PROGRESS ON ABBOT POINT COAL TERMINAL STAGE 3 EXPANSION EIS
Queensland’s Department of Infrastructure (Co-ordinator-General’s office) is expected to provide a whole of government response in the next two months on the environmental assessment of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal Stage 3 Expansion and whether it should proceed.
If approved by government, the 30-month project will double the terminal’s annual coal export capacity from 25 million tonnes to 50 million tonnes. The EIS reported the project cost at $430 million (in 2004 dollars).
Bob Brunner, PCQ’s Environment and Safety Manager, says comments on the Stage 3 draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) were received from the Bowen Shire Council, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, eleven Queensland government agencies and one environmental group. A supplement to the EIS, responding to the submissions, was sent to the Coordinator-General and the respondents in December 2006.
The EIS supplement is available on the PCQ website (www.pcq.com.au).
Mr Brunner says the Coordinator-General, in consultation with government agencies, will also determine what environmental conditions are appropriate for the government to impose, should the environmental assessment show the project is suitable to proceed.
PCQ chief executive Brad Fish remains hopeful that the government will decide to give the green light to Abbot Point’s Stage 3 expansion by the end of this year, after commercial aspects of the project are also assessed by the government.
The development depends on a key decision to construct the “northern missing link”, a 69km gap in the rail track between North Goonyella and Newlands that would connect Abbot Point to the Goonyella coal network to the south.
If the expansion is approved, there is a chance that the first phase (3A) of Stage 3 construction work will immediately follow the current Stage 2 at the end of this year.
The EIS recommends that if the larger Stage 3 goes ahead, a temporary accommodation camp for site workers be established at the Bowen showground on Mt Nutt Road. This will involve an upgrade of infrastructure, such as sewerage and new buildings, from which the community will benefit after the camp has gone.
PCQ says the accommodation camp will be designated for single men only. Overall, about 540 workers and perhaps up to 200 dependents might be expected to require temporary accommodation in the Bowen area during the construction project. However, if the Stage 3 expansion is carried out in two separate phases, there might only be 200-300 workers present at any one time.
“It really depends on demand for the coal, and at the moment predictions are for an easy ramp-up, which would allow phase 3A and 3B to be separated by one or two years, which reduces the pressure on the showground facility,” Mr Fish indicates.
Whenever possible, the workforce will be sourced from the local area, which is good news for Bowen.
ends
26 February 2007
For further information:
Gary Campbell
Corporate Relations Manager
Ports Corporation of Queensland
Ph: (07) 3224 4346
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