Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers (KPT) has announced that it has submitted the revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Kangaroo Island Seaport. KIPT says the new EIS has been modified to address all government department and agency comments and suggestions, received following the submission of an earlier version of the document in late September 2018. Source: Timberbiz
According to KIPT, the new EIS shows that the KI Seaport will generate employment and economic advantages for the community of Kangaroo Island that would otherwise take almost 30 years to accrue, at current rates of growth.
KIPT said there were additional benefits for the state and for the nation’s exports. In addition, KIPT confirms that construction and operation of the facility, with appropriate management measures, would have no negative effects on the land-based abalone farm that is also located at Smith Bay operated by Yumbah Aquaculture.
However, David Connell, Yumbah Aquaculture’s Kangaroo Island general manager said they still had concerns about KIPT’s claims.
“In KPT’s latest announcement, it states there will be no ‘significant negative effect on any matters of national environmental significance’,” Mr Connell said.
“At Yumbah we know this seaport will negatively affect our business, a business that has provided a steady stream of jobs and income to the Island for the past two decades, and with potential for future growth which has been stifled for four years due to this proposal.”
KIPT said the EIS also shows that there would be no significant negative effect on any matters of national environmental significance. Even so, KIPT has committed to assist in programs intended to strengthen the population of the Kangaroo Island echidna, whose young are vulnerable to predation by feral cats.
“The lodgement of the EIS represents another crucial step forward in the company’s development. The board thanks all those who have contributed to the EIS, including Peter Lockett, who has managed the project on the Company’s behalf, and Maria Pedicini of Environmental Projects, who has led the multi-disciplinary study team that prepared the EIS and responded over the holiday period to the comments and suggestions received late in 2018,” KIPT managing director John Sergeant said.
The company will advise the ASX when the Minister for Planning determines that the EIS will be formally placed on public exhibition.
