Impacts of the Chalco Aluminium Refinery if located near Bowen
Townsville mayoral candidates unanimously rejected the location of the massive Chalco Aluminium Refinery in Townsville (Townsville Bulletin, Mar 8-9, 2008). This is good news for Townsville but bad news for Bowen, which is high on the list as an alternative site.
The refinery would probably be located in a newly created massive State Industrial Area north of Bowen along the Bruce Highway and south of Abbotts Point coal port terminal. The terminal is currently being expanded. The area between the coal port terminal and the State Industrial Area is the Caley Wetlands. These wetlands are of national significance, being listed in the National Directory of Important Wetlands. They are home to thousands of migratory birds which migrate between Asia and Australia along the East-Australasian Flyway each year. They use the wetlands along the eastern coast of Australia as fuel sources for their long and arduous journeys. These coastal wetlands continue to be filled in or otherwise impacted by inappropriate coastal development. Australia has signed international agreements to protect these birds and their habitats. These agreements should be enforced through the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999.
Watercourse drainage lines run from the nearby mountains west through the State Industrial Area to the Caley Wetlands on their way to the Reef. So any polluted runoff will end up in the wetlands and eventually the Reef! Aluminum refineries produce vast amounts of poisonous red mud wastes. The State Industrial Area has 500 ha set aside for waste disposal so we would expect that toxic plumes will overwhelm onsite waste containment facilities during large scale events. The Bowen region is subject to intense cyclones during the Wet Season and has been impacted badly enough over the 130 years from 1867-1997 to record damage from 22 cyclones (Table 1), so cyclones will strike the State Industrial Development Area during its life.
Air quality monitoring has proved inadequate in the past in Bowen. Low concentrations of hazardous contaminants have been detected in the drying tower of Cheetham saltworks downwind of Xstrata’s coking plant, a plant that was built in the 1930s. We have a report of beach sands turned black from coal dust blown downwind of Abbot Point coal terminal. Coal dust is kept under control at Hay Point coal terminal because of resident concerns, but the State Industrial Area near Abbot Point will have few nearby residents to keep watch.
Mt. Abbot has significant high altitude rainforest that could well be affected by atmospheric emissions from an aluminium refinery.
Air pollutants occur on a range of temporal and spatial scales. Assessing the impacts on forests of pollutants from a point source requires intensive monitoring of both emissions and forest health not currently undertaken in Australia. The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) requires industries generating more than specified amounts of polluting substances to report on their emissions, however, there are no long-term data for the impact of these emissions on Australian forests.
The major pollutants that could have an impact on parts of Australia’s forests are photochemical smog, sulphur dioxide, fluorides and increased amounts of ultraviolet-B radiation resulting from ozone depletion in the stratosphere.
Sulphur dioxide (SO2) is another emitted pollutant of concern. This can come from coal-fired power stations (if the coal being used has a high sulphur content), from
desulphurisation of metals and from vegetation burning. It reacts with water in the atmosphere to form sulphuric acid (H2SO4), which is the chief constituent of acid rain. The gas can also be absorbed by leaves and reacts with moist surfaces within foliage to form sulphurous acids. These compounds dissociate to toxic ions which damage the photosynthetic apparatus resulting in yellowing, necrosis and leaf drop. Acid rain can reduce pH in soil and water bodies, and affect the function of plant roots and, in severe cases, leaves. In general, Australia’s urban areas are free of this problem, but certain operations in other locations—such as ore-roasting— may release sulphur dioxide.
Industrial processing facilities are the main sources of airborne fluoride, especially aluminium smelters and steel plants. Eucalypts growing in the vicinity of aluminium smelters can be susceptible to damage and there are significant differences in susceptibility between individual species. Excess fluoride inhibits photosynthesis and respiration, causing yellowing and in some species, reddening of leaves. At Tomago aluminium smelter approximately 99 per cent of emissions are removed before release of residual fumes into the atmosphere and monitoring of native vegetation for fluoride levels is carried over a radius of 20 kilometres from the point source. However, not all industrial activities meet such high standards, and air pollution exceeding national environmental protection measures (NEPMs) occurs in the vicinities of mining towns, for example, Mount Isa, Kalgoorlie and Port Pirie
The Bowen community will only be notified once in the local paper about any developments within this industrial area, and will have fifteen working days to comment. Development notices will be posted for each project within the Industrial Area at its specific site but will be invisible to the public as there is no public road access to the development area other than the Bruce Highway.
