Feed aggregator

Coal mines, such as this one near Bowen, use water for everything from equipment cooling to dust management. CSIRO, CC BY

From accidental water spills into coastal wetlands, to proposed taxpayer-funded loans, Adani’s planned Carmichael coal mine and the associated Abbot Point coal terminal can’t keep out of the news at the moment.

Last week, the granting of an unlimited 60-year water licence to the Carmichael mine, in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, rattled environmentalists, farmers and community groups alike.

In a region experiencing prolonged drought conditions, the provision of unlimited water for one of the largest mining operations in the Southern Hemisphere seems like a commitment at odds with current climate predictions. The decision has also prompted a raft of wider questions about the industry’s water use.

Why do coal mines need so much water?

Underground coal mines rely on water to reduce the hazard of fires or explosion, by using it to cool the cutting surfaces of mining equipment and prevent coal dust from catching fire.

Water also helps to manage dust produced during the processing stage, when coal is crushed and ground. Coal is then transported through pipelines as a water-based slurry for further processing.

Mines also need water for things like equipment maintenance, and for consumption by the mining communities themselves.

In total, about 250 litres of freshwater are required per tonne of coal produced. This freshwater makes up around a quarter of the total water demand during coal production, the rest being “worked” (recycled) water.

What other industries use lots of water?

The Great Artesian Basin is one of the largest underground water reservoirs in the world. It underlies 22% of Australia’s land area, beneath the arid and semi-arid parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Its aquifers supply water to around 200 towns or settlements, most of which are allowed to draw between 100 and 500 million litres (ML) per year.

The Great Artesian Basin covers almost a quarter of Australia. Tentotwo/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

The Great Artesian Basin underpins A$12.8 billion of economic activity annually, according to a 2016 report commissioned by the federal government. Almost all of this is from mining and coal seam gas (A$8 billion) and livestock farming (A$4.7 billion).

In Queensland, mining and industry hold just over 1% (by number) of the water licences linked to the Great Artesian Basin but account for 10% of the water extracted. Coal seam gas accounts for a further 22% of water, with no licensing required. In contrast, livestock production accounts for 88% of water licences but just 46% of the extracted water.

The Carmichael mine’s 12,000ML forecasted use (equivalent to 4% of the water extracted from the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland last year) would put it alongside the biggest annual users of Great Artesian Basin water, such as the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, which currently draws 10,000ML each year.

Why does Adani need unlimited water anyway?

According to the company’s own modelling, the Carmichael mine’s annual freshwater use is projected to peak at just over 12,000ML – or roughly 13 Olympic swimming pools per day.

Despite these estimates, the water licence granted to Adani puts no limit on the water it can take from the Great Artesian Basin. However, it calls for regular monitoring of water levels, quality and flow in each aquifer that is tapped.

Unlike other controversial Queensland mining projects, such as the New Acland coal mine, Adani’s water licence application was exempted from public scrutiny, courtesy of a November 2016 amendment to the existing laws.

Water licences usually specify the total amount, and/or the daily rate, of groundwater that can be taken. Changes to a water licence to increase the amount of water must be assessed like a new application and pass public scrutiny. But with an unlimited licence, there is no need for Adani to apply for a new licence if they need more water than originally predicted.

What are the environmental effects of industrial-scale water usage on the basin?

Despite a net yearly decrease of 286,000ML in the water stored within the Great Artesian Basin, it is in no danger of running dry. The past 120 years of exploitation have used up less than 0.1% of the water stored.

The real issue is water pressure. Flows from artesian bores are now roughly half what they were in 1915. Since then, the water level in some bores has fallen by as much as 80 metres, and a third of bores have stopped flowing altogether. This directly affects the human, plant and animal communities that rely on artesian water.

Because of their isolation, the natural springs of the Great Artesian Basin are home to many unique plant and animal species. Desert springs are particularly vulnerable to declining water pressure, and many spring habitats have been irreversibly damaged by invasive species, excavation, livestock, industrial activity and even tourists.

An oasis in South Australia’s arid interior. Tandrew/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Can mining industries be more water-wise?

Recycled water is an integral part of coal mining, but it contains salt, added in the dust-management stage, which can leave the water unusable for certain processes. Nevertheless, a recent study suggests that Queensland coal mines could cut their freshwater use by 62% simply by using recycled water for processes that are not sensitive to salt levels. Diluting salty recycled water could also reduce freshwater use by 50%, and cut water costs by 40%.

Untreated seawater is perhaps the most sustainable water of all, although transporting it from coast to mine costs energy and therefore money. Its saltiness also creates chemical challenges during coal and uranium processing.

Another option to address climate-induced water challenges might be for mines to share water allocations.

Where do we go from here?

