Unanimous take up of voluntary limits
Coal mines in Queensland’s Fitzroy River Basin have voluntarily agreed to new conditions to improve the region’s water quality.
Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Kate Jones, met with the Fitzroy Water Quality Advisory Group to discuss the coal mines’ new goals.
Ms Jones said she the recent heavy rainfall in central Queensland would be the first litmus test of the new authorities.
“I’m advised the discharges that occurred in the past week were all within acceptable limits and all coal mines have been compliant so far,” Ms Jones said.
“The Department of Environment and Resource Management has worked closely with coal mines and the Queensland Resource Council to introduce new wastewater discharge management and monitoring requirements.
“We now have agreement on a uniformly applied set of wastewater discharge conditions across all 42 coal mines in central Queensland.
“A number of coal mines worked with DERM scientists to collect water quality data to help determine what their discharge limits should be.”
Prior to the agreement, discharge requirements across the Fitzroy Basin were inconsistent but now 40 of the 42 mines have new conditions in place as part of their licensing requirements, with the remaining two currently finalising their limits.
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