Adani mine could be 'causing environmental harm' at protected springs, say Queensland government officials in court case

Traditional owner Nathan Baira at the Doongmabulla Springs, near the Adani mine site. (Supplied: Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians)

Adani’s Queensland coal mine could be causing environmental harm to the nationally important Doongmabulla Springs, according to sworn statements by state Environment Department officials.

The warnings follow a scathing assessment by federal science agencies that Adani’s groundwater modelling, meant to provide an early-warning system to protect the springs, was “not fit for purpose”.

The revelations come from documents filed in the Queensland Supreme Court, where Adani is seeking to overturn an environmental protection order to rework groundwater modelling for its Carmichael mine by the end of this month.

A CSIRO and Geosciences Australia (GA) review in April last year found that Adani was failing to meet conditions of its state environmental approval because of modelling that could “significantly underestimate” impacts on groundwater.

Protecting the springs was a key condition for Adani, which gained approval in 2019 weeks after then Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared she was “fed up” with delays.

The picturesque inland springs are nationally recognised as an endangered “threatened ecological community” under federal environment laws, wetlands of high ecological significance as a Great Barrier Reef protection area, and listed under state conservation laws as a nature refuge.

They are also culturally significant to traditional owners of the Clermont-Belyando native title claim group.

Adani, which has been exporting thermal coal from its open cut mine for more than two years, is permitted to drain spring water levels by up to 20 centimetres.

The documents show the CSIRO and GA warned the state regulator against accepting Adani’s predicted impacts of its current open cut mining on the springs, which are eight kilometres from the mine site.

The department asked the agencies if modelling of “the open cut mining only scenario… provide(s) an appropriate level of confidence in the predicted impacts to Doongmabulla Spring Complex”.

“The review finds that the groundwater model is not fit-for-purpose, as it is not suitable for a robust uncertainty analysis and confidence in the range of predicted impacts needed to support regulatory decision making is low,” the report said.

“Key issues are related to overestimated modelled groundwater levels and how the river boundary condition and the lateral constant head boundary conditions are represented in the numerical model that could significantly underestimate impact predictions.”

CSIRO and GA found the miner’s modelling failed to meet guidelines by the Independent Expert Scientific Committee, the statutory body advising federal and state governments on big coal projects.

The state government order forbids Adani from underground mining until it can show its plans will not cause the springs’ water level to drop by more than 20 centimetres.

However, the department has continued to allow open cut mining.

“Based on monitoring data provided to date, DESI [the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation] does not have current concerns about impacts to the Doongmabulla Springs Complex from mining activities,” it told the ABC in a statement.

Adani has argued the order is unnecessary because it does not intend to start underground mining for another 11 years, and its modelling shows the impact on the springs from open cut mining will not breach the limit.

A spokesman for Adani subsidiary Bravus said that “no damage has occurred to the Doongmabulla Springs or to underground water at the Carmichael mine”.

“The mine is fully compliant with all its state and federal environmental obligations and regulations,” he said.

‘Real and clear concerns’

In an affidavit filed on April 10, Katherine Bennink, an acting executive director in the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, said it “cannot be confirmed that the impacts in the short term due to open-cut mining… are not causing environmental harm at the springs”.

Ms Bennink says the department became concerned after an Adani presentation in January last year “indicated that the results of the predicted drawdown for the [open cut and underground] mine plan scenario… would exceed the authorised drawdown at all Springs in the order of 0.10 – 0.54m”.

She said Adani proposed refining its model or being given until 2033 to optimise its underground mining plan.

The CSIRO and GA report three months later “raised real and clear concerns regarding the predictions around drawdown along with the predictions based on the current and proposed future open-cut mine operations”, she said.

The department believed it was important for Adani to fix its water modelling “as soon as possible”, Ms Bennink said.

“An accurate model is required to confirm the groundwater level drawdown thresholds; these thresholds are designed to prevent impacts at the springs, and without an accurate model, it cannot be confirmed that the impacts in the short term due to open-cut mining and in the future as a result of underground mining are not causing environmental harm at the springs.”

The department’s chief hydrogeologist, Ashley Bleakley, said in an affidavit that he had “no confidence” in Adani’s modelling, which was “intended to act as an early warning system” for the springs.

He said this was reinforced by a rise in some proposed groundwater level drawdown thresholds “from 1m to 60m”.

Mr Bleakley said he was concerned about a lack of water monitoring bores between the mine and the springs, which Adani had now agreed to drill but would take time to establish pre-mining baselines.

He said that until “deficiencies” in Adani’s water model and monitoring network were addressed, “there is uncertainty and the risk of potential impacts (which are potentially irreversible) to the springs is increased while the mining operation continues”.

Adani accuses regulator of ‘overreach’

The department told the ABC that Adani had “agreed to conduct additional modelling work to identify any short-term drawdown impacts while the issues in relation to the groundwater modelling report are resolved”.

It said it “carefully reviews each of Adani’s threshold investigation reports” when bores showed water levels had been reached or exceeded.

The Bravus spokesman told the ABC that the miner’s “groundwater monitoring, modelling, and reporting program is comprehensive and world-class”.

“It proves we will not drop the level of the water in the springs with any of the open-cut surface mining we are undertaking now or in the future,” he said.

“We are appealing the Environmental Protection Order that the Queensland Department of Environment Science and Innovation issued to us in relation to this matter, it is unnecessary regulator overreach as the requirements of the mine’s Environmental Authority are already being met.”

Traditional owners have seized on the revelations in court filings, writing to Environment Minister Leanne Linard to appeal for her intervention to suspend open cut mining until the government was confident the springs were safe.

The Nagana Yarrbayn Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Cultural Custodians group has also gone to the Supreme Court, asking for intervention to guarantee the protection of the springs as a cultural right under the Human Rights Act.

W&J representative Adrian Burragubba said it was now clear that the government had failed to ensure effective regulatory intervention by the department, despite knowing Adani had failed to comply with the groundwater conditions of its environmental approval.

“They had full knowledge of this and they were aware of this, that the mining company was in contravention of those conditions,” he says.

“That provides a statutory basis and requires action from the minister to actually apply section 505 of the Environmental Protection Act, and to take measures to apply an environmental protection order on the open cut coal mine.

“We are asking the minister to make this decision, and we’ve got no reply… and this is why we have to go to court.”

A spokesman for the Environment Minister, Ms Linard, declined to comment, saying “the issues you raise relate to the work of the independent environmental regulator within the department, which operates independently of the minister”.

The department said it “recognises the significant cultural and environmental values attached to the Doongmabulla Springs Complex and is committed to ensuring its protection”.

“DESI will continue to closely regulate the mining operation and will take appropriate action if and when it becomes necessary.”

Last month, the ABC revealed expert findings, filed in W&J’s case, that the coal miner may have already polluted the springs with hydrocarbons and caused a harmful decline in groundwater sources.

Adani rejected the claims as “widely inaccurate”, saying there had been “no exceedence or breaches of our groundwater conditions”.

It said its investigations showed changes in water levels were due to “natural variations in weather conditions and water use by pastoralists”, while hydrocarbons were “found to be localised to casing materials for water sampling wells”.