An investigation into a central Queensland coal mine shows it was releasing unauthorised sediment for up to 15 years at four separate locations.<\/p>\n
Run-off from the Blackwater Coal Mine, 196 kilometres from Rockhampton, was released into creeks in the Fitzroy Basin which feed into the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n
Environmental lobby group Lock The Gate initially reported the matter to Queensland’s pollution hotline and later obtained documents from the investigation under right-to-information legislation.<\/p>\n
A compliance report by the environment department indicated BHP Coal, which held the environmental approvals, was likely aware of the unauthorised sediment releases.<\/p>\n
“BHP Coal installed temporary measures to prevent further releases following a formal warning issued to them in 2022, however some of these appear to have been insufficient as sediment release continued,” the report said.<\/p>\n
The Queensland Department of Environment confirmed there were unauthorised releases at the mine in 2022, however an investigation found no environmental harm was caused.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to monitor Blackwater Coal Mine to ensure their environmental obligations are met,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A satellite view of the Blackwater Coal Mine, which is located in the Bowen Basin. (Supplied: GeoResGlobe)<\/p>\n
However, the compliance report revealed the mine had released a contaminant to land that caused environmental harm, while it also had the potential to cause harm to waterways.<\/p>\n
The report used satellite imagery and found one impacted site had a lower amount of tree cover, while another had less plant revegetation.<\/p>\n
It also noted at Sirius Creek that impacts to waters “cannot be ruled out without further investigation”.<\/p>\n
Group calls for further investigations<\/p>\n
Central Queensland coordinator for Lock The Gate Claire Gronow said the warning was “not a very big deterrent” to the international company.<\/p>\n
Dr Gronow, an environmental scientist, also criticised the scope of the investigation.<\/p>\n
“It only looked at the areas that were immediately and visibly affected by the sediment \u2026 but there was no further attempt to look at impacts further downstream,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That’s very disappointing, given that this discharge could have gone on since about 2009 \u2026 and it’s in the catchment that flows into the Great Barrier Reef.”<\/p>\n
Claire Gronow is critical of the investigation. (Supplied: Claire Gronow)<\/p>\n
The mine was previously owned by BHP and Mitsubishi Development through their joint venture BMA.<\/p>\n
The ABC understands BMA’s own investigation into sediment release found the cause was a period of intense rainfall leading up to the department’s inspection.<\/p>\n
Wet weather also resulted in delays to remediation because of poor conditions for machinery operation.<\/p>\n
“We began remediation works when the issue was identified and are continuing to assist with any ongoing remediation,” a BMA spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Australian company Whitehaven bought the site in 2023.<\/p>\n
Whitehaven said while the sediment issues occurred before it took ownership of the mine, it had engaged with the environment department to develop a comprehensive rehabilitation plan.<\/p>\n
“This program of work includes soil and vegetation investigations, upstream catchment rehabilitation, new drainage and sediment controls, and the establishment of a dedicated team to conduct ongoing monitoring,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
“Remediation is already well underway, with one area complete and the remainder on track to be finished ahead of the upcoming wet season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation into a central Queensland coal mine shows it was releasing unauthorised sediment for up to 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,6266,97611,97609,99,82167,75,80062,1044,57690,6827,27643,32540,97608,97610],"class_list":["post-143897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bhp","tag-blackwater-coal-mine","tag-bma","tag-business","tag-documents","tag-environment","tag-foi","tag-great-barrier-reef","tag-lock-the-gate","tag-mining","tag-release","tag-sediment","tag-unauthorised","tag-whitehaven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}