Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland state government on Monday revealed plans for a long-term port development strategy using dredge material produced at Abbot Point.
“The strategy approved by state Cabinet today will create a win-win situation – it will protect the unique values of the Great Barrier Reef and allow for the staged development of the important Port of Abbot Point,” Premier Campbell Newman said.
The Abbot Point expansion project, referred to as Terminal 0, is a 70-million-tonne-a-year terminal project being developed by Indian resource giant Adani in two 35-million-tonne-a-year stages.
The expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal will see the dredging and dumping of three-million tonnes of dredge spoil in reef waters. Instead, the new strategy, proposes to dispose of the three-million cubic metres of dredge material on land.
Newman said the Queensland government had been working on the Abbot Point beneficial reuse strategy since coming to office in 2012, and would now ask the federal government to expedite the plan’s approval.
“Our government made it a priority to develop the resource-rich Galilee basin to create up to 28 000 jobs and economic opportunities for a new generation of Queenslanders.
“As soon as we were elected we immediately set to work untangling Labor’s confusing web of regulations to ensure there was a proper plan to create the rail and port infrastructure needed to develop up to five potential mines in the Galilee.”
The dredge material was likely to be deposited at an existing site within the Abbot Point state development area to enhance port development, in the same way that expansions were successfully occurring at the Port of Brisbane.
The Queensland Resources Council on Monday welcomed the new strategy, with CEO Michael Roche saying that industry support for the decision to pursue this land-based disposal option demonstrated industry's commitment to always being guided by best practice and best science, based on the advice of technical experts.
The Abbot Point project proponents had already committed to meeting some of the highest environmental standards anywhere in the world, Roche said, adding that Abbot Point project had passed a rigorous approvals process that was based on scientific evidence assessed by the federal environment department and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Roche said that if granted approval, the new strategy should address community concerns, including the tourism industry, about disposal of dredge material in the Marine Park.
The Australian Greens welcomed the onshore disposal announcement, but said more should be done to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
"Although onshore disposal of the dredge spoil is preferable to dumping it in the reef, the onshore disposal must be environmentally safe and we will be looking closely at the details of the proposal and its environmental impacts as they emerge.
"We need a permanent and immediate ban on all new reef dumping and the old parties should support my Bill to do this currently in the federal Parliament as part of saving the reef from being added to the list of World Heritage sites in danger," said Queensland's Green senator Larissa Waters.