NT approves Darwin Harbour pollution monitoring scheme
The government plans six new monitoring stations, while critics say the legislation should specify pollution limits and other safeguards.
New legislation passed by the Northern Territory parliament permits a monitoring scheme for toxic emissions from gas operations around Darwin Harbour, with pollution readings to be made public.
NT Lands, Planning and Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne said six additional stations would test for volatile organic compounds, including benzene, which causes cancer. He said existing stations around the harbour did not test for those emissions.
Gas companies are currently Darwin’s sole providers of measurements for volatile organic compounds, conducting the testing to meet licence conditions. The NT Environment Protection Authority is prosecuting Inpex over benzene emissions understated by 13,000 per cent and toluene emissions understated by 11,000 per cent.
Burgoyne said industry would cover the scheme’s costs, rather than Territorians, and oversight would rest with the environment department alongside the NT EPA. However, the legislation permits contributions covering some or all costs from designated people or groups; it does not expressly require industry to pay the entire bill.
Independent MLA Justine Davis said the legislation failed to define safe air or specify which pollutants would be tested, where testing would occur or what consequences companies would face for wrongdoing. She said those matters would be left to departmental regulations that a minister could alter.
Davis also said the department had disclosed that only industry had been consulted, with no consultation planned for health specialists, independent environmental experts or the public.
Shadow Environment Minister Manuel Brown said the government should have used the legislation to establish tougher safeguards, including limits on pollution.
