The mound springs are home to plants that cannot survive in the drier parts of the outback landscape (Photo courtesy Roxstop 97 website)
Help us halt the Great Artesian water grab!
Date: 18-Nov-2005
BHP Billiton has put a proposal to the Governments that would see the company extract an additional 120 million litres of publicly-owned artesian water per day, every day, for the next 70 years. Help us prevent an environmental disaster...
- Click here to send a letter of protest to the chairman of BHP Billiton.
- Click here to send a letter of protest to the Premier of South Australia.
- Click here to donate to this appeal.
That's 60 Olympic swimming pools of water a day, for the lifetime of the mine, for free.
Already the biggest industrial user of underground water in the southern hemisphere, the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine at Roxby Downs takes 33 million litres a day from the Great Artesian Basin.
The additional take would see the company extracting more than 150 million litres a day - around a third of the artesian water that flows into South Australia.
Concerns about environmental impact
ACF is deeply concerned that drawing this much water would damage the Great Artesian Basin, cause a significant reduction in groundwater pressure and cut off the natural flows to the unique and fragile mound springs.
The water extraction is part of BHP Billion's proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine.
The company, which announced a record annual profit of $8.5 billion in August, plans to double copper production, quadruple uranium output and convert the mine from a network of underground tunnels to a massive open pit, a kilometre deep and three kilometres wide.
The crater would be visible from space.
The expanded mine would produce enough waste rock rubble to cover the CBD of any Australian capital city and enough radioactive waste to cover the MCG to the depth of the goalposts every two-and-a-half days.
The mine is a large consumer of electricity and a major contributor to South Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. A 2003 Senate Inquiry into the regulation of uranium mining reported "a pattern of under performance and non-compliance" in the industry. It concluded that changes were necessary "in order to protect the environment and its inhabitants from serious or irreversible damage".
Yet due to an outdated legal arrangement, the current mining operation does not come under the watch of vital South Australian environment laws. With BHP Billiton able to act outside the laws of South Australia, how can the changes recommended by the Senate inquiry be enforced?
Why the Great Artesian Basin mound springs are important
The Great Artesian Basin covers 1.7 million square kilometres or 22 per cent of the Australian continent. It contains an astonishing volume of water, estimated at about 8.7 billion megalitres.
Much of the water in the Great Artesian Basin's aquifers is naturally pressurised. The pressure forces water to the surface through cracks and other faults in the overlying rocks.
Where this water reaches the surface, salt, silt and clay deposited by the evaporating spring water form mounds, commonly known as mound springs. There are about 600 individual springs, concentrated into 11 main groups across the Great Artesian Basin. The south-western region of the basin - the region closest to Roxby Downs - contains the largest number of active and unique springs.
The mound springs are oases - patches of reliable moisture in an arid landscape. They are home to a host of unique organisms - tiny fish, invertebrates and plants that cannot survive in the drier parts of the outback landscape. They become refuges for native birds and animals during times of drought.
More than 40 species of small freshwater snails are known to occur only in the mound springs of the Great Artesian Basin, with some species found only at a single spring. Several of these snail species are already endangered because the springs where they live are on pastoral land, where they are threatened by trampling stock or unsustainable extraction of groundwater.
The mound springs are also important cultural places for the Arabunna people, the traditional custodians of the area.
If these biological wellsprings are damaged by over-extraction of water, it will wipe out the mound springs' unique flora and fauna and adversely affect birds and animals across the Great Artesian Basin that gravitate to the springs when the going gets tough.
With climate change expected to make droughts more frequent and intense, healthy springs will be more important than ever in coming years.
Take action
BHP Billiton should not be allowed to grab this important public water resource and use it to build company profits.
ACF is working hard to convince the Federal and South Australian governments that the company's proposal is bad for the environment and the community.
Help ACF convince governments to reject this massive planned expansion of the Roxby Downs mine. Write to the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, calling on him to:
* Protect the Great Artesian Basin and the mound springs from the adverse impacts of over-extraction of water;
* Remove the outdated agreement that gives BHP Billiton exemptions from South Australian environmental protection laws and bring it into the same legal environment as other companies operating in SA; and
* Scale back, rather than expand, the Olympic Dam mine.
Write to:
SA Premier Mike Rann
GPO Box 2343
ADELAIDE SA 5001
Phone 08 8463 3166
Fax 08 8463 3168
Email premier@saugov.sa.gov.au
As ACF President Ian Lowe said at the National Press Club on 19 October, "The Big Australian should be warned that it will not get away with making a big mess in the South Australian outback."
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