Palmer’s refinery given ‘special treatment’

FORMER managers of Clive Palmer’s nickel refinery have ­accused Queensland’s environmental regulator of “special treatment”.

FORMER managers of Clive Palmer’s nickel refinery have ­accused Queensland’s environmental regulator of giving the resources tycoon “special treatment” and of failing to prevent his tailings dams from reaching maximum capacity, resulting in an avoidable spill of toxic sludge into waterways and wetlands.

They told The Australian yesterday that the overflowing from the dams, following a heavy rain dump from Cyclone Ita, would not have happened if inspectors from the Environment Department had been doing their jobs properly by monitoring the levels and imposing production bans before the tailing dams reached risky levels.

“Competent monitoring by the department would have identified this as a possible scenario long before the rain from the cyclone made it inevitable,’’ a former executive said.

“It is incredible that after two years of public concern being expressed about the dam, the department still failed to act in time. Clive Palmer has got them completely bluffed.”

Another former manager warned that if the Queensland government wanted to prevent further spills the refinery’s nickel production processes could be shut down for many weeks as the fullness of the dams meant it would not be possible to do the structural work needed to increase their capacity. Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell and senior officials have repeatedly urged and warned the leader of the Palmer United Party to do major structural work to lift the dam walls to increase capacity and mitigate the risk of toxic sludge from the refinery overflowing into creeks that run into the waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Mr Palmer has previously warned that women and children would “die” if the dams spilt their hazardous waste into waterways. He has slammed Premier Campbell Newman, accusing him this week of leaking misinformation about the dams.

A spokeswoman for Mr Powell said yesterday that, under a new environmental condition, which was agreed with the refinery late last year, “no longer are we being prescriptive; rather we are giving the proponents greater responsibility to meet … environmental obligations”.

“To that end we are not prescribing what proponents need to do any more,’’ the spokeswoman said. “We are prescribing what outcomes they need to deliver. So in this instance, Mr Palmer has a responsibility to manage the risk in his dam to ensure none of it comes over and into other waterways. He also has a responsibility to manage any water releases are of a quality consistent with his (permit).”

She said there was no such thing as a “stop production” threshold in the new condition, adding that Queensland Nickel advised the department “before Cyclone Ita that it had capacity in its (dams) for approximately 300mm of rain”. Refinery staff said yesterday production had been suspended to prevent more tailings entering the full dams.