Environmentalists and traditional owners are irritable mining giant Energy Resources Australia (ERA) has failed to properly report a potential contamination leak in the heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory says a major leak of sulphate detected outside the uranium lease in Kakadu last month is evidence of ongoing problems with the Ranger mine.
The leader of the Environment Centre, Dr Stuart Blanch, says the information was leaked to his organisation."The supervising scientist did not report this in order on its website," he said.
"It did provide it to a board of interested folks, but this sort of information should be on its website.
"The information that it does have there totally masks and excludes the peak that shows that two times the reporting level of salt escaped from Ranger on around 10 April this year, but they did not report it."For its part, ERA denies a point in electrical conductivity represents any breach in the mine's operating conditions.
It says the mine remains one of the most highly in time and scrutinised in the world.
But Dr Blanch said Ranger should be sincere."They should have been on the phone to the original community who are surrounding and living around this site and who are watching the operations," he said.
"They should have been on the phone to us and they should have made positive that it was reported."If they don't think it's a problem then they should be honest and open about it slightly than waiting for people to leak it to us."
Justin O'Brien from the Gundjeihmi Corporation says it damages in the past good relations traditional owners have had with the company.
"We've seen this information, we know this took place, they know this took place," he said.
"They can't explain how it took place and the whole scenario is just blatantly inadequate."
But ERA spokesman David Patterson says that while there has been a spike it does not pose any major environmental risk.
"We've experimental, in the normal monitoring of water quality the creek, that there has been a spike in electrical conductivity," he said."It remains within the working criteria for the mine. So there has been no breach of our operating situation and we're investigating the source of that spike."
He says ERA might not be responsible.
"It's possible it could've come from anywhere else, it's possible it could have come from on our lease, and we're investigating that," he said.In spite of environmentalists' concerm, Mr Patterson says uranium could not have leaked from the site.
"The uranium levels are being monitored and are published and are openly available and are available from the office of the supervising scientist and they don't confirm that hypothesis," he said.
The Environment Centre of the Northern Territory says a major leak of sulphate detected outside the uranium lease in Kakadu last month is evidence of ongoing problems with the Ranger mine.
The leader of the Environment Centre, Dr Stuart Blanch, says the information was leaked to his organisation."The supervising scientist did not report this in order on its website," he said."It did provide it to a board of interested folks, but this sort of information should be on its website.
"The information that it does have there totally masks and excludes the peak that shows that two times the reporting level of salt escaped from Ranger on around 10 April this year, but they did not report it."For its part, ERA denies a point in electrical conductivity represents any breach in the mine's operating conditions.
It says the mine remains one of the most highly in time and scrutinised in the world.
But Dr Blanch said Ranger should be sincere."They should have been on the phone to the original community who are surrounding and living around this site and who are watching the operations," he said.
"They should have been on the phone to us and they should have made positive that it was reported."If they don't think it's a problem then they should be honest and open about it slightly than waiting for people to leak it to us."
Justin O'Brien from the Gundjeihmi Corporation says it damages in the past good relations traditional owners have had with the company.
"We've seen this information, we know this took place, they know this took place," he said.
"They can't explain how it took place and the whole scenario is just blatantly inadequate."
But ERA spokesman David Patterson says that while there has been a spike it does not pose any major environmental risk.
"We've experimental, in the normal monitoring of water quality the creek, that there has been a spike in electrical conductivity," he said."It remains within the working criteria for the mine. So there has been no breach of our operating situation and we're investigating the source of that spike."
He says ERA might not be responsible.
"It's possible it could've come from anywhere else, it's possible it could have come from on our lease, and we're investigating that," he said.In spite of environmentalists' concerm, Mr Patterson says uranium could not have leaked from the site.
"The uranium levels are being monitored and are published and are openly available and are available from the office of the supervising scientist and they don't confirm that hypothesis," he said.
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