Environmentalists oppose mine discharge

The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory and the No Waste Alliance have written to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) urging it not to grant a waste discharge license for a new mine near the town of Batchelor, about 100 kilometres south of Darwin.

Justin Tutty from the NWA said on November 4 that Compass Resources has applied to release contaminated water into the already polluted Finnis river system. "When the EPA approved the Browns Oxide project, it acknowledged the inevitable radiological contamination that this would produce", he said. "So the EPA's assessment report called on the company to consult the public on a Radiation Management Plan to address these impacts.

"This plan has been written by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which bears responsibility for the nearby abandoned Rum Jungle uranium mine. But we have yet to get a look at the plan."

From GLW issue 690