The Reef Needs Your Help

image of The Reef Needs Your Help

There is only one Great Barrier Reef and it is the largest and most diverse reef system on the planet. But the Reef is under pressure and needs your help.

The Queensland Government has submitted a proposal to expand the Abbot Point Coal Port which is located just north of the Whitsundays, the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. This proposal requires dredging up to 2 million tonnes of seafloor. The impacts will be significant

The operation will destroy critical seagrass habitat which supports rare and endangered dugong and sea turtles as well as providing safe feeding grounds for many ...

There is only one Great Barrier Reef and it is the largest and most diverse reef system on the planet. But the Reef is under pressure and needs your help.

The Queensland Government has submitted a proposal to expand the Abbot Point Coal Port which is located just north of the Whitsundays, the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. This proposal requires dredging up to 2 million tonnes of seafloor. The impacts will be significant

The operation will destroy critical seagrass habitat which supports rare and endangered dugong and sea turtles as well as providing safe feeding grounds for many important fish species.
The silt plume caused by the dredging will spread many kilometres, affecting nearby coral reefs and fish spawning grounds.
The contaminated dredge spoil will be dumped adjacent to the internationally significant Caley Valley Wetlands, home to up to 40,000 waterbirds including many rare and threatened species.

We now have a small window of opportunity to stop this madness. We must send a very clear message to the Queensland State Minister that more must be done to protect the reef.

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Email the State Minister to Protect the Reef

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The Queensland Government continues to push the Abbot Point Coal Port Expansion which, if allowed, will have significant impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is now out for public submissions. This is our opportunity to let the government know that the Reef is more important than the unnecessary expansion of a port that will never even reach its current capacity. Please take a few moments to complete the submission form below. The Reef will thank you.

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Dear Minister Lynham,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft EIS for the Abbot Point Port expansion (EPBC2015/7457).  I feel that the EIS has failed to adequately address the following issues and impacts.

1. The Dredging Operation
The dredging operation will destroy important seagrass habitat which support many marine animals including rare and endangered dugong and sea turtles.  Seagrass meadows also provide shelter for many important fish species.

The dredging operation will also create a muddy plume that could spread for many kilometres, potentially affecting the nearby coral reefs and seagrass meadows.  There are a number of small but significant reef systems within 10 km of the dredge site as well as mackerel spawning grounds.

2. The Dredge Spoil
The dredge spoil will be dumped in storage ponds located within 50-100 m of the internationally significant Caley Valley Wetlands, home to up to 40,000 waterbirds, including many rare and threatened species. The spoil contains potential acid sulfate soils that can become very acidic when exposed to air. The unlined ponds will allow up to 70 mega litres of contaminated water to seep into the groundwater, wetlands and ocean each week.
This is likely to affect salinity levels in the wetlands which will in turn affect the quality of the wetland ecosystems within this wetland aggregation.

Wastewater from the disposal of dredge spoil will be discharged into the ocean.  Stormwater from the disposal ponds will be discharged into the wetlands.  It’s not known what contaminants this water could contain, but it will include fine sediments that do not settle out fully from the dredge spoil ponds and contaminants from shipping and other port operations for the decades the port has been in operation.  For example construction company John Holland was fined for allowing shoddy containment operations by a sub-contractor engaged to sandblast the jetty at Abbot Point a few years ago. Tonnes of toxic second-hand garnet used for the sandblasting ended up dropping off the jetty and into the ocean. Contaminants from that episode are likely to be in the dredge spoil as it was never recovered.

The dredge spoil disposal ponds will be on a low-lying coastal plain adjacent to the coast in a tropical area prone to cyclones. The risk of flooding and overflows during heavy wet season rains, storms or cyclones is high. The existing wastewater ponds have failed in the past in flood events which were not major historical events. Any overflow from the ponds will flow directly into the wetlands.

The endangered Australian painted snipe has essential habitat within 50m of the proposed dredge spoil dumping site which puts it at risk from; wastewater pond failure, changes to groundwater hydrology and the noise and activity of the dumping project.

Changes in the salinity of Lake Caley from this proposal (see comments on the groundwater mounds) will probably also affect the numbers of freshwater bird species which can use these wetlands.

This project will facilitate more coal and more coal handling which will increase the coal dust pollution in the wetlands.

3. Shipping impacts on water quality
There are currently around 174 ship visits per annum to Abbot Pt. With the construction of T0, this is expected increase by 560 ships at full capacity. The increase in shipping activity will have a significant impact on the local marine environment.

The berthing activities of large ships cause massive plumes of silt.  The suspended silt then spreads kilometres up and down the coast with the tides.

A ship underway will also cause silt pollution as the propeller re-suspends the silt from the shallow, coastal sea floor which is then carried north and south by the tides.

The anchoring of large ships with large anchors and large chains completely destroys any and all life on the seafloor.  As well, the anchor and chain re-suspend the silt, creating significant silt plumes that will travel up and down the coast, harming nearby seagrass meadows and coral reefs. Such damage at Gladstone was up to 16km offshore.

An increase in shipping will bring an increase in the risk of groundings, oil spills and the introduction of alien species through bilge water. These large coal ships also burn heavy bunker diesel oil which is a source of carcinogenic diesel particulates, so sir pollution from this source will also rise.

These are downstream impacts from this dredge disposal project as they would not occur if the dredging for the port expansion did not take place. As such these impacts must be addressed.

The impacts expressed above are already occurring up and down the Great Barrier Reef coast.  As well, they are cumulative impacts and should not be treated in isolation.  The Great Barrier Reef is facing a death by 1000 cuts.

4. Justification
What also needs to be considered is the fact that the Abbot Point expansion is quite likely to be unnecessary.  Currently, Abbot Point is running well below capacity.  The need to expand Abbot Point is based on the assumption that the Galilee Basin coal mines will soon be in production and shipping out through Abbot Point.  Given the current structural decline of the coal industry and the global movement away from coal for energy, the Galilee Basin is not an economical proposition and will not be opening any time soon.

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