrogeological impacts on the aquifer water quantity and quality resulting from continuous extraction of groundwater, water supply from the rivers in NW Tasmania offered the most preferred option for aquaculture business in NW Tasmania. Our proposed methodology for the assessment of alternative water sourcing options demonstrated ranking of the options based on net present values (NPV) of capital, operational and maintenance costs as well as on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 equivalent) generated from options considered. This ranking approach can be employed to other industries where large amount of water is required for process operations.