High costs in slow compensation action

FAILURE to quickly buy out Gladstone Harbour's commercial fishermen has been a false economy for the state-government-owned Ports Corporation but a rare lifeline for the struggling World Heritage-listed marine environment.

Compensation for fishermen was a condition of approval for the controversial dredging operation needed to make way for $60 billion worth of liquefied natural gas export projects.

But the commencement of dredging without buying out fishermen who claim they face financial ruin threatens to stir up a legal and political storm that rivals the very muddy Gladstone Harbour waters.

By delaying compensation talks, the Ports Corporation has allowed in aggressive class-action lawyer Shine, which has broadened the compensation net and potential damages.

The firm has also turned scrutiny on how the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Development has been doing its job.

Complaints from angry fishermen have driven public concerns about environmental problems and poor fish health at Gladstone.

This led to an expert panel finding that testing programs at Gladstone were not "not fit for purpose" to find the cause of environmental concerns.

Increased scrutiny appears to have forced the department to take a more serious approach to its supervision of dredging.

The Ports Corporation was issued with an environmental protection order this month to cease suction dredging until water conditions improved.

The Ports Corporation has voluntarily suspended or restricted dredging several times.

Corporation claims that seasonal variation such as king tides are causing poor water quality are wearing thin.

The records show that water turbidity was at the poorest acceptable level for 25 of the last 100 days of last year. Based on the historical record, 99 per cent turbidity should be reached on only one day out of 100.

Opponents of the dredging are not calling for the LNG projects to be stopped, but are asking why Gladstone Port Corporation appears to be getting an easy ride from the regulators.