More pumps to be installed to clear acidic brine from St Kilda mangroves

The government will speed up the pumping of acidic brine in the St Kilda mangroves, to save even more of the area from dying.

A failure to pump acidic brine away from dead and dying mangroves at St Kilda has prompted the Energy and Mining Department to act.

“The state government will install additional pumps to accelerate the movement of water at the Dry Creek salt fields,” a spokesman said on Monday evening. “This will assist the existing actions being taken to prevent further environmental harm to the mangrove environment adjacent to the Dry Creek salt field.”

A Clean Up Authorisation issued under the Environment Protection Act 1993 comes as government trials of new pumping equipment at the site were completed last week.

EPA authorised officers will undertake water pumping on the salt field site and recover costs from the company Buckland Dry Creek.

The pumping is expected to continue for a number of months.

The State Government says this work will complement activity that is already being undertaken by Buckland Dry Creek, following directions previously issued by the Energy and Mining Department.

At least 10 hectares of mangroves and 35 hectares of saltmarsh near the St Kilda Mangrove Trail died late last year, after disused and dry salt evaporation ponds were filled and then slowly leaked.

In February the State Government said their experts were working with Buckland Dry Creek, to “stop further impact, promote conditions for recovery of the affected areas, and establish long term environmental stability for the mangrove and wider ecosystem”.

Pumping to remove hypersaline water to reduce the impact to mangroves, January 2021. Picture: Department for Energy and Mining

Acting director of mining regulation Paul De Inno said pumping of brine began on January 11 after the direction to remove water from the ponds south of St Kilda issued on December 24.

Last week St Kilda resident and scientist Peri Coleman, of Delta Environmental Consulting, said she was “starting to get super grumpy” because the Government continued to claim they were removing “millions” of litres of brine from the ponds.

“What they are not saying is that they are simply removing it from one leaking dam and putting it in the next leaking dam along the chain. From whence it happily continues to leak out into the saltmarshes and mangroves,” she said.

“I expect better than this. The public has a right to expect the truth from government agencies. So, we are all grownups here. It is clear that Plan A, to pump the brine across Dry Creek into designated holding ponds has failed. It seems the regulating agency has decided the only approach is to let the brine continue leaking.”

She called upon the Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan and Environment Minister David Speirs to “come clean”.

The Energy and Mining Department regulates the site under the Mining Act 1971 through the mining lease it holds with Buckland Dry Creek.

Buckland Dry Creek also has a license under the Environment Protection Act 1993 for chemical storage and warehousing facilities, chemical works (salt production) and discharges to marine or inland waters, which is overseen by the EPA.

Further information about the coordinated state government response can be found at

www.energymining.sa.gov.au/dry_creek_salt_field

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