Sabotage or Vandalism?... If It's Either...

It has come to our attention that on Friday 23 January, 2015, as Mandalay Resources personnel and contractors were pressure testing the 5km pipeline at Splitters Creek prior to its commissioning and use to convey toxic mine waste to the Lot 2 construction site to be employed for dust suppression* and "clay conditioning", a "rushing" sound was heard in the pipe.

[* At the recent ERC meeting it was confirmed that dust suppression is now being accomplished with the use of Reverse Osmosis treated water. A vast improvement and something that should have been done from the beginning.]

Upon removing a gate valve it was found that a 150mm diameter 500mm long treated pine log had been inserted into the pipe and had been pushed, by the force of the water, to the valve.

The pipes were laid in the Crown Land adjoining the South Costerfield-Graytown Road between 17 and 20 November and were welded together by 2 December, 2014. That time frame governs the log's placement in the pipe. Or so it would seem.

This apparently irresponsible act has been labelled "blatant... sabotage". We have no doubt that judgmental gazes are being cast in our direction as the perpetrators of this seemingly thoughtless behaviour. This possible vandalism is something we deny any knowledge of.

And we would be somewhat puzzled, indeed, should the automatic response be to cast aspersions on the Community, as it has been our stated and consistent position throughout our copious communications and blog posts that our quarrel is with the regulators and not the mine, its personnel or operations.

We have noted the authorities' (and a previous mining company's) tendency in the past to place responsibility for illegal and even accidental events on any group or individuals who may offer objections to the conducting of mining activities in Costerfield. This is a narrow view of the world.

More open minds would consider other possibilities to explain such potential vandalism. The police - who have apparently been notified - know the Costerfield area well and will undoubtedly take into consideration a great deal more than some who do not hail from the district are prepared to.

We are not saying anything that is not common local knowledge when we tell you that the mine - like any other employer of a large impermanent workforce - is graced by a number of disgruntled former employees whose dissatisfaction could drive them to mischievously place a log in a pipe. You can check the papers or ask around the district.

Local knowledge of the area, too, will help in broadening the scope of possible investigations for the police should they wish to pursue their inquiries.

The Costerfield area in general, the Crown Land and Wappentake Valley in particular, is a regular destination for kangaroo shooters - especially during summer - any of whom could have mischievously placed a log in a pipe.

The Costerfield area in general, the Crown Land in particular, is a regular destination for trail bike riders, fossickers and bushwalkers - especially during summer - any of whom could have mischievously placed a log in a pipe.

The word "sabotage" implies a specific end result being held in sight by the perpetrators. Presumably the stopping or delaying of the Splitters Creek project. Community members are not so naive as to think that such a thing is possible. This project is proceeding full tilt, and will proceed. Just look at it inexorably unfolding...

Our intention has always and only been to indicate and highlight the shortcomings of the regulatory processes by which this project - and others approved by the regulators - has come to fruition, in order that future mineral extraction processes and their accompanying projects are conducted according to Best Practice.

With this in mind we note that the conclusion reached that the pine log was placed in the pipe somewhere in the five kilometres between the Augusta mine site and Lot 2 South Costerfield-Graytown Rd seems to indicate a lack of Quality Assurance in the pipeline's construction. Wasn't an independent EPA-appointed Auditor retained to "oversee" these things?

Do no regulations cover the mandatory inspection, externally and internally, both visually and by push-through means, of such a pipeline prior to its welding?

The pipe lay for two weeks in forested Crown Land - in the bush.

Were no checks performed to ensure that wildlife had not entered the pipe before its assembly?

It is not uncommon, we are told, to find echidnas, native rats, feral cat kittens, snakes and lizards in pipes like these. Thus a push-through protocol for each individual length is followed prior to the pipe's welding.

Would we have been informed if a couple of red-bellied black snakes or an echidna had "sabotaged" the pipe line by seeking shelter and warmth and then being damply and disastrously and divisively propelled to the nearest gate valve?

Were no checks performed to ensure that "slugs of mud" had not accumulated in the pipes before they were welded?

Are we to assume that along the whole five kilometres of pipeline, not a single check for obstructions took place?

***

It is our understanding that when these 16m (or 10m) pipes are loaded onto a truck, short lengths of 150mm diameter pine posting are sometimes used on top of the pipes on the semi-trailer so that the ratchet straps that secure them do not damage the pipes. The pieces of pine sit in the valleys between the top pipes so that the straps do not chafe them.

Some carriers go the other way and insert the pine post inside the 160mm diameter top pipe to stop it collapsing when the restraining strap goes over.*

***

Do not get us wrong. We are very far from making light of what may in fact have been a potentially irresponsible and somewhat dangerous act (though not quite as dangerous as the rather sensationalist message doing the rounds would seem to imply; the gate valves are linked to sensors that cease flow along the pipe on encountering a change in pressure that just such an obstruction would cause; that's what they are designed to do - pressure testing).

However, to immediately label this a "blatant act of sabotage" is a rush to judgement which immediately and ignorantly discounts other possibilities - many other possibilities - that direct attention squarely away from our Community members. Shooters, trail bike riders, fossickers, bushwalkers. Other possibilities...

And if the attention is not focussed in our direction then this seemingly foolish act becomes common senseless vandalism rather than sabotage.

If it is, indeed, either of those things.

***

* At the recent ERC Meeting - where the offending log was allowed by the regulators to be irrelevantly produced for recording in the minutes; an Environmental Review Committee Meeting - those residents allowed to attend were told that the company that delivered the pipes used chocks and wedges for this purpose. At least things were followed up. No blame was cast on the Community.

However. "It didn't get there by accident," said the schoolmarmish Chair admonishingly; and also irrelevantly. 

All Cr Leach needed was a cane and we'd have all been given detention and whooped!

We've become almost used to such inanity from her by now.