My letter from the Office of the Hon Jeff Seeney MP

on the 26 October 2012, I wrote to the Deputy Premier, in response to his media release which stated:

Mr Seeney said the assessment showed that well-managed development could co-exist with a healthy environment. “It illustrates that we can have bulk export ports and they can operate with no threat to the Great Barrier Reef,” Mr Seeney said. 

Mr Seeney seems to have completely missed the point.  The greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef are not from the port operations but from accumulative impacts of the continued combustion of fossil fuels.

On  26 November 2012, I received the following response from:

Office of the Hon Jeff Seeney MP
Deputy Premier
Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning


Our ref: MC12/399

23 NOV 2012

Mr Rowan Barber
Street Address
Address QLD XXXX


Dear Mr Barber

Thank you for your email of 26 October 2012 to the Honourable Jeff Seeney MP, Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, about the voluntary Abbot Point Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA).  The Deputy Premier has asked that I respond on his behalf.

As you are aware, the voluntary Abbot Point CIA has focus on 16 study areas, and is taking a holistic look at the cumulative effects of the future port related expansion proposals at the Port of Abbot Point.

The CIA scope is about port expansion itself.  Emissions associated with the transport of coal to the port are not within the scope of the CIA.  It was a voluntary cooperative exercise between the three proponents of the existing or proposed facilities at Abbot Point.  It was coordinated by the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation.

I suggest you provide comments to the Abbot Point Working Group through the formal consultation process on this matter.  The following link provides information on making a submission  http://www.abbotpointworkinggroup.com.au/comment.html.

Please ensure your comments are submitted prior to 5pm, Tuesday, 4 December 2012.

If you require any further information, please contact Mr Phillip Kohn, A/Director, State Development Areas, Office of the Coordinator General, Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, on 3405 6674, who will be pleased to assist.

Yours sincerely


Dimity Elson
Acting Senior Policy Advisor

Office of the Hon Jeff Seeney MP
Deputy Premier

Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning

My letter to the Deputy Premier

Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning
The Honourable Jeff Seeney

cc: The Premier, The Honourable Rob Cavallucci and the Honourable Andrew Powell

Dear Mr Seeney,

Thank you for welcoming the release of the Abbot Point Cumulative Impact Assessment by North Queensland Bulk Ports.

You say that that proposed port expansion was unlikely to affect the integrity of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Have you taken into consideration the accumulative impacts of the combustion of fossil fuels?

The terms of reference of the report are limited to the cumulative impacts of Port operations. 

The Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment process is clearly wide ranging and involve 15 detailed studies in the following areas:

·       Shipping;

·       Marine Water Quality;

·       Dredge Plume Modelling

·       Operational Noise;

·       Groundwater;

·       Dust;

·       Underwater Noise;

·       Visual Amenity;

·       Lighting;

·       Coastal Hydrodynamics;

·       Species & Habitat Assessment;

·       Wetland Hydrology & Water Quality

·       Climate Change;

·       Fishing;

·       Joint Offsets Strategy

The report identifies mechanisms to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions from the port and ensure port design has accounted for possible climate change effects such as sea level rise. 

The report does not consider greenhouse gas and particulate emissions of transport of coal over vast distances using bunker C fuel oil or combustion of thermal coal.

regards,

Rowan Barber

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Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning
The Honourable Jeff Seeney

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Report puts lie to green scare tactics

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney today welcomed the release of the Abbot Point Cumulative Impact Assessment by North Queensland Bulk Ports, which draws a line through an environmental scare campaign run by Labor and the Greens. 

The assessment was a proactive study undertaken for the proponents of future port expansion and looked at the possible impacts of development across the marine and terrestrial environments involving 16 separate environmental studies. 

It found that proposed port expansion was unlikely to affect the integrity of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. 

Mr Seeney said the assessment showed that well-managed development could co-exist with a healthy environment. 

“It illustrates that we can have bulk export ports and they can operate with no threat to the Great Barrier Reef,” Mr Seeney said. 

“This assessment should put an end to the scare campaigns run by extremist groups whose real agenda is to shut the coal ports and the coal industry as a whole. 

“Too often they cry wolf, claiming that any proposed new development will wipe-out entire marine or terrestrial species and threaten the existence of the reef itself. 

