A delegate for the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, had previously justified a decision not to apply the water trigger on the basis that the specific proposal â whose purpose was to supply water to the Carmichael mine â was not itself a coalmining development.
The federal court decision says that reasoning is in error.
Adani said its activities â including the ongoing construction of the mine and its future operation â will not be impacted by the decision. Concerns have previously been raised about whether it has sufficient supplies to support water-intensive construction and mining activities without access to the North Galilee Water Scheme.
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The federal environment department wrongly skipped a key assessment when approving a water pipeline for Adani s massive Carmichael coal mine, a court has ruled.
The North Galilee Water Scheme would extend a dam and pump water 110 kilometres to the coal mine in central Queensland, to suppress dust and wash coal.
A department official in 2019 decided the project wasn t a coal mining activity or involving a large coal mining development.
Deeming it so would have mandated an assessment of whether the pipeline and other infrastructure had or was likely to have a significant impact on water resources.
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Last modified on Mon 24 May 2021 00.27 EDT
The Morrison government has approved a rare minerals mine that would clear thousands of hectares of potential habitat for an endangered marsupial once thought to be extinct.
Concerns have been raised about environmental surveys conducted for the project, as well as an unusual offsetting arrangement that will allow the developer to fund research into the species instead of protecting a designated area of its habitat.
Multicom Resources has proposed developing a vanadium mine 25km east of Julia Creek, in rural Queensland.
The area is home to a rare species of dunnart – the Julia Creek dunnart – a small marsupial believed extinct until it was rediscovered by a Melbourne scientist in the 1990s.
Last modified on Fri 21 May 2021 00.10 EDT
A new strategy to save Australiaâs threatened species will not be enough to correct the governmentâs âappalling recordâ on protecting the countryâs unique and at-risk wildlife, according to leading conservation groups.
The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, on Friday released the new 10-year strategy, saying the the government plans to broaden its responses from individual species to âpriority placesâ.
Ley said the government wants to see âprotection of a more diverse range of species, including reptiles, amphibians, freshwater species, marine speciesâ. The government is developing the first of two five-year âaction plansâ to underpin the strategy.