RangerLeaks too.

An estimated one billion litres of contaminated water has leaked from the tailings dam at Ranger uranium mine in World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park - and that dirty old waste store is leaking more today than ever before, with recent estimates at around 150,000 litres a day. 

We know this, of course, and we have these estimates because (as we are often told) Ranger is the most heavily scrutinised mine in the Territory. By virtue of the sensitive natures of the activity (uranium mining) and the location (our most prestigious environmental asset; right at the headwaters of the Magela wetlands, classified as 'internationally significant'), Ranger is afforded considerable more oversight than most NT mining operations, including research and monitoring by an 'independent' Supervising Scientist.

So surely, with all this research, monitoring and formal reporting, they must be moving quick smart to address the leak? to halt the loss of pollution? to retrieve that huge volume of contaminated water?

Not a bit. Proof yet again that the impact of Ranger on Kakadu can be monitored to death, the recent revelations about the extent of pollution from the tailings dam have not elicited a hint of movement on the part of the company or the regulators.

Instead, ERA (who operate the mine) have proposed an expansion, that will both increase the hydraulic pressure on their aging, overloaded, leaking tailings dam, while at the same time wiping out some of the best evidence we have (in the form of monitoring bores that will be buried as part of the expansion).

If ever we needed more proof that close monitoring and stringent reporting are in themselves inherently inadequate to address protect the rich values of Kakadu - this latest saga is it.