Territory Stories

Assessment of the Jabiluka Project : report of the Supervising Scientist to the World Heritage Committee

Details:

Title

Assessment of the Jabiluka Project : report of the Supervising Scientist to the World Heritage Committee

Creator

Johnston, A.; Prendergast, J. B.; Bridgewater, Peter

Collection

E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Supervising Scientist Report; 138

Date

1999

Location

Alligator Rivers Region

Table of contents

Main report--Appendix 2 of the Main Report. Submission to the Mission of the World Heritage Committee by some Australian Scientists ... --Attachment A. Johnston A. and Needham S. 1999. Protection of the environment near the Ranger uranium mine--Attachment B. Bureau of Meteorology 1999. Hydrometeorological analysis relevant to Jabiluka--Attachment C. Jones, R.N., Hennessy, K.J. and Abbs, D.J. 1999. Climate change analysis relevant to Jabiluka--Attachment D. Chiew, F and Wang, Q.J. 1999. Hydrological anaysis relevant to surface water storage at Jabiluka--Attachment E. Kalf, F. and Dudgeon, C. 1999. Analysis of long term groundwater dispersal of contaminants from proposed Jabiluka mine tailings repositories--Appendix 2 of Attachment E. Simulation of leaching on non-reactive and radionuclide contaminants from proposed Jabiluka silo banks.

Language

English

Subject

Uranium mill tailings - Environmental aspects - Northern Territory - Alligator Rivers Region; Environmental impact analysis - Northern Territory - Jabiluka; Uranium mines and mining - Environmental aspects - Northern Territory - Jabiluka; Jabiluka - Environmental aspects

Publisher name

Environment Australia

Place of publication

Canberra (A.C.T.)

Series

Supervising Scientist Report; 138

Format

1 volume (various pagings) : illustrations, maps

File type

application/pdf

ISBN

642243417

Use

Copyright

Copyright owner

Environment Australia

License

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/264982

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462402

Related items

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462403; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462400; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462405; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462406; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462408; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462409; https://hdl.handle.net/10070/462411

Page content

22 The Alligator Rivers Region, in common with much of far northern Australia, has a tropical monsoon climate. Virtually the entire rainfall occurs in the Wet season which varies in length but is generally confined to the December March period; November and April tend to be transitional months. The Dry season extends from about May to September. For this reason, the rainfall year considered in this report is defined to be from September of one year until August of the following year. In 1988, the Supervising Scientist carried out an analysis (Carter 1990) of the correlation between the Jabiru rainfall record and the records for a number of sites in the north of the Northern Territory. The correlation was found to be best for Oenpelli and this data set was used to determine the 1:10 and 1:100 AEP annual rainfall values for the Ranger mine site. A significant limitation of the Jabiru data set was the very short length of record, 17 years. The additional data gathered in the last 10 years has significantly extended the Jabiru data set and a further comparison is warranted. Figure 3.2.1 Comparison of monthly rainfall at Jabiru and Oenpelli (data from Sep 1971 to Aug 1998) Table 3.2.1 Comparison of annual rainfall statistics for Jabiru and Oenpelli from September 1971 until August 1998 Jabiru (mm) Oenpelli (mm) Mean annual rainfall 1483 1,500 Standard deviation 302 295 Standard error 58 57 An analysis of the extended data set has now been carried out by the University of Melbourne (Chiew & Wang 1999, Attachment D) using data supplied by the Bureau of Meteorology (1999) (Attachment B). For the period of coincident records (September 1971August 1998) the mean rainfall, standard deviation and standard error in the mean are given in table 3.2.1. This comparison shows excellent agreement between the two stations. Chiew and Wang 0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Jabiru monthly rainfall (mm) O en pe lli m on th ly r ai nf al l ( m m )