By Rich Bowden:
The Australian Greens have called for better water monitoring methods to be implemented in the wake of allegations that contamination of creek systems has occurred near the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory.
Recent data released by the Environment Centre NT outlined significant sulphate contamination of nearby water systems outside of the mine’s zone, reigniting fears that the mine’s owners, Energy Resources of Australia, were continuing to have difficulty in controlling contamination.
Dr Stuart Blanch, head of the Environment Centre NT, said the results had been received by the organisation from an anonymous source and he asked why the information was not included in the supervising scientists’ report.
“The supervising scientist did not report this information on its website,” he said. “It did provide it to a committee of interested folks, but this sort of information should be on its website.”
“The information that it does have there completely masks and excludes the peak that shows that two times the reporting level of salt escaped from Ranger on around 10 April this year, but they did not report it.”
Under questioning from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam at Senate estimates in Canberra on Wednesday, Supervising Scientist Alan Hughes acknowledged deficiencies in current methods of water monitoring, saying real time water monitoring was the most efficient way to monitor contamination of waterways downstream of the Ranger Uranium Mine and promised to push for this method.
“It is time the Supervising Scientist stepped in to make sure that real-time water quality data is made public by the company so that we can all be confident that events like this don’t ever go under the radar,” Senator Ludlam said at the hearing.
Senator Ludlam referred to the recent contamination of water sources and said that, while no regulatory guidelines were broken by the company, this was not difficult as none had been set.
“The recent contamination spike into the Magela Creek system in Kakadu wasn’t picked up by the routine ‘grab’ monitoring that downstream communities rely on,” said Senator Ludlam.
“Mr Hughes said the recent contamination spike at Magela Creek didn’t breach any regulatory thresholds, but then acknowledged that none had been set.
It’s hard to breach a limit if you haven’t capped it,” Senator Ludlam said.
ERA, which is majority owned by mining giant Rio Tinto, has admitted that the spikes in contamination did occur but maintains there was no environmental risk and the mine itself may not have been responsible for the leak of sulphates.
“We’ve observed, in the normal monitoring of water quality the creek, that there has been a spike in electrical conductivity,” said spokesman David Patterson to reporters. “It remains within the operating criteria for the mine. So there has been no breach of our operating conditions and we’re investigating the source of that spike.”
“It’s possible it could’ve come from somewhere else, it’s possible it could have come from on our lease, and we’re investigating that,” he added.
Share on Facebook
[...] Senator Ludlam referred to the recent contamination of water sources and said that, while no regulatory guidelines were broken by the company, this was not difficult as none had been set. Stringent Water Monitoring Needed at Uranium Mine: Greens | theangle.org [...]
[...] Senator Ludlam referred to the recent contamination of water sources and said that, while no regulatory guidelines were broken by the company, this was not difficult as none had been set. Stringent Water Monitoring Needed at Uranium Mine: Greens | theangle.org [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by globaleye and globaleye, Rich Bowden. Rich Bowden said: Greens Call for Better Water Testing at Uranium Mine: http://su.pr/1Ow5JP #greens #environment #uranium [...]