Protect the Great Artesian Basin! Stop Olympic Dam!
SERVETHEPEOPLE 27 Nov 08 – Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott told Directors and shareholders. This courageous and defiant call was made by a man who has spent his life standing up to some of the giants in mining, industry and politics on behalf of his land and his people.The local (South Australian) media have buried Buzzacott’s comments and it’s been left to a New Zealand site to give voice to his anger at BHP Billiton…………………..BHP Billiton currently draws about 35 megalitres of water per day from the GAB for mining purposes. This water comes from two borefields north of Olympic Dam. It does not pay for this water. Therefore there is no incentive not to waste the water, nor to limit the future draw on the borefields……..Our illustrious Premier keeps bragging that we are mineral rich, that we are set to become the “Saudi Arabia of uranium mining”.
Nowhere does he alert us to the fact that pressure in the GAB has dropped dramatically.
BHP Billiton continues to bleed the GAB dry without paying a cent for its water wastage. Cyanide used in mineral recovery (leaching) and radioactive wastes lie about as surface waters, poisoning wildlife and filtering back into local shallow aquifers. Not content with what it has already, BHP Billiton is currently trying to buy properties along the Birdsville Track…they need MORE water than the GAB can deliver.
For the sake of the shareholders of an already bloated multinational, South Australia and other parts of the country are being damaged for all time[13].
This must stop.
We must take an interest in this issue and put country first.
The legal exemptions granted to WMC and inherited by BHP Billiton in the form of the SA Roxby Downs Indenture Act must be repealed!
The voice of Kevin Buzzacott must be heard in South Australia! servethepeople: Protect the Great Artesian Basin! Stop Olympic Dam!
