Questions over removal of Nelson Bay River water monitoring station

The Bob Brown Foundation and Save the Tarkine have questioned the timing of a removal of a DPIPWE water monitoring station on the Nelson Bay River, down stream of the Shree Minerals’ Nelson Bay River mine.

The monitoring stations was removed two weeks ago, approximately coinciding with the unmet deadline for Shree Minerals to return acid producing waste rock to the mine pit.

One of the factors assessed at this station was acidity (field pH).

“The timing of this decision is suspicious in the least. Given the status of the acid producing waste on the mine site, and the impact of fires over the summer we would expect a heightened need for the data from this monitoring station,” said Save the Tarkine Campaign Coordinator, Scott Jordan.

“Given this government’s lack of transparency, I have to question why they no longer want what appears to be useful data”.

“We urge the responsible Ministers to explain why water quality testing has been discontinued in such a contentious site, a conservation area,” Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.

“Yesterday more than 100 people demonstrated on parliament lawns in Hobart calling on the government to take action on the environmental breach at Shree mine, discontinuing water quality monitoring of a river in a conservation area that has been compromised by mining upstream is not the type of action we mean,” Jenny Weber said.

“When two-thirds of the world’s population may be facing water shortages by 2025, Tasmania needs to securely protect water catchments rather than risk turning them into acid drainage systems from failed mine catastrophes. We campaign for secure protection for the Tarkine to avoid the current environmentally damaging problems evident in the Shree mine case,” Jenny Weber said.
Scott Jordan, Campaign Coordinator, Save the Tarkine, Jenny Weber, Campaign Manager, Bob Brown Foundation