The Territory's EPA has given a mining company the green light to pump more than 14 gigalitres of water into a pristine Top End river - and locals want to know why.
In its first major decision, the new NT Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA) has given a licence to US mining company Vista Gold to pump more than 14 gigalitres of contaminated mine water into the Edith River by the end of the next wet season.
The Edith flows into the Daly, the Territory's most popular fishing river.
The effluent is enough to fill 5600 Olympic swimming pools and contains metals including cadmium, which causes birth defects.
The 10.3 gigalitres in the Batman Pit (RP3) is being treated with finely crushed lime to raise the pH level from acid to neutral, causing most of the dissolved metals to fall out as sediment.
But the treatment will not remove all the cadmium which persists in the environment and concentrates up the food chain into predator fish such as barramundi.
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