Abbot Point port to be one-stop shop for dredge spoils

THE controversial Abbot Point coal port will take dredge spoil as landfill from operations all along the Queensland coast.

Abbot Point coal terminal. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

THE controversial Abbot Point coal port will take dredge spoil as landfill from operations all along the Queensland coast under a plan that could stop the regular dumping of the waste at sea.

The plan is part of a Newman government move to use up to three million cubic metres of dredge material from the expansion of the Abbot Point port as landfill rather than dump it within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. State cabinet is today expected to approve the plan being championed by Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney after months of outcry and a looming legal challenge to federal ­government-approved permits to dispose of the waste into the sea from next year’s dredging ­operations.

Mr Seeney sacked the state-owned North Queensland Bulk Ports as developers of the port ­expansion and will be pushing later this week for the green light to the land-based solution from the federal government.

Under the plan, the dredge ­material will be treated before being used as “land reclamation’’ around the port and to help ­expand man-made wetland areas.

“But it won’t be just for the dredging from the Abbot Point expansion. We will make the port available to take dredging ­material from other operations as landfill,’’ he said.

“We have got a facility that means we may never have to dump at sea again from dredging operations.’’

Ports have to dredge for maintenance, with the Townsville Port alone dumping about 500,000 cubic metres of spoil into the sea every year. Greens senator ­Larissa Waters said she was still concerned about the environmental impact of using the dredge material as landfill at Abbot Point.

“It is an improvement in that with this plan it is not being dumped at sea,’’ Senator Waters said. “But land reclamation has its own dangers and a site further inland should be found to avoid impact on the reef and the wetland.’’

Mr Seeney said the Newman government had been working on a solution to avoid dumping the material at sea since soon after it won office in March 2012.