By Matt Wilson
ADELAIDE — The operator of the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia, Western Mining (WMC), recently released an environmental impact statement into the expansion of uranium mining operations.
Given the Howard government's scrapping of Labor's three mines policy, the EIS was not going to present any problems for WMC. Neither would the EIS guidelines, issued by the SA government in May, which raises some serious questions about the effectiveness of the entire process.
While the EIS did address energy efficiency, renewable energy, previous environmental assessments and a response to the leak of the tailings dam (revealed, belatedly, by WMC in February 1994), it was conspicuous in its omission of more fundamental problems.
The EIS included no limit on the amount of uranium WMC can produce from the mine.
The Roxby Downs Amendment Bill, rushed through parliament in October 1996 (with full support from the Labor "opposition"), was phrased in terms of the annual production of refined copper and associated products. It did not specify upper limits on the amount of uranium to be mined or processed at Roxby Downs.
Nor are there any limits imposed on how much material (especially uranium ore and concentrates) can be brought in from outside the lease.
This raises the prospect of Olympic Dam/Roxby Downs becoming the centre for processing and enrichment of uranium from all over Australia.
The SA government would receive no royalties from any uranium brought into the state, even though it gives massive power subsidies to WMC, such as the 300-kilometre transmission line from Port Augusta which powers the mine.
WMC has been granted special licences to extract water from the Great Artesian Basin at will, once again with no limit or cost to it. This water is an essential part of the fragile desert ecosystem, and there is no penalty for contaminating underground water sources. According to WMC's own documents, this has occurred more than a few times.
Despite the mining industry's supposed commitment to rehabilitate exhausted land, this EIS doesn't require WMC to stick to it. Experience shows that WMC will not bother with rehabilitation, let alone actually returning Olympic Dam to its original ecological values.
It is officially compelled only to minimise radiation emissions. Anything more cuts too much into profits.
The EIS guidelines contain a reference to the need to justify the expansion. However, the expansion could be disallowed only by the minister for mines (not even the federal environment minister can veto his decision — not that that would be likely).
Compliance with the goals, objectives and guiding principles of "ecologically sustainable development" is required, but, ironically, the appropriateness of uranium mining does not have to be addressed!
The affects of radiation on mine workers are well documented. However, the EIS guidelines do not require WMC to monitor the health of workers' families.
Neither does the EIS provide for penalties for spills or leaks from the mine. In 1994, the tailings retention system (TRS) at Olympic Dam had a "leak" of 5 million cubic litres of highly contaminated and radioactive water.
WMC was very slow to acknowledge that anything was wrong, and deficiencies in design and operation of the TRS were denied.
According to WMC's own records, there were at least two other leaks at WMC operations in WA. An inquiry was called — and actually held. However, a doubling of the size of the Roxby mine was approved even before the report was tabled.
According to the Nuclear Information Office, it is apparent "that the EIS process has been degraded to the point that the only role of the environment movement is to add credibility and legitimise decisions already made by WMC in collaboration with the SA government".
The scene is set for WMC and other mining companies to exploit the land's resources without any regard for the environment or people's health.
Join the fight against uranium and come to RoxStop, a desert action and festival, September 22-October 6, organised by Friends of the Earth. Contact (03) 9419 8700 for more information.