AUSTRALIAN Floodplain Association (AFA) president Terry Korn said the government's decision to discard Wild Rivers Declarations for the Cooper Creek system in the Channel Country was disappointing and could threaten the organic beef industry in the region.
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Mr Korn said he didn't want to see a repeat of an incident where contaminated water from storage ponds at Lady Annie Mine, 120 kilometres north-west of Mount Isa, flowed into the Georgina River and put cattle properties out of production.
``That was a mineral mine, not gas, but they are proposing those (at Cooper Creek) as well,'' Mr Korn said.
``Those things need to be balanced and we need to make sure we retain a viable animal production industry in the Channel Country,'' he said.
Mr Korn said the decision reversed years of consultation the AFA was involved in.
``The protected areas of the Channel Country floodplain covered 12 per cent of the basin and we thought the remaining 88 per cent was sufficient area for oil, gas and mineral extraction without unduly threatening surface and ground water for future generations and the very important organic beef industry based in that area,'' he said.
Last week the Newman government released its plan for the region, which opened up 53 per cent of land to general activities including agriculture, mining and other economic development activities.
Mr Korn said Organic Beef Enterprise (OBE) was made up of a group of pastoralists on the Cooper Creek system that worked hard to create a niche market for their product and would be under threat of pollution if mining increased in floodplain areas.
Mr Korn said he wasn't certain of how much the new draft plan would impinge on buffer zones around the Cooper Creek system but said at this early stage it looked fairly substantial.
