PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland government has ceased court proceedings against Indian major Adani relating to stormwater release during Cyclone Debbie in 2017, with Adani agreeing to invest in water monitoring equipment at the Abbot Point Operations.
The Department of Environment previously claimed that the Abbot Point Operations released more floodwater to nearby wetlands than permitted during the cyclone.
“Over the past two years, Abbot Point Operations has continued to evolve and improve our environmental management practices. This has included significant enhancements to our infrastructure and to the way we operate,” a spokesperson for the company said.
“As part of this commitment, we continually improve our environmental management. We welcome the Queensland government’s acceptance of an enforceable undertaking application that we lodged voluntarily in order to deliver additional water quality monitoring out our site.”
The spokesperson noted that the enforceable undertaking would help ensure positive environmental outcomes are achieved in the near term, instead of continuing prolonged court proceedings.
The new automated water quality monitoring system would be installed at the authorised flood water release point and will provide real-time monitoring of water flows.
“This new initiative is in addition to the three-year major infrastructure upgrade programme currently under way at the terminal to improve water and environmental management.
“More than A$15-million in upgrades are in the process of final execution in what will be a series of multi-million dollar projects that will include increasing the volume of water storage ponds, upgrade of a bund wall, as well as our early works programme on the redesign of remaining water management infrastructure at other release points.”
Adani was granted a 99-year lease at the Abbot Point Port in 2011, and in 2016 purchased the operations lease. Adani is planning to use the Abbot Point Port as the export point for coal produced from its much-maligned Carmichael mine.