More marine pollution – Copper this time

Copper concentrate dust has been blowing straight into Darwin Harbour.  Copper is highly toxic to marine life  and the Northern Territory and the Government has issued a pollution abatement notice now so that  loading ships with copper concentrate can be halted immediately if dust escapes.

The pollution notice was issued to Oz Minerals, the company that sends the copper concentrate north from its Prominent Hill mine in South Australia to East Arm Wharf for export although the conveyor belt causing the spillage is owned by the Port Corporation, a Territory Government agency.

Work is hurriedly being carried out on the conveyor belt to prevent spillage and the belt will be run much slower than normal.  Environment Department officers will watch and film the loading and if running the conveyor belt slower avoids spillage then that speed would have to become the norm.

They are also testing the marine sediments and water quality for levels of copper, iron, manganese, arsenic and uranium plus air quality while ships ar being loaded.

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning small business management expert. She gives you the almost paperless ISO Quality, Safety and Environment certification that protects your business and saves you time and money. For more information go to
http://www.integratedisosystems.com

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 1:06 am and is filed under water resources & pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.