Federal Government & AECOM sought to conduct drilling for nuclear waste dump site in South Australia without environment law approvals

(denisbin via Flickr)

The federal government sought to sidestep environmental laws to conduct drilling work in South Australia while selecting a site for its proposed national nuclear waste dump, a letter released under freedom of information law reveals.

Last month the federal government announced that a farming property near Kimba, on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, would become a national nuclear waste dump. The property was volunteered by its owner, Jeff Baldock, who has previously been a business partner of Graeme Baldock, a local government representative in Kimba.

As part of the federal government's nuclear dump site selection process, in April 2018, a letter was sent to the Chief Executive of South Australia's Department of Environment and Water, John Schutz, advising that drilling would take place at three potential dump sites left on the shortlist in South Australia. Two of those sites were located near Kimba, with a third located at Wallerberdina Station, near Hawker.

Usual approvals from South Australian government authorities to conduct drilling and construct groundwater wells were not required, the letter from the federal government asserted. "I am aware that, ordinarily, the undertaking of drilling work in South Australia would require certain approvals from relevant South Australia government authorities,” the letter states. “However, for reasons set out below, we consider that such approval is not needed for this work."

The identity of the letter’s author, who was at the time a staff member at the federal Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (DIIS)—which has since been renamed—has been suppressed by the South Australian Government, as they claimed its disclosure "could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any person".

The letter was dated April 10, 2018, just 7 days before the proposed drilling was scheduled to begin.

As the nuclear dump site selection process was subject to a federal radioactive waste management law, the letter explained, any State and Territory laws that would obstruct activities necessary for selecting a dump site would be neutralised.

That federal radioactive waste management law—the National Radioactive Waste Management Act 2012—has provided individuals and contractors hired by the government with wide-ranging powers, with one section of the law stating that a person employed by the Commonwealth can "do anything necessary for or incidental to the purposes of selecting a site on which to construct and operate a [nuclear waste storage] facility" in Australia.

The drilling work in South Australia was undertaken by AECOM Australia Pty Ltd, the corporation responsible for compiling technical assessment reports for each potential dump site.

AECOM has previously worked on Adani's Carmichael Coal Mine, the Whitehaven Coal Mine in New South Wales, Queensland's Callide Mine, the Telfer Deeps Mine, and projects for BHP Billiton. Its parent company in the United States has for years contributed to the creation of nuclear weapons, after acquiring URS corporation in 2014.

In 2015, SA Premier Jay Weatherill stated his Government would be "open" to hosting a nuclear waste dump—despite a law introduced 5 years earlier that made it illegal to construct a nuclear waste storage facility in South Australia—the year before his wife, Melissa Bailey, started working at AECOM, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Though the federal government sought to circumvent South Australian laws to conduct the drilling, the DIIS staffer stated in the letter that the department had "committed to act, where possible, in a way that is consistent with SA requirements", and that AECOM was "acutely aware of the importance of undertaking the work in a way that will cause as little detriment and inconvenience, and do as little damage to the land" as possible. 

The letter to the SA Department of Environment and Water was the only document released by the South Australia Government in response to a freedom of information application seeking evidence of any consultations with the federal government regarding projected impacts of the construction of nuclear dump site on the Pinkawillinie Conservation Park, which directly borders the announced Kimba nuclear dump site, and the Gawler Ranges National Park, situated next to Pinkawillinie Conservation Park.

The SA Department of Environment and Water has been contacted for comment.

You can read the letter below: