Amid global environmental outcry, Australia's Queensland state today approved a plan to prevent the dumping of three million cubic metres of dredged sand into the Great Barrier Reef area, in an effort to create the world's biggest coal port in which India's Adani Group is also involved.
Premier Campbell Newman announced that cabinet had approved a new disposal plan for dredge spoil at the Abbot Point coal port near Bowen, which would reuse the material on land.
North Queensland Bulk Ports, GVK Hancock and Adani Group are jointly developing the port.
Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has been asked to fast-track the application.
It comes despite North Queensland Bulk Ports (NQBP) already having federal approval to dump the dredged seabed within the marine park, Sky News Australia said, citing a report in the Australian Associated Press.
Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney said he expected the port authority to be on board with the plan.
"It's a commercial arrangement that takes into account the disposal costs that they may already be facing versus the alternative that we can offer them," Seeney told reporters.
"And we will be offering that alternative to anyone who has a dredging permit."
Seeney said the offer would go to other port authorities because the reclamation site near Abbot Point would need 10 to 15 times more dredge spoil than the three million cubic metres the project would generate.
Newman said the plan was a 'win-win' for jobs and the environment.
Green groups have applauded the decision but maintain the reef is still at risk.
Australian Marine Conservation Society campaigner Felicity Wishart said the on-land dumping could threaten nearby wetlands and the only way to ensure the environment was safe was to scrap the Abbot Point expansion altogether.
Last week, NQBP said it was exploring alternative disposal options due to a legal challenge by the North Queensland Conservation Council against the decision to approve dumping spoil in the marine park.
Court proceedings could delay the project by up to two years, giving proponents GVK Hancock and Adani an incentive to investigate alternatives.
It was hoped the dredging project, which is being managed by NQBP on behalf of the mining companies, would begin in June.
The Abbot Point expansion is a crucial step in the development of 28.4 billion dollar of coal reserves in the Galilee Basin.
Australia's conservative government seven months ago approved dumping of up to 3 million cubic meters of so-called dredge spoils-roughly equivalent to the amount of stone in the Great Pyramid at Giza-to allow expansion of the Abbot Point coal port in Queensland state, adjacent to the reef.
But after the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation threatened in June to place the reef on a list of threatened heritage sites, the coal-port developers, came up with the new plan to dump the material on land.
