A proposed water mining operation – capable of filling more than 32m plastic bottles a year – on the cusp of world-heritage-listed Gondwana rainforest is “unacceptably risky” to the health of the ecosystem, say environmental groups fighting a court battle to block the drilling.
On Monday, the Queensland planning and environment court will begin hearings into the plan to extract 16m litres of water from a site 400m from the Springbrook national park. The proposed drilling would take water from an aquifer upstream of Natural Arch and the Twin Falls waterfall.
The applicant, Hoffman Drilling, argues the proposal would operate alongside two legacy water mines and have “an insignificant impact” on the environment.
