Abbot Point coal port expansion project has strict rules on sediment

The Abbot Point coal terminal expansion must remove more sediment from Great Barrier Reef waters than it generates.

Abbot Point port, which has received environmental approval for an expansion

The Abbot Point coal terminal expansion must remove more sediment from Great Barrier Reef waters than it generates under strict conditions imposed on the long-running project.

The conditions were welcomed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority but rejected as insufficient by environment groups that want Galilee Basin coal development stopped.

“We are supportive of strict conditions being applied, and ­acknowledge that the project ­reflects our preference for environmentally suitable disposal of dredge material on land rather than in the marine environment,” an authority spokesman said. “The dredging is expected to have localised impacts on some species and habitats.”

The authority said it supported the use of offsets to reduce the overall amount of sediment flowing into the Great Barrier Reef, “given the critical need for good water quality for marine life, particularly corals”.

Twenty-nine conditions were placed on the dredging proposal at Abbot Point but environment groups claim the project poses a threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef. The conditions limit dredging to 1.1 million cubic ­metres and insist on buffer zones to protect turtles and wetlands. Strict peer review oversight has been placed on onshore disposal of dredge spoils to avoid the mistakes of the Gladstone Harbour expansion where poor design and oversight led to failure.

Following the approval, Greens reef spokeswoman Lar­issa Waters said dredging 1.1 million cubic metres of the reef floor would mobilise about 10,000 ­tonnes of fine sediment, smothering seagrass habitat for dugongs and turtles. She said the decision to approve the Abbot Point expansion was “directly at odds with the global agreement in Paris to limit global warming within 1.5C to save our Great Barrier Reef and our Pacific Island neighbours’ homes”.

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the latest approval reflected the earlier demands of environment groups. “The environmental groups two years ago were demanding that (dredge material) be on land, then demanding that it be within the industrial port site — and that’s exactly what’s happened,” he said.

Mr Hunt said the plan was to take largely sand-based material from within an existing industrial port zone and place it within an existing industrial port zone on land.

Before dredging can proceed, the Environment Minister must approve management plans for dredging and onshore disposal.

Climate campaign group 350.org said the Abbot Point project was “a gateway for foreign mining companies to unlock one of the largest stores of climate-wrecking carbon on the planet, the Galilee Basin coalmines”.

“The Turnbull government can’t seriously sign on to deals which limit climate damage to 2C and then give a green light to massive coal export projects which guarantee that the 2C target can never be met,” 350.org spokeswoman Moira Williams said.

Mr Hunt said stopping the Adani mine would not ­necessarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions.