Pollution law exemption condemned
By Bill Mason
@box text intro = BRISBANE — Environmentalists have slammed a plan by the Queensland government to exempt the mining giant Mount Isa Mines from stricter national air quality standards to be implemented later this year.
The exemption is linked to a proposal to convert 95% of MIM's Mount Isa copper smelter sulphur dioxide emissions into sulphuric acid, which will then be used in fertiliser manufacture at Western Mining Corporation's nearby Duchess phosphate deposit.
A spokesperson for the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand, Dr Neville Bofinger, said MIM should be subject to the same national standards as all companies.
Queensland Greens spokesperson Drew Hutton said on April 18, "By going outside the framework of the Environment Protection Act, [MIM and the government] will destroy the act, because everybody else will want the same certainty before they invest. I'm not against the project, just the way MIM is going about avoiding EPA standards."