The Northern Territory Supreme Court has ruled the Minister for Land Resource Management did not properly review a complaint about the allocation of rights to take groundwater.
The NSW EPA has ordered BlueScope to install pollution controls that will cost it more than $400,000, after a condensate system blockage caused a spill of cyanide-laden water.
If Labor takes office after Saturday's election, Queensland's laws on impact assessment, planning, water, waste and offsets will likely change, and so too might the approach to drafting and enforcing environmental legislation.
Labor and environment groups have criticised a Newman Government water bill that would allow mines to freely use large amounts of water without needing to be licensed.
A court has overturned a ministerial decision not to grant a mining company a groundwater extraction licence in a region where aquifer degradation has long been a concern.
AGL has won approval for fracking at a NSW site, while the Victorian Government has introduced a bill to regulate the practice, ahead of a decision on whether to allow it.
Discharges from aquaculture can be 'an order of magnitude' higher than from sugar crops, but if new operators make offset payments then it could prevent harm to the Great Barrier Reef, says the Queensland Competition Authority.