This community has few resources to adequately address the effects of something as complex as the Chalco aluminium refinery, and assess the impacts of its huge water and energy demands.
Where will the water and energy come from? Perhaps the water will be from the Bowen Pipeline which will take water from the Burdekin River. How will those withdrawals affect the ecology of the Burdekin River and marine environments of the offshore Reef? How will wastewaters be handled?
Where will energy come from? Perhaps it will be from an expansion of the coal-fired power plant at Collinsville? This power plant is close to one of the few sites in Australia which may be able to handle buried carbon dioxide through geosequestration, if that technology proves viable. Or perhaps it will be from the future gas pipleline to run along the coast to assist industrial development planned from Gladstone to Townsville (ABARE 2007). Either way there will be a huge increase in greenhouse gases for the Bowen region if an aluminium refinery is built there.
Chalco is currently undertaking a $40 million study to decide where to locate this refinery.
Solidarity of community support to oppose inappropriate developments should extend beyond the borders of Townsville. No coastal community along the Reef should be subject to this massive development being plonked down amongst its midst with such short notice and lack of community consultation.
Table 1 Twenty-two cyclones mentioned as causing damage in or near Bowen 1867 – 1997 (130 years)
2-3 Mar 1867
30 Jan 1870
24 Feb 1875
17 Feb 1876
30 Jan 1884
23 Mar 1911
16-17 Jan 1913
15 Dec 1917
22-23 Feb 1929
20 Jan 1930
19 Jan 1932
27 Mar 1938
7 April 1940
2 Mar 1946
10 Feb 1947
1 April 1958 - 2 m storm surge at Bowen. Small cyclone developed close to the coast.
16 Feb 1959 – cyclone Connie
The anemometer at Bowen recorded wind gusts up to 100 knots over a 2 hour period with forty homes totally destroyed, 190 badly damaged and 300 partly wrecked. Severe damage to Powerhouse, Salt works, coke works and railways - dozens of boats swamped.
17 Jan 1970 – Ada
Flooding was severe along the coast from Mackay to Bowen with major floods in the Pioneer and Don Rivers.
24 Dec 1971- Althea
Two tornadoes damaged trees and houses at Bowen.
6-10 Mar 77 – Otto
Otto moved from the Gulf into the Coral Sea near Cape Tribulation and made landfall again near Bowen.
7-8 Jan 1980 – Paul
1 Mar 1988 – Charlie
Large seas were generated by Charlie and the Abbot Point wave recording station measured significant (peak) wave heights to 3.1m (5.6m). Beach erosion occurred between Bowen and Townsville and the most serious was at Beachmont where a dune breach caused tidal inundation over 1800 hectares of grazing land.
22-25 Dec 1990 – Joy
On Boxing Day gales caused extensive damage to boats in the Whitsunday Group. Early on 27 Dec a tornado at Mackay demolished 2 houses, damaged another 40 and caused extensive damage in a seaside caravan park. 6 lives were lost, 5 were drowned in swollen rivers (1 at Bowen and 4 at Rockhampton) and a man drowned while surfing in cyclone generated seas at Mackay.
27 Jan 1996 – Celeste
Celeste very rapidly developed near the coast and came close to Bowen as it was moving southeastwards out to sea. With a radar eye diameter of 40 km it was 24 km north of the town when the airport reported an average wind 50 knots with gusts to 64 knots. Queensland emergency services reported 18 houses damaged in Bowen of which only 3 sustained major damage. There was $300,000 (1995 dollars) damage at Hayman Island as the cyclone passed 25 km north of the Island. The Hayman Is wave recording station measured significant (peak) wave heights to 3.2m (6.7m)
24 Feb 1997 – Ita
Flooding occurred in the vicinity of Alva Beach and in coastal streams to the south, in particular the Pioneer.
9 Mar 1997 – Justin 1
Justin lay well out to sea but was a very large cyclone and tides exceeded HAT at most centres between Bundaberg and Cooktown. The highest overall tide gauge recordings in relation to HAT were 0.4 m above HAT at Shute Harbour and 0.5 metres above HAT Mackay.
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