Adani should have been fixing its coal port rather than running an ad campaign to push through its mine, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) says, after the miner was fined for exceeding its pollution limits at its Abbot Point port on the Great Barrier Reef coast.
Reports from Adani this morning, checked by AMCS, confirm the company has been fined $13,055 for releasing water polluted with almost double the allowable total suspended solids (TSS) from its Abbot Point coal port into the neighbouring Caley Valley Wetlands on 7 February. The nationally significant wetlands sit beside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Dr Lissa Schindler, AMCS Great Barrier Reef Campaign Manager, welcomed the Queensland Government’s enforcement. She said Adani has had “two years to get their port up to scratch”.
“This is the second time in two years that Adani has failed to comply with its legal obligations to protect the environment,” she said.
“Instead of running an advertising blitz to pressure the Queensland Government into approving its Reef-wrecking project, Adani should have been fixing its port so it could cope with Queensland’s extreme weather event.”
Adani is currently being prosecuted by the Queensland Government for a 2017 pollution breach when it spilt water loaded with coal dust and other particles at levels more than 800 per cent the allowable limits.
Schindler added: “Adani has a terrible environmental record in India, including a major coal spill into the marine environment near Mumbai that it failed to clean up for more than five years. It has polluted beaches and destroyed mangroves. Adani cannot be trusted with our Reef.”
