Water wasted

At the weekend I was shocked to hear that in Port Hedland, BHP Billiton damped down thier piles of iron ore with potable fresh water; 4.3 Gigalitres per day . Iron ore dust is a very important environmental hazard in Port Hedland.

Whole mountains are moved in enormously long trains. The ore is then dumped at the port and loaded into ships then carted off to Asia to build the incredible infrastructure that is now a feature of the Asian urban landscape. Port Hedland is right by the sea with an abundance of sea water that could be used for the job as was the case until recently. However BHP Billiton had a problem that the infrastructure they had constructed to move this dirt, namely the conveyor belts and the trucks were going rusty because of the salt. So fresh water is being used. Understandable you may think but in the same town, salt is being transported by conveyor belt and truck and loaded into ships. How is it possible that one company can transport salt and one can not transport dirt with a sprinkling of salt on top.

Finucane Port Hedland What is the Western Australian State government doing to ensure that safe drinking water is not being wasted in this way? If BHP Billiton absolutely needs to use this water what are they paying to deplete a non renewable natural resource namely the Pilbara underground water reserves.