The Australian Marine Conservation Society has slammed Adani today for their second licence breach in two years, in which coal-contaminated water overflowed from their Port at Abbot Point into the Nationally Significant Caley Valley Wetlands during last week’s heavy rainfall.

Adani is currently being prosecuted by the Queensland government for a previous pollution breach, when it spilt more than 800% the allowable level of coal-laden water into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Today Adani admitted (1) it had again exceeded its licence to pollute by almost double, releasing 58 mg total suspended solids (TSS) into the sensitive wetlands (2).

AMCS Reef campaign manager, Dr Lissa Schindler, said: “This second breach in only two years shows Adani has again failed to comply with its legal obligations to protect the environment. The Queensland government should move to prosecute them again.

“Adani is a company that has shown that it cannot be trusted with our precious Reef.

“Instead of running an advertising blitz to pressure the Queensland government into approving its Reef-wrecking project, Adani should have been ensuring its Port was able to cope with Queensland’s extreme weather events.

“Adani has a terrible environmental record in India, including a major coal spill into the marine environment near Mumbai that it failed to clean up for more than five years. It has polluted beaches and destroyed mangroves.

“Now in Australia, it has exceeded pollution limits into the surrounding fragile Reef waters and wetlands twice in two years at its coal port in Abbot Point.

“Our Great Barrier Reef is a global treasure spanning an area the size of Italy. It is one of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems which generates over 64,000 jobs, but it is in grave danger due to climate change, which is mainly driven by mining and burning coal.

“Our choice is clear. We can give our Reef a fighting chance and treat it with the World Heritage treasure that it is, or we can let mining giants like Adani continue to wreak havoc on its very future.

ENDS

For comment contact AMCS Communications Manager, Ingrid Neilson: 0421 972 731.

Notes:

1. Adani Statement from Abbot Point Operations

(2): Adani is licenced to release a maximum of 30 mgs per litre of TSS.