BHP’s environmental assessment of its proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly on South Australia’s upper Spencer Gulf is flawed, a fishermen’s group says.
The plant is part of BHP’s expansion of its Olympic Dam mine.
The company released its final Environmental Impact Statement in May, taking into account more than 4,000 submissions.
The Spencer Gulf and West Coast Prawn Fishermen’s Association has released its own report into the company’s environmental assessment.
The Association says the mining giant has failed to consider the impact on the breeding cycle of prawns.
Environmental scientist Dr Gary Morgan was a member of the review team and says BHP’s conclusion that there will be no effects on the local ecosystem is unjustifiable.
He says the discharge of hypersaline water into the Gulf could damage the local prawn industry.
“What the science is showing by BHP’s own assessment, they have identified in the new science that they’ve done an additional threat of the pooling of toxic, high-saline water at the bottom of the Spencer Gulf and of course that’s where prawns live,” he said.
BHP says it did not need to consider all stages of the species’ life cycle but only the adult stage, which it says is the most sensitive.
The State Government is still negotiating with the company and says no final decision about the plant has been made.
