epa approvals

When thinking about the EPA approvals if you consider this opinion offered back in September and then realise that the RIO Mesa A project referred to was actually given the go-ahead after (apparently) the relevant wa govt minister stepped in. You have to seriously believe that that the same will follow with GBG should the EPA not grant same.


From Mining News:

Environmental extremists take aim at the miners – Dryblower

Monday, September 10, 2007

DRYBLOWER'S Quiz Time. If government agencies appointed to protect the Western Australian environment were so very wrong in handling lead pollution at the port of Esperance, why do some people believe they're right in trying to ban new iron ore mines in the Pilbara and Mid-West?
The correct answer is some people are horribly prejudiced against mining, though an alternative answer could incorporate the words incompetence or overworked.

That last suggestion about overwork is tossed in just to show that Dryblower can be nice, sometimes.

The real message, which this column has explored a few times recently, is that the business of mining in WA - arguably the epicentre of the global resources boom - is under attack from extremists who have taken control of some government agencies.

Before discussing what it means, a potted background for non-followers of recent events in Australia's wild west.

Last week, a Parliamentary inquiry into the lead pollution at Esperance which killed thousands of birds and might represent a long-term health hazard in the town, found many people were to blame.

The mining company, Invernia copped a slap, but so did two government agencies, the port authority and the Environmental Protection Authority – the very people charged with the job of preventing disasters such as spilling lead.

What caught Dryblower's eye, and imagination, is that while the people charged with making a mess at Esperance were apparently not doing their job, they were all over a series of proposed mining and oil developments which, to a layman, appear to be doing no environmental harm whatsoever.

Consider the facts.

1. Esperance is ignored despite the transmission of a known killer metal, lead.

2. Rio Tinto is told a bizarre, underground-living, spider-like creature needs protecting and the Mesa A mine should not proceed.

3. A number of iron ore mines proposed for the Mid-West are told they might damage rare flora, and

4. Chevron is told its Barrow Island liquefied natural gas proposal might dissuade turtles from laying their eggs, and that a gas re-injection system might not work as planned over the development's 50-year life.

This final issue, which had the potential to stop a $20 billion investment, caused the politicians to become involved, overruling the environmentalists at the EPA and saying Gorgon could proceed.

There's a pattern here, and it's far more interesting than what Dryblower has looked at before when rubbishing arch-environmentalists who see evil in every form of development.

The pattern goes like this. At Esperance, the so-called environmental protectors played a role in despoiling the environment. At Gorgon, they inflamed issues that could be easily managed, to the point where their political masters were forced to step in.

This is the key point being made by Dryblower: a Parliamentary inquiry has attacked the government agency charged with protecting the environment at Esperance, while at Gorgon the same people have been sidelined by government because they went too far in opposing a development.

Extremism is never a good thing, but it's absolutely dangerous when extremists get control of part of the government process.

Rio Tinto's Mesa A and the Mid-West iron ore mines are the next tests for the government's environmental watchdogs, and this promises to be the most interesting yet.

So far, what appears to have happened is that objections are being lodged against mining because of the supposed presence of rare plants and animals.

In a nutshell, it is claimed each proposal affects new species – with new species being the key phrase.

As one miner explained to Dryblower what's happening is that tiny variations in genetic structure of one plant or animal, and as we know every person is slightly different, triggers the rejection button in environmentalists.

This means that a spider on one hill might be slightly different to member of the same spider family on a nearby hill – but is instantly classified as a new species.

If this argument is won then the barriers to mine development will have been raised to a ridiculously high level.