The environment deserves more than this drop in a bucket Tom Crothers The Courier-Mail August 18, 2014 12:00AM Share 2 GREG HUNT INTERVIEW cdn.newsapi.au/image/v1/external?url=content6.video.news.au/ljdDZmbzq-jFQfpwTBhO5keuklyh6fyo/promo231296617&width=650&api_key=kq7wnrk4eun47vz9c5xuj3mc RECENTLY, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved the Indian company Adani’s Carmichael Mine in the Galilee Basin. The approval, for what will be Australia’s largest coal mine, contained some 36 conditions for managing the identified impacts of the mine – many of them pertaining to the management of the region’s groundwater resources. An independent panel of eminent scientists has questioned the integrity of Adani’s hydrology modelling. In short, these scientists believe the modelling has serious flaws. In response, Hunt imposed a condition requiring Adani to engage an independent consultant to further develop the company’s existing hydrology model and to assess the potential “cumulative impacts” of the Carmichael mine, together with other nearby mines, on the region’s groundwater resources. This work, however, should have been finalised before a decision was made on the Carmichael Mine. This mine is expected to take 750 billion litres from aquifers during its life. Consultants’ reports on the Carmichael, Alpha, Kevin’s Corner and Galilee coal mines, which have all been approved by the Queensland and Australian governments, indicate they will extract around 1770 billion litres of groundwater – this is equivalent to 3.54 Sydney Harbours of precious water. Notwithstanding the deficiencies of Adani’s modelling, the Queensland and Australian governments themselves have still not developed a groundwater hydrology model to assess the cumulative impacts of these mines. Both governments have been approving Galilee Basin coal mines without a sufficient understanding of the likely impact of all four proposed mines on the region’s aquifers, including the Great Artesian Basin. This is a totally unsustainable course of action for one of the driest continents on earth. The GAB is the largest artesian groundwater basin in the world and provides the essential lifeblood for the pastoral industry and rural towns across large swathes of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. Some 15 years ago, to protect the Basin from a decline in water pressure and to reduce water wastage, all affected state governments, together with landholders and the Australian government, launched the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative (GABSI) to cap running bores and replace drains with piping. More than $300 million of taxpayers’ and landholders’ money has been spent on this program, with attributed water savings of 200,000 million litres. On July 1, 2014, the Australian government ceased its funding of the program on the basis of the increasing cost of capping the remaining uncontrolled bores. Grazier Lenard Coyne and partner Katrina Harvey near a drilling rig on their property as Grazier Lenard Coyne and partner Katrina Harvey near a drilling rig on their property as they and surrounding farmers brace themselves for giant coal mines opening in the surrounding Galilee Basin. In approving the Carmichael Mine, Hunt imposed a condition on Adani for the return of a minimum of 730 million litres of water to the GAB each year for a minimum of five years, as an “effective extension” of the GABSI program. Hunt told ABC Radio National: “I wanted to ensure that there’s a significant environmental return and a significant community return. I put it to the proponents and they accepted the condition. It’s a very constructive outcome.” Given the Australian Government decided the continuation of the GABSI program was not “good value for money” and has ceased its funding, it seems bizarre the Minister would make claims about the significant “environmental and community return” from this condition. Indeed, GABSI program sources advise that the 3650 million litres of water to be returned over five years by Adani is equivalent to the capping of just 10 of the remaining 212 uncontrolled bores. This is hardly a resounding resurrection of the GABSI program. Notwithstanding the 36 conditions imposed on Adani by Hunt, their effectiveness will be totally dependent on how well the Australian and Queensland governments monitor and enforce their implementation. A recent independent audit of the Commonwealth and Queensland Environment Departments found both departments to be grossly ineffective in their environmental monitoring and enforcement functions. So what confidence do we have that these 36 conditions will be enforced? Unfortunately very little. We are likely to see the mine’s approval with most “conditional strings” detached and long-lasting impacts on the groundwater resources on which Central Queensland relies, in particular for the iconic Great Artesian Basin. The people of Australia deserve much better than this. Tom Crothers is an independent hydrology consultant and a former general manager of Water Planning and Allocation for Queensland.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:30:47 +0000
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