PROTECTING OUR COASTAL ENVIRONMENT
AND INDUSTRY FROM ACID SULFATE SOILS
Environmental Panorama
Canberra – Australia
April of 2006
21 April 2006 - Australia’s
precious coastal environment and vital coastal
industries will be better protected thanks to
a valuable new resource that will manage acid
sulfate soils.
Acid sulfate soils can kill plants and animals,
damage buildings and infrastructure and contaminate
water and food such as oysters.
Australian Government Ministers for the Environment
and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell, and Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran, today
launched a web-based mapping and resource tool
to manage acid sulfate soils.
“The web-based tool for coastal managers will
be vital in helping to better manage coastal planning
and development,” Senator Campbell said.
“The systematic mapping pinpoints the danger zones
for acid sulfate soils, showing where to avoid
development and where soils will need special
treatment,” he said.
Acid sulfate soils occur naturally in both coastal
and inland Australia, and are harmless when undisturbed
but react with oxygen in the air and form sulfuric
acid when excavated or drained for development.
The environmental and economic impacts of acid
sulfate soils are huge, and include:
• Tweed Heads Shire Council has spent $4 million
to replace infrastructure lost to corrosion
• the treatment and management of acid sulfate
soils costs $180 million per year in Queensland
• more than $2 million per year is lost through
fish and oyster deaths in New South Wales
“This resource will help us protect areas of national
environmental significance, like the Great Barrier
Reef, and industries such as marine fisheries
and the sugar and dairy industries,” Mr McGauran
said.
“This is an especially important resource in view
of the increasing development and population pressures
in coastal Australia – it will help us live sustainably
on our coasts,” he said.
To look at the mapping and web based tools go
to www.asris.csiro.au
