WWF-Australia Level 1, 17 Burnett Lane Brisbane QLD 4000 Postal: same as above Tel: +61 7 3003 1480 Fax: +61 7 3229 4431 [email protected] @WWF_Australia wwf.org.au ABN 57 001 594 074 Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Email: [email protected] 06 June 2014 Dear Secretary, Submission: Inquiry into the adequacy of the Australian and Queensland Governments’ efforts to stop the rapid decline of the Great Barrier Reef WWF-Australia and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have already provided a substantial joint submission addressing all of the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference. WWF has also commissioned a report “Queensland Nickel Yabulu Refinery – Risks to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area” which has been authored by an independent expert. WWF now wishes to present the attached report as a separate submission addressing the following ToR: (c) Management of non-agricultural activities within reef catchments impacting on the reef, including legacy mines, current mining activities and practices, residential and tourism developments, and industrial operations including Yabulu. We hope this report will assist the Committee in its Inquiry. Yours Sincerely, Richard Leck WWF Australia National Manager – Marine Conservation and Sustainable Development QUEENSLAND NICKEL YABULU REFINERY RISKS TO THE GREAT BARRIER REEF WORLD HERITAGE AREA A review of available information Prepared by Dr Glen Holmes 6 June 2014 CONTENTS At a glance ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 The North Queensland Conservation Council FOI Request .................................................................... 2 Refinery process ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) .................................................................................................................. 4 Environmental Permits ........................................................................................................................... 5 Commonwealth ................................................................................................................................... 5 GBRMPA .............................................................................................................................................. 5 State .................................................................................................................................................... 6 National Pollutant Inventory................................................................................................................... 7 Environmental Assessment and Management (EA&M) Program .......................................................... 9 Water Quality Standards ......................................................................................................................... 9 Communications with GBRMPA and SEWPaC ...................................................................................... 10 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 11 References ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Freedom of Information Release Documents ....................................................................................... 13 Appendix A - QNPL Process Overview .................................................................................................. 14 AT A GLANCE QNPL have a long history of poor water quality management at the Yabulu refinery with the capacity of the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) being problematic for at least the last 10 years The TSF contains high levels of ammonia and metals including chromium, copper, lead and mercury QNPL have discharged wastewater from the TSF without authorisation in 2009 and twice in 2011 The second 2011 discharge was equivalent to 18-22% of the nitrogen released from the entire Burdekin catchment. Based on this one release, QNPL has the capacity to completely undo all the gains achieved by Reef Plan and Reef Rescue QNPL have requested permission to release wastewater into the GBRWHA on at least four other occasions in 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2012 The unauthorised releases have not been included in the mandatory reporting the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) Reporting to the NPI is inconsistent, questioning the reliability of the data Regulators have been inadequate at enforcing environmental licence conditions The temporary environment program (TEP) approved by the Qld government allows the release of ammonia at concentrations more than 50 times the recommended concentrations New DA criteria recently issued provide QNPL with a mechanism to bypass GBRMPA permitting and exceed water quality guideline trigger values by more than an order of magnitude Page 1 INTRODUCTION Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd (QNPL) is the operator of the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery (QNPL 2013). The refinery, located at Yabulu, about 25km north of Townsville, has been in operation since 1974 and produces nickel and cobalt products from imported laterite ores via leaching in an ammonium carbonate liquor. The waste streams from this process contain high levels of ammonia and other metals, are stored on-site in a tailings storage facility (TSF) (QNPL 2013). Concern was raised in the media 2012 regarding the stability of the TSF following requests from QNPL to partially drain the TSF into Halifax Bay within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). This report has been prepared to assess the level of risk to the GBRWHA posed by the operations of the Yabulu refinery based on publically available information only. No correspondence has been entered into with QNPL or state or Commonwealth government agencies regarding the operations of the refinery. A Freedom of Information request was made to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) by the North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) and the information released under this request has been made available for inclusion in this report. A separate report compiled by an independent science panel was completed in December 2012 but has not been made available. THE NORTH QUEENSLAND CONSERVATION COUNCIL FOI REQUEST NQCC submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request to the GBRMPA for: All correspondence (incoming or outgoing) from 1 June 2012 between the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC) the Queensland Government; and Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd (QNPL) The request collated 181 documents and those deemed to be within the scope of the request and not exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 were released. Many were email communications with very little technical information. The remainder contained documents that concerned relations between the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments. Other information pertaining to QNPL has not (at the time of writing) been released pending an appeal by QNPL on the decision to release them. It is assumed that these disputed documents contain the bulk of any technical data concerning the TSF. Information contained in the FOI is referenced as FOI #(document number). Page 2 1 REFINERY PROCESS The QNPL refining process takes imported ores from mines in New Caledonia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The ores vary slightly in composition depending on the source mine. Moisture content varies from 30-40% based on the source mine and weather at the various bulk handling facilities (Fittock 2007). The typical composition of the feed ore at the refinery is shown in Table 1 (Fittock 2007). TABLE 1: TYPICAL COMPOSITION OF ORES IMPORTED TO THE YABULU REFINERY Moisture Chemical composition (% w/w dry basis) (% wet wt) Ni Co Fe Si Mg Mn Cu Zn Ca Al Cr S 35 1.6 0.15 37 7.2 5.2 0.8 0.01 0.05 0.1 2.1 1.2 0.2 The feed ore is initially dried and then ground to a fine powder, mixed with fuel oil and reduced at high temperature to reactive metals. The ore is then cooled and leached in ammonium carbonate solution to dissolve the nickel and cobalt into amines. These are then separated out by progressively washing in ammonia solution. The waste materials are then sent to the onsite TSF and the nickel is separated from cobalt by ammoniacal solvent extraction and precipitated by boiling off ammonia. A simplified process flow diagram is shown in Appendix A. In 2001, approval was granted by the Commonwealth for the Yabulu expansion project (YEP), to double the production capacity of the plant to 76,000 tonnes/yr of nickel and 3,500 tonnes/yr of cobalt (see below for permit details). In 2007, the YEP was completed allowing the refinery to additionally process ore from BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe mine in Western Australia. The YEP was decommissioned in January 2009 and production rates have not varied significantly since 2008 (FOI#121). Production rates identified in the QNPL Operating Plan (Sept 2012) (as noted in FOI doc 121) are