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Australia OKs Dumping Dredge Waste In Barrier Reef
An anonymous reader writes "Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has approved the dumping of 3 million cubic meters of dredge waste in park waters. The decision has been blasted by environmentalists. 'This is a sad day for the reef and anyone who cares about its future,' said WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Richard Leck. 'The World Heritage Committee will take a dim view of this decision, which is in direct contravention of one of its recommendations.'"
This might help:
https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/coal-seam-gas/unesco-great-barrier-reef
It's absolutely disgraceful that politicians can be so short sighted as to allow this to happen. It makes my blood boil.
And by "reef", they mean a patch of silt 25km away from the actual reef.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
It's dredge waste, not spent fuel rods.
They are moving rocks from one part of the sea bed to another part of the seabed.
Poor Nemo, Marlin, and Dory
I hope Bruce and the Sharks anonymous go to the beaches of Queensland and eat some Aussies (theyre not fish)
On behalf of most Australians, I apologise to the world for risking damaging one of the most beautiful natural wonders of the world. All thanks to the climate change denying prime minister that right about now most of us wish we hadn't voted for.
'This is a sad day for the reef and anyone who cares about its future,' said WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Richard Leck
He then proceeded to hit Paul Hogan with a steel folding chair and pinned him.
I'd like to say I'm categorically not OK with dumping waste here.
Sadly the state and federal governments are completely ignoring what the majority of the people want.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
And like most other pronouncements made by a government authority which are expected to attract negative publicity, this decision was made and released on a Friday afternoon.
Had it been something for which the government authority wanted maximum publicity, they would have made the announcement at the start of the week. (Sunday. Monday.)
I hate it when government departments work the news cycle ... it feels dirty.
to call myself Australian since the LIberal government takeover. They're doing the complete opposite to everything I want and believe in. Who wants to trade citizenship? Preferably a Canadian. I DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS DICKS!!!!
Could both sides please put their research/models on the impacts to the reef out publicly and allow an independent/international to verify? Over the Christmas break I happened to talk to an environmental scientist that works on such reports for that region of the reef. They told me that as far as they could see in the numbers the risks to the reef were non-existent and that certain environmental groups basically threatened that unless the report said what they wanted it to say that they would cause a stink that would ruin reputations and jobs of individuals. The mainstream media has certainly jumped on the hysteria (as they usually do). I don't know who is right but can we put the science - the numbers and models to the front of the discussion rather than outrage over what people with vested interests (on both sides) tell us what to think via the media.
I understand what dredging is, but what is the composition of dredge waste? Non-native soil/rocks/sand? Percentages of whatever they're doing?
Obama's blocking the Keystone pipeline of nearly benign carbon emissions and raped Ghadafi's government over a launching a few SCUDs at armed dissidents. Where's the NATO mission to oust these fucking psychos? First no-blood video games and now this?
I guess the Australian Government also joined the list of governments who knows that the people can't do shit about anything.
Several board members have connections with big coal it turns out:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/reef-board-members-in-conflict-of-interest-claims/5052558
Of course the current government will do nothing about this since they are all corrupt too.
Australia is a fascist dictatorship right now: We call it a Murdocracy.
They're expanding the port to handle expanded coal mining operations in the Galilee Basin. One of the two beneficiaries (ie, owners of the mines) is one of Australia's richest men: Clive Palmer. Clive happens to be the Federal Member for Fairfax. Ie, he's a federal member of parliament.
He's been fighting to have the port expanded for years, and had a falling out with the Newman (state) government over it. But Palmer now holds the balance of power in the federal parliament... and his dredging operation now gets approved.
I'd expect this kind of thing in the US parliament where money and politics are more intertwined than here in Australia. Tis a sad day for Australia in more ways than one.
Abbot Point is about exporting massive amounts of coal. The Abbott Government is the most anti-environmental I have seen in my life of 62 years. He himself is a climate change skeptic and he was elected on a platform of repealing the Carbon Tax. We are only in the first year of this vandals office. After 3 years he will have done untold damage and the apathetic voters will probably vote him in again. We love economic growth and we don't want the party to end. Environmental stuff is just a party spoiler. I'm ashamed of so much that is going on here.
They have chosen a safe dumping zone where the movement of silt won't cause problems. But the entire east coast of Queensland, however, is the marine park, so all the safe dumping zones are inside the 'park'. So that means that GBRMPA has to check the details and make sure that what the engineers have worked out is a safe dumping zone is actually one, and that the currents won't take large quantities of fine silt onto reefs. They have done so, worked out that it is, and the world moves on.
