Clive Palmer’s Halifax Bay permit not renewed

THE Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has refused to renew a permit for Clive Palmer for his Townsville nickel refinery.

THE Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has refused to renew a permit for Clive Palmer to keep an emergency overflow pipeline from his Townsville nickel refinery into World Heritage waters in Halifax Bay.

Mr Palmer has responded with fresh legal action against the authority and the federal government, challenging the validity of a 2001 decision to include Halifax Bay within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area.

The overflow pipe from the Yabulu refinery tailings ponds into Halifax Bay was used regularly between 1975 and 2001. Control of Halifax Bay transferred to GBRMPA in 2001 when it was included in the World Heritage area. The authority had previously granted permission to keep the pipeline in Halifax Bay but not to discharge waste water.

Mr Palmer’s permit expired last year and on May 22 this year GBRMPA refused a request for a new permit for the pipe on the grounds that it did not provide any reason for the structure to be in the marine park and there were no future plans for it. Questions were raised about whether the pipe was structurally sound and fit for the purpose.

The Yabulu refinery was forced to suspend operations briefly in April after heavy rains filled the tailings ponds, causing toxic sludge to spill into the Great Barrier Reef waters.

At the time, Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell said he would oppose any formal application from Mr Palmer to channel the tailings through the outfall pipe into Halifax Bay.

Federal government scientists have previously described a major discharge from the ponds to the ecosystem of Halifax Bay as “similar to the daily discharge of treated sewage from a city of seven million”.