A rare opportunity to speak directly with the Office of the Supervising Scientist, the regulators of uranium mining in the Alligator Rivers Region, which includes the Ranger and Jabiluka mineral leases in the NT.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Senator LUDLAM—Welcome, Mr Hughes. I am glad that we got to you eventually. Thanks for coming all this way. Some of these are probably going to get technically fairly complex, so by all means we can put things on notice if you think it is going to take too much time to run through it in detail. Can you give us an overview of the environmental research and monitoring projects that are currently underway under the Supervising Scientist, and their costings, and give us an idea of what criteria you use, both in the OSS office but also in the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee, for setting your research project priorities?

Mr Hughes—The research programs that we currently have underway are numerous. They are probably of the order of 40 or so programs. They are prioritised through the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee process. Starting back in 2004, the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee undertook a review of all work that had been done and all work that they considered needed to be done and created a list called the ‘key knowledge needs’. That key knowledge needs list then was broken down into specific programs that needed to be undertaken and a timetable was set out for those, with a list of priorities. The key knowledge needs were reviewed again in 2007 and a brand new set of key knowledge needs, incorporating those which were residual from previous issues, have been now concluded and they will be published in our annual report this year, which is imminent.

Senator LUDLAM—When do you expect to table the annual report?

Mr Hughes—Some time within the month.

Senator LUDLAM—There is a policy initiative of the new government regarding the establishment of a long-term public register of radiation dose exposure for radiation workers in the industry. What level of monitoring of workers does your office undertake? For how long do you keep these records, and do you make them available to the workers themselves? Has there been any change in the way that you undertake that work, given the government’s policy change?

Mr Hughes—I am not absolutely clear of the context of the question, but let me run with it for a moment. The register that is being created has nothing to do with us in terms of organising the register. Our only involvement in the register, or the proposed register, is the records of our own staff.

Senator LUDLAM—So you are not involved in the monitoring of workers on any of the sites that—

Mr Hughes—No. The radiation monitoring that we undertake is environmental monitoring.

Senator LUDLAM—Yes.

Mr Hughes—We do not undertake specific worker monitoring on the mine sites.

Senator LUDLAM—Thanks for that. I would like to turn to the proposed or potential expansion of the Ranger uranium mine. What is your understanding with regard to the publicly flagged or acknowledged plans for the Ranger site? What does the office understand the potential expansion to include?

Mr Hughes—Sorry, what was the last word?

Senator LUDLAM—To include, to incorporate. What is the scope of the proposed expansion?

Mr Hughes—I am not sure how far I can go with this because ERA, the operators of the mine, are obliged to behave in an appropriate fashion under the Australian Stock Exchange rules and so forth. We probably have been told slightly more than what ERA have released in the public arena. So I would need to be cautious about that.

Senator LUDLAM—Okay.

Mr Hughes—My understanding is that ERA is currently undertaking a pre-feasibility study on a further expansion of the mine site and that that is mainly targeted towards further extensions of the ore body down-dip to the south-east. They have announced quite recently some fairly significant drill intersections down there but have not announced any reserves as a result of those drill intersections.

Senator LUDLAM—For example, the company is proposing a much larger open cut at pit 3, underground mining beneath pit 3, which would be the first time, I think, that underground mining has been undertaken at Ranger, possible heap leaching, a second tailings dam, possible diversion of the Magela Creek, possible mining on the northern side of the Magela Creek and more water disposal areas. Does that more or less match your understanding of what the company is intending?

Mr Hughes—I have heard talk of all of those things. Some of them certainly have been included in the announcements regarding the pre-feasibility study that they are undertaking. I do not think at this stage that there has been any statement about potential underground mining.

Senator LUDLAM—No statement about a potential underground mine?

Mr Hughes—Not to my knowledge.

Senator LUDLAM—I would have thought that had actually been in the public domain for some time—that they are considering going underground at Ranger.

Mr Hughes—Yes, but not as a proposal.

Senator LUDLAM—Not as a proposal. In terms of the demands that might be made on your agency if they were to go underground there, is that something that is under active consideration in your office as to the changing demands that that would place on you?

Mr Hughes—Certainly we consider any potential developments at the mine site and their likely impacts on our staffing and priorities and key knowledge needs and so on.

Senator LUDLAM—Has the company provided any advice to your office on the level of environmental assessment that their expansion plans might reasonably require under the EPBC Act?

Mr Hughes—I believe they have given an undertaking that they will be making a referral.

Senator LUDLAM—They will be making a referral under EPBC?

Mr Hughes—I understand that.

Senator LUDLAM—As far as you are aware. Minister, could I ask you to take a similar question on notice on behalf of the minister.

Senator Wong—If you ask the Supervising Scientist that, and he takes it on notice. S

enator LUDLAM—What the company might have said to the Office of the Supervising Scientist and what they might have said to the minister are—

Senator Wong—I see. Yes, no worries.

Senator LUDLAM—Thank you. Can you give us an idea of your understanding of the status of the Jabiluka project and what monitoring you are currently undertaking at the Jabiluka site?

Mr Hughes—My understanding of the Jabiluka project is that the mining company entered into an agreement with the Northern Land Council that they would not proceed with any further development on the site without the agreement of Aboriginal people. They signed an agreement to that effect, I think it was back in about 2004 or 2005. As far as I understand, that is exactly how it stands. As far as the monitoring is concerned, the various agencies that have been involved in doing surface water monitoring in the vicinity of the mine site have been winding back those programs because it has been shown to be quite stable. So at this stage it is back to monthly water sampling downstream of the mine site. Certainly we are doing monthly water sampling downstream of the mine site, and the mining company also does monthly sampling downstream and upstream of the mine site. We do not do it on the same week so that there is a bit of a spread.

