For those of us working in challenging Industry sectors, it is technical achievement to attain best practice environmental outcomes which have become the benchmark. That and ensuring compliance with regulatory approvals, licence conditions and conformance with ISO140001 Environmental standards. Failure is unacceptable and needs to be called out so that Industry can learn from it and not repeat the mistake.
More recently a presentation titled "Gladstone Harbour Dredged Soil Disposal Area Bund Wall - What went wrong?" authored by former advisors to QGC & GeoFabrics Australia was leaked to the public. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/gladstone-harbour-bund-wall-failures-explained-20131220-2zr0r.html
A copy of that presentation can be found here http://gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au/web/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/130821-rev-1-gladstone-bund-wall-draft1-handout.pdf
The point is that - what happened in Gladstone could have been avoided. There was a solid design for the bund wall, there were regulatory provisions in place, there was provision of geotechnical expertise and accountabilities for project management placed in hands of experienced industry professionals...
So what happened?
The point is this could have been avoided.... but someone somewhere made the decision to accept a tendered design which was subpar, chose to accept use of geotextile that was subpar (for the intended purpose). There are only two explanations for what happened, it was either incompetence, or negligence?
