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'High and dry': Adani seeks additional surface water to feed giant coal mine

Peter Hannam

The scale of water demand from Adani's giant coal mine in Queensland appears to be larger than expected, as the company seeks approval for a large, additional flood-harvesting dam.

As Fairfax Media revealed, the company's proposed Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin was last week controversially granted uncapped access to the groundwater in a licence that expired in 2077. 

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Coal has dominated the National Energy Market, but the closure of Hazelwood power station heralds a potential transition to renewables.

However, just how much surface water the mine will need remains unclear. Its "external water demand ... is in the order of 12 gigalitres a year", according to its supplementary environmental impact statement (SEIS).

Documents obtained under freedom of information, however, suggest the thirst for water at what would be Australia's biggest coal mine may be even larger.

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They show a side project – dubbed the "North Galilee Water Scheme" – is seeking to build a flood-harvesting dam on the nearby Suttor River able to hold 10 gigalitres. That's double the size of a separate dam with a similar flood-related role mentioned in the EIS.

"We didn't realise they were building a second one," said Adam Walters, principal researcher at the consultancy Energy Resource Insights. "They don't have licences for either."

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A Department of Natural Resources and Mines spokesman, however, said the proposal authorises offtake from the Suttor River, and would replace the smaller dam proposed for the Belyando River at Moray Downs.

Another document shows how the company lobbied the state Labor government hard for the mine to be declared "critical infrastructure". The status was granted in October, giving the project accelerated approval with little public scrutiny, critics say.

Adani told the government the mine would create 5079 jobs during construction and 4528 during operations, or about six times the 1464 net jobs an expert witness told Queensland's Land Court in 2015, the document showed. It would be "critical economically to the region and the state", it said.

The proposed mine has been granted an annual allocation of 10.6 gigalitres, which will be drawn from a strategic reserve of the Burdekin Basin, the DNRM spokesman said 

"The assessment of the surface water licence has been through a rigorous assessment process, including consultation with downstream water entitlement holders to the Burdekin Falls Dam including landholders, Whitsunday Regional Council and Charters Towers Regional Council," he said..

For its part, spokesman for Adani said the annual water take of 12 gigalitres would be just 2 per cent of the 540 gigalitres taken yearly from the Great Artesian Basin - or roughly the amount used to irrigate a typical 1100-hectares sugar cane plantation.

He added the groundwater licence was limited to approved mining activities and impacts: "In addition, we have strict conditions relating to impact triggers to landholders and sensitive environmental receptors."

Government support

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk visited India last month to urge Adani to proceed with a mine that is unviable at expected coal prices without huge government assistance. The Turnbull government is mulling providing a $1 billion loan to support construction of a railway to the Galilee Basin west of Gladstone. 

The prospect that Adani was seeking a larger 10-gigalitre ring tank dam was information downstream users deserved to know, said Carmel Flint, a campaigner for Lock The Gate.

"Farmers who use water downstream will literally be left high and dry," Ms Flint said. "The combination of unlimited groundwater use and major flood harvesting of water makes the Carmichael mine a huge threat to central Queensland's water resources."

(See chart below from the SEIS showing estimated annual water use in millions of litres.)

The environmental impact statement said the mine's water needs included dust suppression, potable supplies for staff and the operation of equipment. The high-ash content coal was also likely to require large volumes of water for processing.

"Water in central Queensland should be quarantined for farmers and the environment and not used to wash Carmichael's dirty coal," Ms Flint said. "It's the worst possible use for the water."

Complaint

Separately, Environmental Justice Australia has written to the Productivity Commission to complain that the  Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility's plan to offer a $1 billion loan to support the rail line to the Adani and other proposed Galilee Basin coal mines would breach fair competition rules.

"Competitive neutrality principles should stop governments from subsidising large companies with cheap debt in existing, well established industries," said David Barnden, an EJA lawyer, adding the commission oversees those principles.

"In 2012 when the Productivity Commission examined another government financier, the export credit agency EFIC, it found no justification for government funding of private sector resource infrastructure projects in Australia, he said.

The group said the $5 billion NAIF was "non-transparent, ineffective, inefficient and has an inadequate governance framework".