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Publications
Supervising Scientist Report 171
Supervising Scientist & Northern Territory Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development
Environment Australia, 2002
ISSN 1325-1554
ISBN 0 642 24377 8
A hard copy of the full report can be ordered from Publications, Supervising Scientist Division. A full list of SSD publications including prices is available on the publications page.
An order form can be downloaded and faxed or posted back. Alternatively, you can email your order to publications_ssd@environment.gov.au or phone +61 08 8920 1100.
On 5 April 2002, Mr Geoffrey Kyle, a former employee of Energy Resources of Australia Limited (ERA) at Ranger Uranium Mine's Environmental Laboratory, wrote to the Commonwealth Minister for Environment and Heritage, the Northern Territory Minister for Resource Development and a number of Commonwealth and Northern Territory officials. In his letter and attached report, Mr Kyle expressed concern about a number of issues relating to environmental management and reporting by ERA at the Ranger mine between 1996 and 1998.
At the request of the above Ministers, an investigation of the issues raised by Mr Kyle has been carried out.
The investigation was undertaken jointly by the staff of the Supervising Scientist Division (SSD) and of the Northern Territory Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development (NTDBIRD). A detailed search of files and reports held by SSD, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) and NTDBIRD was conducted to establish, as far as is now possible, the circumstances surrounding the events referred to by Mr Kyle. Field visits were also conducted to determine the current situation at the relevant sites and discussions were held with current ERA staff. In addition, interviews were conducted with a number of former staff of ERA and with one former oss employee to determine their recollections and account of events. Mr Kyle was also interviewed to allow him to present further information and to clarify information presented in his report.
In December 1997, a tailings spill occurred at Ranger. With respect to this incident, Mr Kyle alleged in his report that ERA under-reported and mis-reported the extent of the spillage outside the Restricted Release Zone (RRZ), failed to clean up in a timely manner the spilled tailings material within the RRZ, and, by its inaction, probably caused an increase in uranium in Retention Pond 2 (RP2).
This report concludes that:
In his report, Mr Kyle alleged that ERA routinely discharged from the RRZ water containing high concentrations of uranium from the southern external walls of the tailings dam, into the headwaters of Gulungul Creek, that the ERA Laboratory Manager refused permission for Mr Kyle to investigate the effects of this discharge, and that he instructed Mr Kyle not to record a higher than normal result for uranium in Gulungul Creek waters. Mr Kyle claims that this result was obtained from two separate samples, each of which was analysed in triplicate.
This report concludes that:
Mr Kyle raised a number of issues related to the performance of ERA's chemical analysis laboratory. Specifically, he claims that laboratory management consistently refused to address technical issues that compromised the performance of the laboratory, that this led to an inability to honour the conditions of its licence to operate the mine, and that ERA did not rectify problems even when it was demonstrated that the problems were valid.
Our assessment of the laboratory related issues raised by Mr Kyle has been, to some extent, superficial in that we have relied heavily upon the assessment of ERA's performance in these areas by the appropriate authority, the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA).
This report concludes that:
The overall conclusion of this report is that, apart from the previously reported breach of the Ranger Authorisation arising from the spillage of tailings outside the Restricted Release Zone on 19 December 1997, no evidence has been found that ERA has operated otherwise than in accordance with its Authorisation and the Commonwealth's Environmental Requirements.
The report recommends that the Ranger Minesite Technical Committee:
This report is available as seven PDF files. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF files.
If you are unable to access the report, please contact the Supervising Scientist Division (telephone 61 (0)8 8920 1100; email enquiries_ssd@ea.gov.au) to organise a suitable alternative format.
