heavy metals

Queensland Friends of the Earth Press Release 29th December 2010: Queensland's environmental regulator the Department of Resource Management (DERM) is powerless to stop flood waters creating massive pollution from mine sites across the state. Mines will be releasing huge amounts of heavy metals into the flood waters and much of this will pile up behind weirs in catchments like the Fitzroy and be a pollution problem for many years. Pollutants include dangerous levels of copper, uranium, zinc, aluminium, lead, arsenic, cobalt and nickel.

Related: Wiradjuri elder warns of risk of groundwater poisoning from gold mine at Lake Cowal