New laws passed in Australia's Queensland threaten to delay coal mining projects currently under development in the state.
Any mines currently under development that will have an impact on groundwater will be required to obtain an "associated water licence" under the laws passed early Thursday, the state government said.
Environment minister Steven Miles said the Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016 allowed the government to fulfil its election commitment to reverse the previous government's laws which sought to deregulate the mining industry and give them an "unlimited right to take."
"Queensland's environment has been under threat from a ticking time bomb -- reckless laws passed by the LNP which were left waiting to commence automatically on December 6," Miles said.
Queensland coal miner New Hope Group said Thursday that the legislation increases the amount of green tape faced by resource companies and is likely to cause at least a further 12 months' delay in getting approval for stage three of its New Acland mine.
The Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche on Wednesday said it makes no sense to require another water assessment to the handful of projects which applied for approval years ago, and that the legislation will hand green activists another opportunity to hold up projects for years in the courts.
"While the QRC supports future projects being assessed under these new laws, making these water laws retrospective will endanger billions of dollars to be invested in a handful of resource projects," Roche said. "These projects, including life extensions for the existing New Acland, Kestrel and Hail Creek mines and the proposed new Carmichael coal mine, have already gone through years of rigorous assessments and approvals, and strict conditions have been applied already to their water use and impacts," he added.
New Hope had requested that the transitional provisions be modified so that projects that had already been through underground water impact assessment studies, like New Acland Stage 3, would not have to needlessly repeat the process, the company said.