Understandably, there is significant concern that Adani’s unlimited licence will allow the mine to draw more water than predicted. Should the mine go ahead, it is important that the research community continues to scrutinise the regular water quality and usage reports that Adani is required to provide. Water licences can, after all, be revoked.

We should also be concerned about industries like coal seam gas that currently do not require water licensing, but nevertheless use huge amounts of artesian water.

Although water is an important issue, it is vital not to lose sight of the numerous other environmental impacts of the Carmichael mine. For example, an estimated 4.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions will result from the mining and burning of Carmichael coal. Climate warming will impact Australia on multiple fronts, including bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, increasing the intensity of tropical cyclones, causing more heat-related deaths, diseases and droughts.

Ellen Moon works on a project funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment.

Committee calls for deposit return scheme and free refill stations after finding capital hooked on bottled water but not recycling

The amount of waste from single-use plastic bottles in London has risen out of control, according to a report from the London assembly environment committee.

It calls on the mayor to consider introducing a deposit return scheme and to provide free tap water as an alternative.

Continue reading...

The home of BHP and Mad Max can now take credit for kickstarting the large-scale solar industry in Australia

Broken Hill is the birthplace of modern mining in Australia. It lends its initials “BH” to the mining giant BHP, and in January 2015 in an Australian first, the so-called Silver City was added to the National Heritage list in part due to its mining industry.

The city is cut in half by a mine, with a giant pile of waste material rising from its centre. It can be seen from every street in town, like a monument to the stuff the city was built from.

Continue reading...

It may be the spirtual home of Priscilla and Mad Max, but Australia’s first heritage-listed city is reimagining its future post mining and shifting its focus to renewable energy with large-scale wind and solar farms

• Transforming waste into a cleaner Cowra

Continue reading...

A new fossil suggests an early relative of dinosaurs had some features we associate today with crocodiles and alligators.

Scientists from the University of California in Berkeley have figured out why.

The adder (Vipera berus) is Britain’s only venomous snake. An adder bite can be very painful and cause a nasty inflammation. The males emerge from hibernation as early as February but do little until early April when the females come out

Continue reading...

Residents ‘dismayed’ after judges uphold decision to approve Cuadrilla shale gas operation in Fylde

Lancashire residents fighting to block a fracking site have said they are “truly dismayed” after losing a high court legal challenge.

The Preston New Road Action Group and Gayzer Frackman, a professional clown, had applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve Cuadrilla drilling for shale gas in Fylde. The group had argued five points of law had been breached.

Continue reading...

The demise of Davie Bell memorial race has led to a fitting tribute to the legendary Scottish cyclist

The loss of a once popular road race from the UK cycling calendar is never a good thing, but a unique legacy has emerged from the ashes of one event in Scotland.

The demise of the Davie Bell Memorial Race in 2015 – a National ‘A’ event which had been running since 1966 – prompted the organiser to look for other ways to promote cycling.

Continue reading...

AAP/Lukas Coch

Veteran environmental campaigner and former Greens senator Bob Brown has previously pointed to Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine as the new Franklin River of environmental protest in Australia. Yet the future of this “climate bomb” hangs in the balance.

The ongoing contest over the mine’s approval is about to get very heated. Some of the final decisions are to be made very soon.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared that native title claims would not impede the approval process, and that Adani would press ahead with its plans to seek A$1 billion in funding for the rail line needed to transport coal to Abbot Point for export.

The consequences of going ahead with the mine are almost incalculable. This is not simply because of the emissions it will produce, but from the fact it promotes and normalises the insanity that coal can still be “good for humanity”.

Here’s my list of the ten most-absurd things about the Adani mine.

1) As the largest coal mine in the Australia when completed, Adani will legitimise the idea of mining all of the coal in the Galilee Basin. If extracted and burnt, this will get the world one-third of the way toward 2℃ of global warming.

The Adani mine alone will see up to 2.3 billion tonnes of coal extracted from an area five times the size of Sydney Harbour over 60 years. This is equivalent to putting out 7.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases. The global budget is now less than 500 billion tonnes in order to have an 80% chance of keeping global average temperature rise to less than 2℃.

2) The mine lies adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. The heaviest risk to the reef’s future is a continued increase in greenhouse gases.

You couldn’t invent a greater insult to the beloved reef than begin mining operations that amount to an affront to those who have begun to mourn for its imminent death.

3) After years of bashing renewables as unviable without government subsidy, contemplating a $1 billion subsidy to the mine by the Turnbull government is quite perverse.

Fossil-fuel companies already receive $2,000 in rebates and subsidies for every $1 they donate to Australia’s major political parties. So, this additional subsidy makes a mockery of any serious attempt to tackle climate change.

