GIANT INDUSTRIAL PROJECT THREATENS REMARKABLE EXMOUTH GULF ENVIRONMENT
International industrial corporation K+S wants to build a giant saltworks - the size of nearly 12,000 MCG footy ovals - on the eastern side of Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo, within an undeveloped, nationally listed wetland. The company is currently seeking environmental approval to build its project.
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What is the K+S industrial #saltworks project?
This massive project would involve:
- construction of vast, artificial salt ponds over natural #wetland areas
- levee (ridge) walls dozens of kilometres long that risk interrupting important natural processes
- risk of discharge and seepage of #toxic hypersaline water into the fragile, highly biodiverse environment
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- permanent damage to the biodiverse #UralaCreek South - an undisturbed, beautiful tidal creek - from the construction of major seawater intake infrastructure, including a large pumping station
- heavy machinery and infrastructure including conveyors, a desalination plant, fuel storage, sewerage treatment and roads
- six-storey high salt stockpiles, blighting this natural landscape
- barge-loading facilities with a 660m jetty and dredging in this completely undeveloped coastal area.
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This industrial activity would be over a Wetland of National Importance, listed as an outstanding example of a tidal #wetland system, with well-developed tidal creeks and extensive #mangrove systems.
This proposal is completely inappropriate. We can’t risk #ExmouthGulf ’s globally significant environment through industrial development like this salt project.
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An industrial development of this massive scale poses unacceptable risks to the sensitive environment here, which supports many #ThreatenedSpecies, including critically endangered #sawfish and #ShovelnoseRays, as well as #turtles, #dugongs, and migratory #shorebirds.
Please, keep fighting to protect the whole of the #Ningaloo ecosystem and act now.
- Paul Gamlkin, Australian Marine Conservation Society
#ActNow #ProtectOurWildlife #SaveOurSeas 🪸🌊🪼🐟
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anna_lillith 🇺🇦🌱🐖