A ground-breaking international research team casts a fresh light on the US giant’s aims and activities in Western Australia,and exposes some sobering truths.
The West Australian government,and sections of our media,are presenting a false picture of what WA voters want to the rest of the country.
Alcoa is storing enough caustic bauxite residue to fill Optus Stadium more than 350 times in areas south of Perth that have failed to be certified as stable.
The burden of enforcing special arrangements to allow Alcoa to keep mining bauxite has forced WA’s environment regulator to severely cut its efforts to protect nature throughout the rest of the state.
The Environmental Protection Authority has warned Alcoa to provide the information it needs on time,or risk stricter conditions on its mining in WA forests.
Water Corporation concluded that contamination of Perth’s dams is “certain” but the state government heavily watered-down its recommendations to reduce the risks from bauxite mining.
Alcoa’s funding will support a forest research centre for five years and will also boost its own team of environmental researchers from four to eleven.
The WA environment regulator opposed Alcoa’s mining but proposed safeguards if it went ahead. The Cook government ignored the first recommendation and watered down the second.
Alcoa’s troubled bauxite mining in WA’s jarrah forest will have extra government scrutiny costing $10.5 million over four years as the US miner seeks to repair its tarnished environmental credentials.
After six decades the US miner has left Kwinana with a contaminated plant and enough toxic red mud to fill Optus Stadium 138 times.
US miner Alcoa will stop producing alumina at its Kwinana refinery by September,leading to the loss of 550 direct jobs with another 200 to go in the following 12 months.