Senator LUDLAM—As far as you are aware, are there any facilities at that site that are expected to be decommissioned or further decommissioned in this financial year?

Mr Hughes—No, not at this stage.

Senator LUDLAM—Not that you are aware of. Thanks. Can you give us an idea of the extent of the seepage plume at the Ranger facilities from the tailings structures?

Mr Hughes—There has been a long-known seepage plume travelling to the north from the tailings dam. That has been mapped by water bores over some years. There is probably a seepage plume immediately to the south-west of the dam, to my knowledge. It has not extended very far. There are monitoring bores around, and both the ERA and the Northern Territory government as the regulator do conduct groundwater monitoring in those areas. At this stage I think ERA are also undertaking a groundwater study in the area, and we are expecting to get a report from them in the not so distant future on that.

Senator LUDLAM—Did you say there is probably a seepage plume to the south-east? That is something that—

Mr Hughes—No. Sorry, to the south-west.

Senator LUDLAM—I do beg your pardon—to the south-west. So that is not something that you are certain of?

Mr Hughes—There are indications that there is some processed water in some water which is springing there, but it is not entirely processed water.

Senator LUDLAM—But it is contaminated with process water and that is expressing at the surface? Is that what you mean?

Mr Hughes—Yes.

Senator LUDLAM—How far from the tailings dam is that?

Mr Hughes—Immediately adjacent to it.

Senator LUDLAM—Okay—just at the foot of the dam?

Mr Hughes—Yes.

Senator LUDLAM—How long are you anticipating it will be before the company would be providing the modelling to you that you were referring to before?

Mr Hughes—I am not sure. It may even be very soon. There are mitigation works there where they collect that seepage water and return it to the system.

Senator LUDLAM—Do you have an idea of what kind of volume of water might be seeping in that direction?

Mr Hughes—By order of magnitude, it is not very high. It is tens of cubic metres or something like that.

Senator LUDLAM—Does the OSS provide advice to the federal government, the Territory government or to industry on uranium issues outside the Alligator Rivers region?

Mr Hughes—Yes.

Senator LUDLAM—Can you give us some examples of what that work would involve?

Mr Hughes—Because we have a fairly significant body of expertise in the organisation on uranium mining, we are currently providing, for example, advice on assessments of other uranium mines outside of the Alligator Rivers region within our department to the Approvals and Wildlife Division.

Senator LUDLAM—These are mines that are under investigation at the moment, or exploration sites that are active?

Mr Hughes—They are proposals which are going to be considered under the EPBC Act in the future.

Senator LUDLAM—Understood. Has the agency’s budget been increased to conduct that assessment work since—I will try to use a polite word—the rapid expansion of exploration across the Territory in the last couple of years?

Mr Hughes—No, but the amount of work that we are getting in that regard is not particularly onerous at this stage. However, I would imagine that, in the event that it started to become particularly onerous, we would be making a submission for some reconsideration of that.

Senator LUDLAM—Just to be clear, there is no specific budget allocation you have been provided with over the last couple of years to accommodate that assessment work that you are undertaking outside the Alligator Rivers region?

Mr Hughes—No, that is correct.

Senator LUDLAM—How many sites, off the top of your head, are you engaged in providing material to the government for?

Mr Hughes—I think two at this stage.

Senator LUDLAM—Just two sites? Are you able to tell us which sites they are?

Mr Hughes—Nolans Bore and the Olympic Dam expansion that we have commented on. Sorry, there is a third site.

Senator LUDLAM—In South Australia?

Mr Hughes—Yes, and another site is Crocker Well in South Australia.

Senator LUDLAM—So those are the only ones that you are aware of: two in the Territory and—

Mr Hughes—One in the Territory.

Senator LUDLAM—Nolans Bore.

Mr Hughes—Nolans Bore, the Olympic Dam expansion and Crocker Well in South Australia.

Senator LUDLAM—Okay, thanks. That advice has been provided to the Territory government, the South Australian state government and the federal government?

Mr Hughes—Principally, as technical experts we are providing that advice to our own department.

Mr Borthwick—Just a point of clarification: the Office of the Supervising Scientist is a regular division of the department. It is not a separate agency, so you would expect them to be providing—

Senator LUDLAM—That is okay.

Mr Borthwick—I wanted to clarify it, because you referred to them being an agency.

Senator LUDLAM—Okay, I do stand corrected. I will finish up, because I guess we are fairly short of time.

CHAIR—Yes.

Senator LUDLAM—Thanks, Chair. As you know, a short while ago Professor Tatz and others issued a report that recorded a significantly higher rate of cancer among Aboriginal people in Jabiru, and they said that extra research and monitoring was required. What steps, advice or extra monitoring has the office undertaken in response to the concerns raised in that study?

Mr Hughes—We are not undertaking any additional monitoring. It is not our role to monitor individuals. We monitor the environment and, based on those environmental measurements, we undertake risk assessments and dose assessments of people who may be affected. Our workers concluded that there is no reason for concern—that people are not being exposed to dose rates which are likely to cause harm.

Senator LUDLAM—Is that advice a public document?

Mr Hughes—Yes. We include that advice every year in our annual report, with the supporting documentation and data.

Senator LUDLAM—I understand. Finally, there was an $8 million budget line item in the 2007-08 budget for the South Alligator uranium rehabilitation program that cleans up the legacy mines from the fifties and sixties. Can you briefly give us an update of the status of that rehabilitation program—the works and the financial commitments in that regard?

Mr Hughes—That program is being operated by the Director of National Parks, and he is probably in a better position to answer detail on that. We are only providing some technical advice and assistance to his staff and contractors on that work.

Senator LUDLAM—All right, I will leave it there. Thanks, Chair.