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Win for our Reef as Clive Palmer-owned coal mine deemed ‘not suitable’
The Queensland government has made the right decision for the Great Barrier Reef, the climate and local communities by deeming a proposed Clive Palmer-owned coal mine just 10km from the World Heritage area as ‘not suitable’, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said.
Their assessment, released today, shows the Department of Environment and Science has listened to advice from expert scientists and the wishes of the community to reject the mine and protect our Reef from dangerous climate change and pollution.
The Department cited “a number of significant risks, due to its location, particularly its proximity to important environmental values, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area” in its assessment that the project should not receive environmental approval.
Lock the Gate Alliance Queensland’s Ellie Smith thanked the department for following the scientific advice. “It was frankly difficult to believe a company could even think such a mine so close to the reef would ever be accepted by the Queensland public,” she said.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society’s great barrier reef campaigner, David Cazzulino, said hundreds had attended rallies in Mackay, Yeppoon and Brisbane to protest the mine.
Building an open-cut coal mine would cause “serious and irreversible damage to a variety of important habitats, including important turtle and dugong strongholds” and was too close to the reef, he said.
The national Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC) has provided advice three times to the Queensland government on the proposal.
In December, the latest report from IESC said it had “extreme concern that the predicted impacts are not readily mitigated, especially the discharge of mine-affected water into Broad Sound and the [Great Barrier Reef world heritage area]”.
The report added: “The IESC cannot envisage any feasible mitigation measures, including offsets, that could safeguard these irreplaceable and internationally significant ecological assets and their associated water resources.”
Key problems with the mine, the IESC said, included “significant and irreversible damage to internationally valued estuarine and near-shore ecosystems subjected to mine-affected water” as well as risks to creeks, pools, and the direct loss of 8km of waterways.
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Proposed Clive Palmer mine moves to assessment stage – Reef concerns need urgent consideration
Great Barrier Reef campaigners are urging government officials not to greenlight Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal Pty Ltd proposed mine as Queensland’s environment department announced today it was allowing the plan to move to the next stage of assessments.
A damning report from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee (IESC) on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development has found the mine poses significant risk to surrounding reef ecosystems with no way to offset the damage from mine-polluted water.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said the new open cut coal mine, situated just 10 km from the World Heritage Reef, would be disastrous because mine affected water could flow into Queensland’s largest fish habitat at Broad Sound, north of Rockhampton.
Reef campaigners decry decision to move CQ mine forward cqnews.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cqnews.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.