*Pic: Rock piled up at Shree’s abandoned Nelson Bay River mine site
Tasmania’s environment watchdog has been accused of acting outside of its jurisdiction when it changed conditions imposed on a mining permit for a development in Tasmania’s west.
Conservation group Save the Tarkine is taking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to court over amendments made to permits for the Nelson Bay River Mine operated by Shree Minerals.
The original EPA approval for the open cut iron ore mine states that the only way to dispose of the waste on site safely and indefinitely is under water in the mine’s pit.
But the EPA amended the permit to allow the waste to be stored above ground on a temporary basis.
Lawyers for Save the Tarkine read out emails which they said show Shree Minerals had underestimated the amount of acid forming waste rock the mine would produce.
Lawyer Jeremy Gobbo also read out an email from the EPA director Alex Schaap to Shree Minerals that he said revealed Mr Schaap had been to dinner with the company’s head while the permit was being considered.
Mr Gobbo questioned whether Mr Schaap acted outside his jurisdiction by changing the conditions after its initial permit went out for public consultation.
• ABC: EPA says it didn’t break conditions of Shree mine approval
EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• STATE: Pushing a destructive dig it up – chop it down economic vision for Tasmania
EVEN EARLIER …
• Shree and The Tarkine: The Black Knight Always Triumphs … The Pictures tell the story …
Ted Mead articles here
• Nick McKim: Tarkine 4WD Track Reopening is Simply Vandalism
• Christine Milne: Greens say Hunt should rule on Tarkine debacle
• Pete Godfrey, in Comments: Did Mr Schaap also have similar dinners with Gunns Ltd while he was deciding whether the never-started pulp mill was substantially commenced?
