Historic legal action to save Aust. forest

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 9

Historic legal action to save Aust. forest

NZPA Perth Australian conservationists have begun a historic legal action in the United .ates against the Aluminium Company of America (Alcoa) and the Reynolds Metals Company.

' The Conservation Council of Western Australia ’said that a writ had been filed at Pittsburgh, the ;home of Alcoa, on behalf nf the council and the • Campaign to Save Native “Forests (Westc-n Australia). . The suit aimed to .save •the unique jarrah (Eucalyptus manginata) for.vests of Western Australia “from destruction by bauxite mining and to control .pollution caused by alu*miha refining and proposed aluminium smelting. A restraining injunction •was also sought against •Alcoa under United States tanti-trust laws on the “grounds of dissemination iof false arid misleading to West Australians.-

v The president, of the • council, Mr Neil BarthbJomaeus, is in the United -States for the legal action.

He said that Alcoa and Reynolds Metals had taken advantage of Australia’s weak environmentalprotection legislation , and naive politScians to develop in Western Australia the largest-bauxite mining and alumina refining works in the world. Aluminium smelting was now also proposed by each company.

“Bauxite -mining in this part of the world is ecological suicide,” said Mr . Bartholomaeus. “The bauxite is mined in the unique jarrah forest of the Darling Range that lies between Perth and the vast .arid inland of Western Australia." Mr Bartholomaeus said that the jarrah forest was a vital water catchment for Western Australia’s south-west, where a million people l ; ”'d. “The jarrah forest hasover millions of years adapted to the semi-arid cpnditic s. Once destroyed by bauxite mining it cannot be replaced. “In • other parts of south-w"-t Australia. the

water has become salty as a result of forest clearing and bauxite mining threatens to rggravate this precarious situation.” Mr Bartholomaeus said that his council had been i that huge strip-mi:, ing by Alcoa and Reynolds Metals in State forests and public water-supply catchments would not be permitted in the United States.

“We now appeal to the United States courts to regulate the environmental impacts- of these multinational corporations in our country.: We in Aus- '♦ -.lia are not prepared .to let our . forests be destroyed and our water polluted. as a result of decisions made in the American boardrooms of Alcoa and Reynolds. “We . e launching •an international appeal for funds to give lis jarrah class acticn every possible chance of success and thus open the way for other class actions against American companies degrading the environment in Australia and in other parts nf the world.”'