“This report puts the lie to those claims. 

“In the case of Abbot Point it says that impacts on the marine environment are manageable, that significant impacts on the terrestrial environment are unlikely and that mitigation and management measures would substantially reduce any potential impacts. 

Mr Seeney said the assessment had been peer reviewed by leading scientists and experts, leaving no room for extremists to distort its findings. 

“It highlights that we can have both economic development while protecting the environment because we will insist on world’s best practices and world’s best standards,” he said. 

[ENDS] 24 October 2012

Media Contact: John Wiseman –             0409 791 281      

Deputy Premier and Green Scare Tactics

Abbot Point Cumulative Impact Assessment

 

BHP Billiton, North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation (NQBP), Adani and GVK Hancock Coal (the project partners) are jointly conducting a Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment (CIA) of proposed developments in the Port of Abbot Point area.

The Port of Abbot Point is one of three existing coal ports in Qld and has been identified by the Qld Government as a preferred port to support further development of the coal export industry.

It is seen as critical to economic development in Central and North Qld, as underlined by the Government’s designation of a State Development Area at Abbot Point.

The Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment process will be wide ranging and involve 15 detailed studies in the following areas:

·       Shipping;

·       Marine Water Quality;

·       Dredge Plume Modelling

·       Operational Noise;

·       Groundwater;

·       Dust;

·       Underwater Noise;

·       Visual Amenity;

·       Lighting;

·       Coastal Hydrodynamics;

·       Species & Habitat Assessment;

·       Wetland Hydrology & Water Quality

·       Climate Change;

·       Fishing;

·       Joint Offsets Strategy

The report identifies mechanisms to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions from the port and ensure port design has accounted for possible climate change effects such as sea level rise. 

The report does not consider greenhouse gas and particulate emissions of transport of coal over vast distances using bunker C fuel oil or combustion of thermal coal.

The Deputy Premier: Jeff Seeney reports that the proposed port expansion was unlikely to affect the integrity of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. 

Mr Seeney says the reports illustrates that Queensland can have bulk export ports and they can operate with no threat to the Great Barrier Reef. He said the assessment showed that well-managed development could co-exist with a healthy environment.

The Deputy Premier says: “This assessment should put an end to the scare campaigns run by extremist groups whose real agenda is to shut the coal ports and the coal industry as a whole.” 

“Too often they [environmental groups] cry wolf, claiming that any proposed new development will wipe-out entire marine or terrestrial species and threaten the existence of the reef itself.” 

In the case of Abbot Point Mr Seeney says that the report says that:

·       impacts on the marine environment are manageable,

·       that significant impacts on the terrestrial environment are unlikely and;

·       that mitigation and management measures would substantially reduce any potential impacts. 

Mr Seeney said the assessment had been peer reviewed by leading scientists and experts, leaving no room for extremists to distort its findings.  He says that the report highlights that we can have both economic development while protecting the environment because we will insist on world’s best practices and world’s best standards.

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A friend has responded......

Regarding the CIA for Abbot Point in your latest newsletter. As usual with mining funded reports they are interesting for what they do not include compared to what is included. They always say impacts can be managed. There is much the CIA appears to have missed that I have repeatedly asked for in public submissions over the years on project proposals in Abbot Point, such as a study on the impacts of a combined flood and storm surge event. Such events are  not unlikely in this location, a narrow low lying coastal plain, because the 6,000 ha wetlands there receive all the runoff during the Wet Season from a 600 square kilometers area of hills to the south of the catchment. Flooding can be severe and usually happens It has overwhelmed wastewater ponds in the past few years (on the spot witness told us that but the port authorities denied it and patched it up before DERM got there).

A big event would sweep wastewaters out to the Reef waters offshore and into the Caley Valley Abbot Point wetland aggregation which, because it is partly tidal, would also carry contaminants out to Great Barrier Reef Marine waters. Future plans call for much filling of these internationally significant wetlands so eventual flooding can only be higher and more damaging.

The CIA report is open for submissions until Dec 4th. We ask that independent engineers and scientists take a look at them at

http://abbotpointworkinggroup.com.au/

Can you let your readers know about the chance for submissions at the above website?  Thanks.