Now whether anyone should be digging up coal and shipping it to places where it will be burnt is another matter. But the placement of the dredge spoil is simple engineering.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
The waste is just sand and a bit of mud (not toxic at all) and they are *not* dumping it on the reef. They are dumping it in a barren stretch of sand that doesn't even have any seagrass or notable life. It is far enough away from the actual reef to not be an issue and they have a maximum amount per year they can dump and a window that they are allowed to do it in (outside of spawning season).
If environmentalists want to be taken seriously they should not cry wolf.
Maybe people will pay to come see the pile of sludge!!!
You've got your location wrong. The tidal range at Abbot Point is less than 4 meters.
http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanogr...
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Slashdot is now a mouthpiece for ignorant uneducated environmentalists?
Pro tip: no dumping on the reef. Only on mud/sand flats in the greater marine park. And only with conditions. Like if turbidity at the dump point gets too high, no more dumping.
Fuck I am sick and tired of the hysteria surrounding this. A few dumb fucks with big mouths thing this is a shit idea. A whole lot more of stupid people have been propagating this shit for days.
Some people clearly don't want us to have a gas industry. Uneducated fucks.
- one pissed off environment lover
Now here's the unsurprising news about the money trail - The project we are discussing is a joint venture between "mining magnates" Gina Reinhart, and you guessed it, Senator Clive Palmer.
I'm sure they can find somewhere suitable.
Yes, and that place is the open ocean beyond the reef or as clean landfill, but "doing the right thing" would mean Clive and Gina (world's richest woman) would have to spend the money they thought they could save by socialising the risks involved.
At the end of the day it's really quite simple, parks are not created for use as cheap landfill sites for the mining industry, why such an application would even be considered is beyond me. Worse still if the government were to reverse the decision, they will probably be sued for the extra costs and several million mugs like me will end up paying their costs anyway.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Unless they swam or walked on the coral reefs, they would have gotten there by boat, indicating that this "big reef" you're talking about isn't forming the impenetrable great barrier you're describing...
So now what?
If it's just seabed that they're moving to some other seabed, then why not just leave it there, where it will be as much seabed as it would if moved elsewhere?
What? It's inconvenient there? Well, that's OK, but if "it's inconvenient there" is a reason why it should be moved, then "it's inconvenient there" is reason why it shouldn't be dumped near the great barrier reef.
There is so much uranium already present in seawater, there since millions of years, that if the market price of U were to increase 10x it would be profitable to extract it for human use. So what effect is that puff of Fukushima particles going to have around the world?
What in the world does the World Wrestling Federation have to do with the environment???
The only way to respond to force is with force. When will the environmental community learn that complaining won't change anything? You start sinking the barges dumping the dredgings and see what happens.
I'm surprised they don't just induce a coma as a treatment.
Yes, they "impacted" it.
Now put your big boy pants on, stop reading sensationalist bullshit and read on what impact those concentrations actually have. Because the answer is there. None. We needed the most modern of the modern equipment to find those few atoms of cesium 137, which is what they test for because it's the one compound that is not naturally found in seawater, and they found a few atoms in a cubic meter.
To all life on this planet that has to deal with radioactive potassium in its cells which is required to sustain life, this concentration is not something they will ever notice.
How is this technology related?
It appears to just be click spam posted during Australian daytime fishing for hits.
Keep looking for that new low, /.
Maybe it's time to get the boys together and write a new album.
How about if someone actually calculates how much of an effect from a purely volumetric standpoint this dumping will have. Remember dredge waste is largely water, mud and soil.
If the barrier reef has 300 billion cubic meters in size (probably a lot more) then 3x10^7/3x10^11 = 1x10^-4 which is 1 part in ten thousand.
Remember the reef is in the ocean which continually flows water through the reef and will wash the dredge away rather quickly.
A year later there will be no trace of the dumping. Get real about facts. Just like global warming the environmentalists leap before making any calculations, not exactly the scientific method.
This ia sad reflection of the lack of understanding of the new government on environmental issues. For them, rewarding their mates and campaign donors in big business is more important than anything else.
Heavy is the head that wears the tinfoil hat.
G'day mate. We just dumped a bunch of dredge on our most valuable environmental resource.