Conservation group says proposal to take up to 700,000 megalitres of water to supply Galilee basin will have a ‘hugely negative impact’ and won’t prevent depletion of groundwater by mines as claimed

Australia’s largest proposed mine would be fed water that has been directly diverted from two north Queensland rivers, under a plan put forward by a company headed by a former state treasurer.



The company, Galilee Water, is planning to divert water from the Campaspe and Cape rivers via channels to huge water storage “cells” that would hold 600,000 to 700,000 megalitres in total.

A 123km long pipeline would take 12,000 megalitres of water a year to the Galilee basin region of central Queensland, a coal-rich area where nine large mines are planned.

The water would supply the Macmines and Resolve mines before heading to the Carmichael mine, a $16.5bn development by Indian firm Adani which is set to be the largest mine in Australia.

The water will also be available to graziers, according to documents lodged with the federal environment department, which will consider its environmental impact.

The Carmichael mine is currently facing a legal challenge in Queensland’s land court due to its impact upon groundwater. Keith de Lacy, chairman of Galilee Water and a former Queensland treasurer, said the water diversion project would negate concerns over groundwater depletion.

“We see this as a centralised water solution for the Galilee basin, initially the northern area, but potentially the whole of the Galilee,” De Lacy told Central Queensland News.

“There won’t be a range of water storage initiatives, it will be centralised and it will eliminate the need for miners to take underground water.

“All we’re proposing is to meet their water needs with this solution so they can get on with developing the mine.”

“We can provide it [water] much more economically than the mines can provide it for themselves.”

Little is known about the background of Galilee Water, which was registered with the corporate regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission in March last year. Its website says it was established to provide “high reliability bulk water for the community” in the Galilee basin, an area that will provide coal “crucial to support economic growth in India and China”.



Coast and Country, the group challenging the Carmichael mine in the land court, told Guardian Australia the Galilee Water plan, which has yet to draw up an environmental impact statement, would not deter its legal action.

The Carmichael mine will be 60km long and will dig up 60m tonnes of coal a year for export when it is running at capacity. It’s estimated the mine will cause the local water table to drop by as much as 50 metres.



Conservationists rejected the idea that the Galilee Water plan would negate the impact upon groundwater and raised concern about the impact of the river water removal upon the environment.

“They don’t mention how much water the mines will actually need, and there will be a lot of downstream impacts not thought about here,” said Patricia Julien, research analyst at the Mackay Conservation Group.

“The mines will need groundwater anyway, because the coal is in the aquifers anyway. So they will need to pump out all of that groundwater to get to the coal. It’s just not true that this will lessen the impact upon groundwater. This is a terrible concept that would have a hugely negative impact.”

Julien added that the affected species mentioned in documentation for the water project are the same as those likely to be displaced by Adani’s mine and associated 300km rail line, part-funded by the Queensland government, that will take coal to the Abbot Point port. These species include the ornamental snake and the squatter pigeon, both of which are listed as vulnerable.

Environment groups are attempting to ramp up the pressure on the Queensland government over the opening up of the Galilee basin to mining ahead of the 31 January state election.

The World Wildlife Fund has released an email, obtained under freedom of information, that shows the federal Department of Environment warned the Australian painted snipe would suffer a “long-term decrease” in the size of its population from a plan to dump sediment dredged at Abbot Point on a sensitive wetlands area.

The painted snipe, a wading bird listed nationally as endangered, is one of more than a dozen bird species that rely upon the Caley Valley wetlands near the Abbot Point site. Seabed dredged to expand the Abbot Point port will be dumped on to part of the wetlands, if approved by the federal government, after an initial plan to dispose the sediment in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef was ditched following an outcry.

The mining industry is also looking to remind the LNP and Labor of its presence ahead of the 31 January poll, with the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) releasing figures showing that the sector contributed $37.5bn in spending to the state economy in 2013/14. This includes more than $5bn in wages to more than 44,000 full-time residents the QRC says are mining employees.

Every electorate in Queensland, rather than just certain mining areas, is a “resources winner” due to mining, the QRC said.