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The LNG invasion of Curtis Island
Gladstone Harbour Dredging - What a Mess!!
The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area in under attack -
Firstly Gladstone Ports Corp plan on digging up 46 millions of cubic metres of sea floor to make way for the LNG export facilities,
and now GPC want to remove the World Heritage Area listing from Gladstone Harbour and Curtis Island altogether.
What an appalling indictment of GPC's so-called committment to "sustainability" and "environmental responsibility". GPC's website is full of motherhood statements about how wonderfully committed they are to high levels of environmental performance, but it is all a greenwash smokescreen when you look at the damage that has already occurred in Gladstone Harbour and at what they plan on doing to the Fitzroy River Estuary further north.
see our media release 2 Jan 2012 >>
Dugong, turtles and dolphin have been washing up dead. Local fish are diseased with red spots and lesions. The local fishing industry has been almost totally destroyed. The government put in place a fishing ban, then removed it saying it was up to fishers to decide whether fish were safe to sell. And yet the all-powerful Gladstone Ports Corporation insist that their dredging program is not to blame. We are not saying that it is to blame but there is definitely not enought scientific information for GPC to claim innocence.
Environment Minister Tony Burke has so far refused to stand up for the Reef, a priceless and fragile site of significance not just to Australia, but to the world. Imagine if the Pyramids were being bulldozed or the Grand Canyon mined -- the global community would be furious. Well UNESCO is furious. They're sending a special delegation in March to investigate what is happening - but that's too late to stop the damage happening now.
Meanwhile, UNESCO are being lobbied hard by the insatiable coal seam gas industry. And although they failed to even tell UNESCO about the project, the state and federal governments would have us simply trust them to monitor and regulate this crazy project -- claiming it's possible to dredge up 46 million cubic metres of reef inside a world heritage site provided there's sufficient environmental oversight. If the Australian Government won't stand up for the Great Barrier Reef as it's ripped up for corporate profit, we will.
It's the largest dredging project ever undertaken in Australia, and one that has the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) so alarmed they're warning the Reef could lose its iconic world heritage status. Get up have created an emergency petition to stop this. Sign here, tune in and spread the word now. www.getup.org.au/dredging-the-reef
Liquefied Natural Gas – the big boys are coming to town!
The race is on to deliver Australia's first LNG from coal seam gas (CSG) and it's happening from the Port of Gladstone. Any industry that boosts the state’s royalties and employment prospects is sure to be hailed loud and long, irrespective of the environmental consequences. Unfortunately, no matter how much the companies, and the government, talk about "balance", we know for sure that these projects will have major detremental impacts on the natural environment.
There are some hefty players in this LNG game The main four contenders are:-
- Gladstone LNG (Santos + Petronas)
- Qld Curtis LNG (British Gas + QGC)
- Aust Pacific LNG (Conoco Phillips + Origin)
- Shell + Arrow Energy
Given the billions of dollars involved and the way that governments fall in love with big projects like these, there is no way that this scheme will not go ahead. However the damage to the environment is quite significant in three main areas:- (a) upstream effects on groundwater and farming land of the CSG bores, (b) loss of habitat at Curtis Island and Gladstone Harbour, and (c) the greenhouse gas emissions of exploiting this polluting, non-renewable, temporary resource.
More specifically CCC has concerns that the LNG industry proposals will permanently harm the environment and include many uncertainties:
- CSG extraction releasing huge volumes (gigalitres) of salty underground water,
- potential to contaminate groundwater supplies and valuable agricultural land,
- depletion of the groundwater resources, threatening the Great Artesian Basin,
- disruption to food production from the vast network of bores, pipelines and roads playing havoc with agricultural land,
- turning Gladstone Harbour upside down though millions of tonnes bring dredged and dumped,
- threats to dugong, dolphins, turtles, fisheries and other marine life,
- gas pipelines crossing the Boyne geological fault line which formed The Narrows
- destruction of a large area on Curtis Island, all for a temporary industry,
- the need for regulatory departments, (DERM, GBRMPA) to catch up and get a better handle on the problems.
The hidden costs
Once the CSG is chilled to ‐162◦C, it will leave the city as a liquid, carried in huge cryogenic tankers up to 300 metres in length. It is reasonable to expect that there will be at least ten of these monsters plying the waters of Gladstone Harbour each week. They will command 'right of way' as they muscle through the passage and manoeuvre in the swing basin amongst dugongs and turtles. Of course, that is after GPC dredge and deepen the harbour and dump the material on vibrant seagrass beds and a known fish hatchery ‐ inside the Dugong Protection Sanctuary. This dredging project is absolutely enormous. It plans to remove up to 50 million cubic metres of spoil and create an artificial mountain on the western shores of Gladstone Harbour, just north of the cement works. To add insult to injury, Gladstone Ports Corporation seem to think that they can create an environmental "offset" for this by changing the tenure of a piece of perfectly good, and untouched marine land near Port Alma. This demonstrates they have total ignorance of the meaning of the term "offset".
But wait there’s more. Not only does the harbour need to dredged for this massive shipping, but also a trench will be dredged in The Narrows to take the pipelines1.5km across the harbour floor to Curtis Island.
The big picture
Gladstone's airshed is already full and its ocean views include coal stockpiles. A power station and many other industrial landmarks welcome visitors to its city. LNG is still derived from a fossil fuel, a non‐renewable source. Its drilling and extraction processes are degrading and unsustainable – more holes will be needed, more land will be given up.
CCC wants to debunk the myth that coal seam LNG is a ‘clean’ energy. LNG still emits half the CO2 of burning coal. Don't be fooled. It may seem cleaner (clear gas vs. a black solid), but it is still a very serious source of greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, this supposedly ‘clean’ tag distracts us from pursuing truly renewable energy resources.
But at the end of the day the obvious question for Gladstone and its addiction to industry is quite simple ‐ when will enough be enough?
See our media release 22 Oct 2010 >>