Queensland’s environment department says an alumina refinery owned by Rio Tinto has spilt sulphuric acid into a creek in central Queensland.

Rio Tinto notified the Department of Environment and Resource Management that the spill occurred at the Yarwun alumina refinery on Sunday during heavy rain.

DERM spokesman Joe Pappalardo said an unknown amount of the acid was released into Boat Creek when the site’s stormwater system overflowed in heavy rain.

Urgent inspections and water sampling has been done at Boat Creek and nearby Port Curtis, at Gladstone.

“Inspections by DERM officers … have found no evidence of environmental harm suggesting that the recent rain and high tides in Boat Creek have helped to dilute the acid and flush it through the system relatively quickly,” Mr Pappalardo said. (Read on …)

An increase in the number of farmers failing significantly to meet effluent rules is unacceptable, says dairy giant Fonterra.

The update for the Dairying and Clean Streams Accord showed significant non-compliance increased by 1 per cent to 16 per cent for the 2009/10 season.

See the latest update here.

Overall the result for dairy effluent being appropriately treated and discharged increased 5 per cent to 65 per cent, reclaiming the lost ground from the 64 per cent result in 2007/08.

Fonterra Group Director Supplier and External Relations, Kelvin Wickham said an ‘every farm every year’ inspection regime was a concerted effort to address non-compliance by identifying farms at risk and ensuring remedial plans were put in place. (Read on …)

Waikato dairy sector improves compliance figures

Helicopter monitoring has shown dairy farm compliance with regional effluent management rules is improving significantly so far this season, new figures from Environment Waikato show.

Effluent management practices that contravene the rules can lead to excessive levels of nutrients and bacteria getting into waterways, posing a threat to human and animal health, as well as the general health of waterways.

Last season 25 per cent of farms monitored under permitted activity rules – whether from the air or by ground-based inspections – were significantly non-compliant. Overall, 27 per cent of farms monitored under either permitted activity rules or EW’s consented sites regime were significantly non-compliant, as previously reported to the council’s regulatory committee.

However, 2010-11 season-to-date figures for aerial monitoring results (as at early March) show significant non-compliance with permitted activity rules was at 11 per cent compared to the 25 per cent figure from air and ground inspections for last season’s full year score. The data is from four of five flights carried out so far this season (data from the fifth flight over the Matamata area last week is still being analysed). (Read on …)