Source: The National

THE environmental impact statement (EIS) released by seabed miner Nautilus Minerals has errors and does not consider contaminants carried directly to  land by water, a scientist claims.

Dr John Luick, an oceanographer, said in his report on physical oceanographic impact assessment in July, that: “The primary risk to the local people was from shoreward movement of surface waters, which would carry contaminants with them.

“At typical ocean speeds, the surface currents, if they were shoreward, would carry contaminants to the coast in a day or two.

“The EIS contained no information, either from data or from global models, to enable anyone to assess the risk to reassure the local people.”

Luick claimed that the Nautilus EIS had:

● No presentation of currents in the upper 250 metresof the sea despite a major surface operation involving transfer of material from the processing ship to barges;

● No firm basis for assessing the risk of pollution of the seafloor, plants and animals and the islanders near New Ireland;

● No presentation of the surface wave climate; and

● Inadequate analysis of the oceanographic data

● Model results not supported by accompanying sensitivity studies.

Luick says he has had 20 years in projects-related to ocean monitoring, tidal analysis and hydrodynamic modelling.