Rail Net

A coal company will take legal action over an environment minister’s rejection of its $5.3 billion coal project in the wetlands of central Queensland.

The company, Waratah Coal, was planning to build a coal port and a rail line at Shoalwater Bay; however, Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett declined the proposal, saying that it would damage the wetlands of Corio and Shoalwater Bays.

Peter Lynch, the company’s president, stated that they would challenge Garrett’s decision in the Federal Court. “This proposal, at current contract prices, would have potentially generated over $10 billion of export revenue and over $900 million in royalties per year for Queensland”, he said.

He added, “Waratah does not believe the proposal has been properly considered or its impacts properly assessed. Waratah considers its proposal should have been afforded the opportunity of scrutiny under a properly directed and formatted Environmental Impact Study and its economic significance properly assessed”.

Garrett claimed that the coal project would have undesirable impacts on the environment. “The impacts of the rail line and port facility are simply too great to effectively mitigate, and would destroy the ecological integrity of the area”, he said. “This decision does not prevent an alternative proposal being lodged that does not have unacceptable impacts on Ramsar (an international treaty to conserve wetland) and heritage values”. If you use trains and have lots of documents to transport, then a branded usb drive may be your answer, good for the environment and very portable.

Garrett also advised Waratah Coal to find alternative sites for its port.