Abbot Point update 7 (7.10.14) • Onshore disposal? • More concern about GBRMPA
For Abbot Point Update followers, it’s a case of ‘too long between drinks’. So, we’ll keep the apologies short and get into it. As the sun went down on our last blog, Deputy Premier Seeney has just announced that he had forsaken sea dumping and had found a site for onshore disposal – something that until then had been deemed, after a number of assessments by consultants for the proponents, to be infeasible on environmental and/or technical and/or economic grounds. Rumours circulated for a month or so until, on 3 October, Mr Seeney referred a specific site to the Federal Minister for consideration under the EPBC Act. There were two referrals, one relating to the dredging and spoil disposal, the other, relating to the plan for the wetland. It came as a shock. The spoil was to be dumped in a trigger area of the Caley Valley Wetlands Protection Area (pictured), an action which, according to Mr Seeney, would result in ‘protection and enhancement of the Wetlands’.
Unfortunately, much of the detail was missing – as in it was in studies that were yet to be done. And, importantly, the referral contained the sentence, ‘If this action does not obtain approvals allowing onshore placement of dredge material in a timely manner, then project proponents that need to dredge at Abbot Point will have no option but to dispose material (sic] in the GBR Marine Park in accordance with existing approvals’. In other words, if this isn’t done as quickly as we would like, we’ll go back and dump the spoil in the Marine Park, because you’ve already given us an approval for that. In that case, our AAT case would be reinvigorated and we would expect the challenge to continue on. There are any number of issues that have gone unaddressed in the referral document provided to Mr Hunt by Mr Seeney. And the first thing that Mr Hunt must do is to look at the material and decide what type of assessment he will subject it to. He could forsake all pretence of rigorous assessment and ask for no further documentation – or he could open it up to public scrutiny; a decision that could in itself be challenged. So, one way or the other, the issue is unlikely to be over yet.
One of the most bizarre suggestions by Mr Seeney was that this would increase the attractiveness of the wetlands to tourism. It is hard to see how running a four metre high bund wall around three sides of the main part of the wetland and topping that with a railway line for coal trains going 24/7 could do that. Of, and one more thing, whereas the Port and users of the port would have picked up the tab for offshore dumping, it would be the public who would pay for onshore dumping… NQCC’s media response to the latest proposal by Mr Seeney, Wetlands the new scapegoat in bizarre Abbot Point plan, can be found here. And in other related media, on 6 October, ABC’s Lateline ran a story about the drastic loss of staff and expertise at GBRMPA – referred to by the Chair and CEO, Dr Russell Reichelt, as part of ‘evolutionary change’… The Lateline program provides great footage of the wetlands adjoining the coal stockpiles.