We Are Forced to Fight for Our Livelihood: Queensland Farmers Talk about Solar Farm Protest
A group of farmers in Banana Shire, Queensland, say they have been forced to enter a fight against a solar project to protect their livelihood and families.
At a recent inquiry hearing, farmers Cedric Creed and Therese Creed shared about their six-year protest against a solar farm and the impacts it would have on fertile farmland in the region.
The couple represented a group of 10 landholders whose properties are adjacent to the solar plant.
They alleged that the project was approved despite not going through proper environmental assessment and regulation processes.
Specifically, Therese Creed pointed out that renewable energy projects in the region, including the above solar farm, were not subject to strict environmental regulations.
"They are classed as code assessable, rather than impact assessable, which means they skip so much of the legislation," she told the Select Committee on Nuclear Energy.
"They are exempt from the Vegetation Management Act, which means they can knock over any tree they like.
"They are exempt from the very strict reef regulations that monitor ground cover and runoff."
Farmers also said they were not consulted on the project and alleged that its consulting companies engaged in dodgy practices to get the solar farm going.
"The misinformation these companies use to get their projects over the line is astounding," Cedric Creed said.
"Most of the research is done on a [computer] desktop, so they're doing it in air-conditioned. Often, they don't even come and check.
"In the six-year ongoing fight, we have written well over 400 letters to all three layers of government, plus many different departments who just passed the buck," he said.
"We have nowhere to go to get any satisfactory response. We could not get anyone from state [and] federal government decision-makers to come look at the site before they approved it."
According to the farmer, the six-year protest imposed a significant mental and financial burden on his group.
"No one cares about our mental health, and we're all suffering from it," he said.
"The manufacture of ultra-pure silicon for solar panels requires the use of highly toxic chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, nitrogen trifluoride, sulphur hexafluoride, trichloroethane and acetone," she said, citing research by Ian Plimer, a geologist and professor at the University of Melbourne.
"Cadmium telluride, ... silicon tetrachloride, and lead are also added to the silicon for greater electrical efficiency.
"This is what will leak onto our paddocks, into our waterways, into our dams, into the Don River, which feeds Rockhampton's water supply, and onto the Great Barrier Reef if we have a hail storm."
Apart from the chemicals, the farmer pointed out that the solar panels themselves and the herbicide used in maintaining the solar farms would have devastating impacts on the soil.
"[The soil] is cooked by the photo magnetic by the photovoltaic heat island," she said.
"It is also ruined by other herbicides that they use to permanently suppress the vegetation."
Therese Creed then questioned the government for its pursuit of renewable energy at the expense of food production.
"Why would a government choose a method of energy production that threatens our food security with its potential to contaminate and destroy large tracts of fertile land, areas of untouched forest with high biodiversity and areas with huge flow on watersheds?" she asked.
"Nuclear stands out as the best choice by far. It can be built on existing power station sites," Cedric Creed said.
"It is clean and imposed on our small amount of finite, prime food-producing land."
When questioned by a member of the Committee about her understanding of the risks of radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants, Therese Creed said she had a talk with an American expert on the issue.
"He told us that the newest nuclear power stations in France and Japan run the plutonium through four times to the point where the radioactivity is much less, and it's the beginning of a solution to the waste, which is actually very small," she said.
"When you think of the waste from millions of solar panels and wind turbines that have to go into land–they can't go into ordinary landfill because they're so toxic. I think we have more of a waste disposal problem when we're talking about renewables than we do with nuclear."
