Australia Will Dump One Million Tons of Sludge on the Great Barrier Reef
Australia is exploiting a questionable loophole in its pollution laws to dump a million tons of sludge on the Great Barrier Reef. In 2015, the government banned dumping sludge within the Great Barrier Reef’s boundaries, but that only applied to new or capital projects, and did not include sludge from maintenance projects. Taking advantage of this, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority recently approved the dumping over a million tons of dredging sludge — removed during the clearing and deepening of the Port of Hay Point — into the marine park. The dumping will take place over the next decade, beginning in March.