Open cut coal mines mobilise heavy metals in mine drainage water (probably even worse in leachate from spoil heaps) - normally this would be reduced in volume and retained on site somehow).
The current floods have made river disposal with high levels of dilution a requested way of unflooding their pits.
T'would be better to leave the metals underground in deep coal seams in the first place.
http://www.gabpg.org.au/media-release-from-drew-hutton
http://lockthegate.org.au/news/display/2057
and remember that Tarong Power is planning a large open cut mine starting several hundred metres south of the Cougar plant site and running back for kilometres towards Nanango.
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