The owner of the site believes it can store six million cubic metres of dredge spoil in its "now empty" 27 sealed salt ponds, twice what is needed.

And the company that is dredging sand from Moreton Bay to build up Brisbane Airport's second runway – Jan de Nul - has offered to help.

In January Environment Minister Greg Hunt approved an application by North Queensland Bulk Ports Authority to dump dredge spoil from the expanded Abbot Point harbour in the Great Barrier Reef waters, sparking widespread criticism.

Despite the government insisting the decision was scientifically sound, a legal challenge mounted by conservation groupsis likely to delay the expansion of the coal port.

Recently, the new owners of the Bowen salt farm offered their site as a potential on-land storage site for dredge spoil from Abbot Point.

The North Queensland Bulk Ports Authority has confirmed for the first time it was investigating the viability of the old salt farm as an onshore alternative to dumping dredge spoil at sea.

North Queensland Bulk Ports Authority's regional relationships manager Simon Eldridge said a decision had not yet been made.

"We're doing an evaluation of the option, but we haven't actually landed on any view," Mr Eldridge said.

He said several logistical questions were being evaluated, including the time it would take to get the dredge spoil to the old salt farm site.

"Leaving aside the issue of whether you could use the material onsite there, just the logistics of getting it there from Abbot Point is complicated," he said.

Mr Eldridge confirmed that, if the site was chosen, it would "most likely be TSHD Brisbane that would do the dredging," Mr Eldridge said.

The TSHD Brisbane is a dredge that has worked for the Port of Brisbane Authority since November 2000 to keep the port clear.

However Mr Eldridge said steaming dredge spoil from Abbot Point to the Bowen salt plant site would add "in the order of eight to nine hours" for every single round trip for the dredge voyage.

"It is about a 20 to 30 minute steam out (to the sea dump site), versus a three to four hours trip between Abbot Point and Bowen," he said.

"So time-wise, it is a substantial issue. We will do the evaluation, but logistically I don't think that is an issue people have given much thought to."

North Queensland Bulk Ports will soon go to the site to do an onsite environmental assessment.

Mr Eldridge said a "tidal works permit" would also need to be prepared.

Meanwhile the dredge company that is dredging sand from Moreton Bay and taking it to the Port of Brisbane site to build up the second runway has told the Bowen salt farm's new owner that their suggestion could work.

In emails written on July 17, 2014 to new owner Kevin Murphy - seen by Fairfax Media - Yves Bosteel, the director of the company Jan de Nul, said the company could handle the proposal.

"Does JDN have the capability to dredge and transport spoils over 17km and pump it on land?"  Mr Bosteel asked.

"Sure we have.

"I am scheduled to visit Brisbane and was already intending to talk to both NQBP and Adani.

"I honestly believe your proposal has its merits, but it needs further scoping."

Kevin Murphy's company Futura Holdings, a subsidiary of Advanced Algal Technologies, insists his offer to let the dredge spoil be buried at the salt farm is for the people of Bowen.

The salt farm started in the 1920s and is registered as a "mining site".

"It was offered for the people of Bowen because Bowen desperately needs commerce," he said.

"They need this project at Abbot Point to get moving, to help Bowen."

"So if they bring the fill in from Abbot Point and we have 500 acres of ponds there – which is not that far from where we are – if they bring it to the site, it is actually mine site rehabilitation."

Mr Murphy said the salt farm runs adjacent to the seashore for about three kilometres.

"If they bring it from Abbot Point it is classed as mine site remediation, which is actually a much easier environmental impact statement (to prepare) than it would be on virgin land, where it would be classed as land contamination."

He said the salt ponds were sealed and treated with lime and could be treated with "flocculants", to help material settle sediments in the water.

"It is used everywhere. All your drinking water is treated with a flocculant which takes sediment out of it."

The dredge fill would be pumped 600 metres into the ponds.

"So the whole thing could be trapped and enscapulated forever."

The idea has interested Federal MP George Christensen, North Queensland's Conservation Council,  Mackay Conservation Council and Queensland Labor's environment spokeswoman, Jackie Trad.

The Queensland Government did not repond to requests for comment.