WATER supplies for households, businesses and industries across the Whitsunday region will be under threat if a proposed gold mine project is allowed to proceed without proper environmental impact assessments.
One Nation candidate for Whitsunday Julie Hall said she’d been advised that experts had expressed significant concerns about a ‘dire risk’ to local water supplies – and some endangered native species such as the Proserpine rock wallaby – if the Dittmer gold mine project were to go ahead.
Dittmer is close to Lake Proserpine and the Proserpine River.
“I understand that experts consider the underground water table, surface water, aquifers, springs and creeks in our region, as well as the Great Barrier Reef itself, are all at risk until the proper environmental homework is done,” Ms Hall, who is standing at the next State Election, said.
“I fully support our mining industries and the enormous benefits they bring to Queensland and regional communities like Whitsunday, however, not when there is a clear risk to the water supplied to our residents, businesses and farmers.
“I commend and support the work of Whitsunday resident Jeudi Croker, who has been pursuing this issue for many months with various government departments.
“She’s been getting the runaround from a Labor government, which talks up its environmental credentials and commitments at every opportunity but is obviously selective in applying them.
“From what she’s been able to determine, there’s been no environmental impact study and no referral under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
“She’s also discovered that no baseline water studies have been done, which is a real concern.”
Ms Hall questioned why the state government hadn’t referred it for assessment under the EPBC Act.
“Why hasn’t the legislated framework been followed?” she said.
“Why can’t the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation tell local residents if cyanide is ever going to be used and, if it is, how it will be managed, where the off-sight processing facility will be located, or where all the water for this project is going to come from?
“Whitsunday residents are tired of being kept in the dark about this project and the threat it represents to their water. Residents in the area adjacent to the mine site also need to have their concerns about noise pollution and other impacts addressed.”
