In addition to well publicised port expansion, many marine terminals and loading facilities are being constructed or planned along several strategic areas of the coast to service Australia\u2019s growing mining and LNG sectors.<\/p>\n
But it is different picture to that faced by ports in many other parts of the world. Australia\u2019s need for deep berths and direct calls is being largely supported by its economic ability to take the long term view, and this ties in with a fairly robust environmental assessment process.<\/p>\n
Greg Fisk of BMT WBM explains that \u201cAlthough It\u2019s a big outlay, many ports now get their Environmental Impact Assessment approvals in well ahead of time, and that can mean as long as fifteen years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The smart ports have an environmental master plan in place \u2013 and it\u2019s an investment in a future that looks fairly assured. \u201cAfter all, an approved new channel and berth increases the value of the assets,\u201d says Mr Fisk.<\/p>\n
Recently the Port of Melbourne did, by all accounts, a very thorough job with an EIS on its channel deepening project. \u201cThey took a precautionary approach, even going to the lengths of bringing in a dredger for a trial. It was expensive but actually it left them able to demonstrate their plans to regulatory agencies and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aussie picture is also different to many industrialised areas because the impact assessments for reclamation and dredging works usually have to take on, not so much the possibility of moving contaminated material caused by industrial use, but the difficulties of turbidity caused by disturbing fine silts, muds and clays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mud gets brought up into the water column in a plume, and if it drifts over a patch of marine flora, it can deprive it of light and smother it.\u201d However, says Mr Fisk, there are a number of actions one can take to mitigate any damage, \u201cand you do have the natural resilience of the tropical ecosystems on your side in this, as much of is has evolved to be able to survive severe coastal storms.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing is too look at prevailing sea and wind conditions that might push the plume towards sensitive areas, but a better strategy is to create an effective buffer between the projects and sensitive spots like coral reefs early in the project planning process, says Mr Fisk.<\/p>\n
Australia is blessed, not just with enormous resources to be mined, but also with space. This has meant there is a natural divide between many of the larger, specialised export terminals that deal with bulk export, and Australia\u2019s cities. However, dust suppression, noise and other planning issues in the larger terminals, says Mr Fisk, \u201care still big issues that must be managed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it has been supported by tight government policy. A recent example is the LNG precinct in Queensland where the government was proactive in keeping the terminals in an offshore location, eventually settling for industrial development on Curtis Island in Gladstone. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the cheapest option by any means,\u201d explains Mr Fisk \u201dbut taking into consideration the impact, it was the best overall for the operators, the community and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, where environmentally areas are unavoidably in the path of dredging or reclamation works, and then you are into either relocating or offsetting the habitat by creating another nearby.<\/p>\n
Mr Fisk explains that fauna relocation is difficult, but is becoming a standard requirement. The walls get built and before finally closing the reclamation structure, there is an all out effort to move the dolphins, large fish and turtles before they get trapped. \u201cThe larger, migratory animals do very well,\u201d says Mr Fisk, \u201cbut there is some doubt as to how the smaller fish and large crustaceans survive.\u201d It\u2019s hard not to have a mental picture of a shark waiting for lunch to be delivered from over the wall.<\/p>\n
Australian regulators also now expect offsets actions, says Mr Fisk. With some habitats, this is a fairly straightforward task, so mangroves are often used, even where they are not the originally threatened community.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeagrass, for example, is particularly problematic. There\u2019s many species but they all have one thing in common – it is actually very hard to grow it where it hasn\u2019t already had an established history. So, if you can\u2019t directly replace the habitat, you look back to creating mangroves and salt marshes to rebalance your environmental books.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bit of a fudge, yes. But as Mr Fisk says, \u201cWhile Australia is still lagging around 15 years behind the US in terms of use of environmental offsets, we are gaining ground in terms of best practice.\u201d And there are bound to be more developments long term, since the long term view is what the port sector is bargaining on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia was notable for upping its exports during the harsh economic recession, but its ports have been caught in the relentless drive for size – including the need to build out further and dredge deeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-greenport"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9525,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9523\/revisions\/9525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9523"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}