Project confusion
A little scamp came knocking on my door today and wanted to talk to me about the Adani mine. Her badge had some sort of green and yellow logo but I did not scrutinise it. I asked her if she had perhaps mistaken this for Tony Abbott's seat of Warringah and she said no, because the Adani coal mine would ruin all of Australia.
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I asked her where Adani was and she said "Queensland" so I asked her to be a bit more specific and she said "inland Queensland". I deliberately smiled and said "Oooh, near Clermont" (which, indeed, it is)? Picking up on my smile and suspecting an ambush, she sort of dusted this out of the way without response and asked me another set of questions about why I wouldn't want alternative energy when it was so much better for the planet - making me think again that she had turned south at Warringah and only stopped several hours later, wondering where her supervisor was.
I asked her "What about the Carmichael mine project?" to which she replied that yes, "that's also going to be dismantled." Adani and the Carmichael Project are, in fact, the same mine.
One's best bet, when the Labor and Green come a knockin', call out from behind your door "There's no one at home", they'll believe you.
Robert T. Walker
Wagga
What is all the fuss about?
What is the fuss about Adani's Carmichael coal mine?
Any coal mine needs water for processing. Adani has been granted both a surface extraction license with limitations, but what is really alarming is the Australian government has just approved Adani unlimited access to ground water from the Great Artesian Basin (GAB).
The GAB is one of the largest artesian systems in the world and underlays 22 per cent of Australia. The water in the southern GAB has been estimated to be several millions years old. Groundwater systems rely on rainfall to replenish their water, lower rainfall means less water enters the system. New water comes mostly from the Queensland ranges on the eastern edge but only travels a few metres per year so it takes decades to reach the southern edges. Sustainability is about taking no more than what can be replenished.
Adani's water modelling did not use the last 14 years of rainfall data nor factored in a drying climate. Outflow from GAB springs and bores has declined since 1915. Seven major streams have sources in the GAB and their flows rely on it. Some of this flow enters the Murray Darling Basin. The Galilee Basin, where the Adani mine is proposed, is almost in the centre of the GAB, so its potential influence on water quality and quantity will be felt throughout the GAB.
The problems we see in the Murray Darling Basin today is partly due to over allocation of water, Adani will have the same effect on the GAB. We elect our representative to make a decision on the best knowledge for the day to make sensible decisions, this is not happening with Adani. The public will say again in the future "How could the government allow this to happen?"
And the politicians want to know why their constituents have lost confidence in them?