Posted on February 14, 2017
By Daniel Bateman, Cairns Post
PORTS North have not yet been able to decide upon its preferred location for the land- based dumping of a million cubic metres of dredge spoil from Trinity Inlet.
The authority has released early results from its draft Environmental Impact Statement for its Cairns Shipping Development Project, which it says is on track to be delivered to the State Government by the end of June.
The $120 million project has identified the Barron Valley and East Trinity as the two most appropriate areas for land-based disposal of dredge spoil from the widening and deepening of the city’s main shipping channel.
However Ports North chairman Russell Beer said neither of the sites had yet been favoured through the current studies.
“We thought, by now, we’d find through one reason or another that one site would be a standout,” he said.
“But what’s happened, is we’re continuing to work on both because we haven’t found a showstopper at either sites.
“We’re still doing our monitoring at both.”
Marine water quality testing, including pH, turbidity, salinity, dissolved metals and nutrients, has found that water quality in Trinity Inlet is “better than near coastal waters”, according to the latest studies.
This is in contrast to a report card released last year by the Wet Tropics Healthy ¬Waterways Partnership that gave the shipping channel an overall “moderate” rating, with its water quality graded “good” and habitat and hydrology graded “poor”.
Mr Beer said the EIS water quality tests were more up to date and showed the current state of Trinity Inlet.
Source: PortNews
