TWO more deaths have been linked to Adelaide's controversial desalination plant.
The Advertiser can reveal a worker "drowned in diesel" trying to siphon fuel and a truck driver died in a crash.
Allen O'Neil, 31, died on February 15 after accidentally inhaling diesel on December 12 last year at a site associated with the plant.
His family and union heads are now fighting for compensation for his girlfriend and two children.
A SafeWork SA investigation concluded his death was not a workplace accident.
The death of the truck driver, a 59-year-old Queensland man, on Lonsdale Highway, was classified as a road fatality. But workers at the site considered it a workplace accident because he was transporting material for the plant.
The project's only recognised workplace death that of Brett Fritsch, 35, who died on July 16 after being struck by a 14m steel beam has in part been blamed for a predicted four-month delay in completing the plant. A desal plant insider also alleges:
A WORKER suffered an electric shock on site, which led to an Occupational Health and Safety manager for the plant contractors, Adelaide Aqua, losing his job.
SA WATER offered $70 million to the consortium as an incentive to meet the early deadline, and staff were offered 10 per cent bonuses.
EXPLOSIVES were stored inadequately and without proper security surveillance.
OVERSIZED vehicles and chemical tankers were driven without obtaining appropriate traffic permits.
Adelaide Aqua also knew of the project's delays as early as November 2009, and advised SA Water that a December 2010 deadline was not on track.
A monthly report from November last year, obtained by the Advertiser, reports that essential project components were running 121 days late, and by the end of May, the Government was advised the project was running 89 days behind schedule.
It is also understood the project plan was revised four times, and design work has been occurring "on the run". Other documents provided to The Advertiser show that specific design detail for the project's four most critical elements was not provided until January this year.
Last weekend, Water Minister Paul Caica said the project had been delayed as a result of the death of Mr Fritsch, claiming the accident had resulted in a slower work pace.
SafeWork SA yesterday confirmed the other two deaths. SafeWork SA director of strategic interventions Bryan Russell said Mr O'Neil's death was not classed as a workplace death because it happened "outside work hours" and was not a "work related activity".
"On February 15, 2010, a 31-year old steel fixer employed on the Desalination Transfer Pipeline Project died in hospital as a result of aspirating diesel at the Meyer Road, Lonsdale, work site on December 12, 2009," a statement from SafeWork SA says.
"Following a thorough investigation, SafeWork SA determined that the fatal injury did not occur as a result of a work activity and that the employer had relevant procedures and systems in place."
A desal plant insider said the man was siphoning diesel into his tanker, allegedly because he was not provided with the proper siphoning equipment by construction consortium McConnell Dowell Abigroup.
Whistleblowers claim there is an unsafe work culture at the desalination plant and corners are being cut to try to rush the project.
The worker's father, Eric O'Neil, said he was now fighting WorkCover in the courts for compensation for his son's girlfriend and his two daughters, aged three and 15 months.
Adelaide Aqua project director Duncan Whitfield said an initiative which aimed to bring the project's completion date forward eight weeks had not resulted in work being rushed. "That was a decongesting initiative, it was not an acceleration," he said.
