Original story by John McCarthy, the Courier Mail
Heavy metals leaching into waterways in the far north have caused environmental concerns. Picture: Michael Watt Source: News Limited
HEAVY metals and arsenic have been found leaching into the Wild River, near Herberton, in what environmentalists are calling another example of a looming disaster.
The problem with the 15,000 abandoned mines in Queensland is now becoming so acute that flooding in central Queensland caused major pollution to nearby rivers, with some turning bright blue because of copper levels and others had high levels of acid.
In Herberton, water sampling of the Wild River found levels of arsenic and lead to be above the national drinking water standard. A handful of residents were found to be using water from the river for drinking and cooking, but Queensland Health considered the risks to be low.
However, the river has been declared a no-go zone and the State Government has increased its monitoring.
The Herberton site has been known about within Government for several years but the issue of arsenic and heavy metals was uncovered in ministerial briefing notes obtained by The Courier-Mail.
It follows the discovery recently that the State Government built welfare housing on land in Eidsvold that was heavily contaminated with arsenic from a nearby mine and researchers claim the problem would be the same in hundreds of mining towns around Australia.
Because arsenic is a carcinogen academics have been able to find a link between old mining towns in Victoria and levels of cancer.
Dr Dora Pearce, from Melbourne University, said the overall cancer risk for men and women living in areas with the highest soil arsenic level increased by 20 and 8 per cent respectively.
The old Mary Kathleen uranium mine in northwest Queensland has been leaking radioactive waste for decades, the Mount Morgan mine is considered one of the worst abandoned mines in Australia, the Lady Annie mine contaminated up to 52km of creek in the 2009 floods and contaminants from Mt Oxide, near Mount Isa, turned Cave Creek blue in the 2011 floods.
The Government has allocated $7.4 million to work on the abandoned mines this year.
Environmental engineer and senior lecturer at Monash University Gavin Mudd said during his visit to Herberton he found evidence of heavy metals everywhere.
''The State Government knows where all the abandoned mines are, but what has never been done is to understand the true impacts,'' he said.
''It's a much bigger problem than people realise.
''The industry and Government have got better but sometimes it doesn't work.
''For a lot of mines it may be small and to locals there's no huge health issue, but it still may be destroying the local environment.''
Environmentalists also point out that when the central Queensland coal mines end their life they will be left as huge voids, some as deep as 300 metres.
The Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry said the remoteness of some mines ''increased the chance that high levels of environmental damage are occurring without the department's knowledge''.
A Government spokeswoman said the abandoned mines unit was monitoring bores upstream and downstream of the Herberton tailings dam to provide a better understanding of how seepage could be minimised, and continued monitoring of downstream water use along the Wild River.
''Public safety is our number one priority with abandoned mine sites, and works are prioritised according to safety risks,'' she said.
The Queensland Resources Council and the Tablelands Regional Council would not comment on the issue.
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