4) With climate-change-induced extreme weather events exacting billions of dollars of damage across Australia, and especially in Queensland, the idea that public money would be used to increase these damage bills by injecting even more energy into the world’s climate system by accelerating greenhouse gas emissions is absurd.

Cyclone Debbie – a category-four cyclone – actually impacted on the areas of the mine itself, and delivered more peak rainfall than Cyclone Yasi, which was a category-five cyclone only six years ago. Since 2006, insurers have paid more than $6.8 billion in cyclone- and flood-related claims in Queensland alone. Debbie is expected to add another $1 billion.

5) That the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund could be used to subsidise the mine is in contempt of any claim to responsible climate – and financial – policy. That such a fund could be so directly controlled by so few people and have such enormous impact on greenhouse concentrations is a travesty.

6) The argument that the royalties from the mine would benefit Australia are not supported by the recent revelations that Adani has set up an elaborate network of subsidiaries and trusts which are ultimately owned and controlled from the tax haven of the Cayman Islands.

7) That the Queensland Labor government could buy into a jobs campaign around the mine when renewable technologies can carry the promise of even more jobs, and without risk to the Great Barrier Reef that is threatened by the dredging associated with the mine, and therefore is a danger to the tourism industry, is outrageous.

Adani’s own consultants have suggested the mine would produce fewer than 1,500 full-time jobs. This amounts to a public subsidy of $683,000 per job.

8) Adani’s argument that somehow the mine will be lifting Indians out of poverty is a PR disguise for a company that has been accused of blatant human rights abuses.

This argument, invented by the now-failed Peabody Energy and most famously popularised by Bjorn Lomborg, has also been a favourite of Coalition MPs. This argument is thoroughly patronising – not simply because India itself has declared renewables to be more important than coal, but because it is the oppressive legacy of colonialism that under-developed third-world countries in the first place.

9) The desperate plea by Resources Minister Matt Canavan, mounted in the face of a greater lunacy, that the coal Adani would export is “clean coal” that would actually cut emissions, has been dismissed by analysts at the International Energy Agency.

10) To commit to a mine that it supposed to run for 60 years as the price of coal continues to be devalued in the face of investment moving to renewables is business suicide.

It does not even take account of what the world’s climate will be like in 35 years. With the equator in a permanent heatwave and so much more storm-feeding energy in the system, coal won’t just be the new tobacco. It will become the grim reaper we see in our rear-view mirror.

With thanks to Tahnee Burgess for research assistance on this article.

The Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Marine Conservation Foundation say this footage shows the wetlands before and after the Abbot Point port water release, which caused visible coal dust contamination of Queensland wetland. After Cyclone Debbie, additional water was released from the Adani facility with government permission, but port manager Adani denies there has been visible contamination. The Queensland environment department is investigating

Continue reading...

From epic vistas to the churn of industry, 19th-century American photographers captured a country beginning to define its identity

Continue reading...

Blue Mountains Explorer Bus/Fantastic Aussie Tours join the Carbon Neutral Network.

Blue Mountains Explorer Bus/Fantastic Aussie Tours join the Carbon Neutral Network.

Blue Mountains Explorer Bus/Fantastic Aussie Tours join the Carbon Neutral Network.

The end may be in sight for one of the world's longest-running series of manual weather records.

Mild winter, cold spring and late summer lead to fall in numbers as 40 of 57 species struggle to cope with fluctuating weather

Butterflies in the UK have suffered one of their worst years on record, with 70% of all species experiencing a decline in numbers over the past year, according to conservationists.

The annual UK butterfly monitoring scheme (UKBMS) found that 40 out of the 57 species studied saw numbers drop between 2015 and 2016, making 2016 the fourth worst year on record for the insects.

Continue reading...

While Turnbull pedals Australian coal as a solution to India's electrification problems, study finds Mumbai could source half its peak power needs from rooftop solar.

Croft Castle, Herefordshire The noble parasite is an actor in the uncanny drama of life feeding on life

She looks like a fly in a fur coat; her wings made of clear cellophane with black bat markings; her syringe proboscis not for piercing flesh but sipping nectar; she is either a blur of speed or a full stop. The bee-fly is a chimera of contradictions and as true a sprite of spring as any of the animals associated with the season.

Sunlight forms pools under the ancient trees in the park at Croft Castle in Herefordshire. The great trunks of sweet chestnut trees, grown according to legend from chestnuts captured from Spanish ships at the Battle of Trafalgar, spiral on a bank above an oak that is a thousand years old. Its massive trunk, broken, bulging with the fearlessly mischievous expression of Pan himself, still sprouts living branches.

Continue reading...

Australian electricity prices have soared and emissions are still the highest in the developed world (behind Estonia). The way to get out of this mess might be energy auctions, if extending RET or carbon pricing are not options.