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Red faces all round: To add to the company’s woes, the $1.7 billion pipeline project – the centrepiece of the Government’s emergency water supply strategy – is behind schedule. Tarong insists there is only a low risk of it running out of water, despite its only major supplier, the purpose-built Boondooma Dam, falling to 19 per cent capacity. This follows a Beattie Government directive that Tarong stop taking some water from Lake Wivenhoe. A statement issued by the company on 23 November said it could reduce its generation "in a way, that won’t impact on security of supply or our customers”. “For example, output could be reduced when demand for electricity is low, such as overnight and at weekends," the statement said.

Tarong prepares to go bust: However, Tarong has also arranged for Queensland Treasury to set aside a $50 million "working capital facility" to help the company pay wages and other business costs if its Boondooma water supply fails. A Tarong spokesman said the agreement, struck last July, was a "prudent and normal course of action".

The Courier Mail, 24/11/2006, p.5

Who, me? In his first comments on that deal on Wednesday, just hours before the latest catastrophe, Mr Bakrie indignantly washed his hands of the mess, saying: "It doesn’t matter who the shareholders are; Lapindo must continue to bear the responsibility." Mr Bakrie’s company had previously tried to offload Lapindo to another company within the group, but was prevented from doing so by Indonesia’s capital regulator. However, it was revealed this week that the new owner is headed by a longtime American business associate of Mr Bakrie’s, and there were fears that the intention was to drive the company bankrupt so the minister can avoid further financial responsibility.

Emergency cabinet meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held an emergency cabinet meeting on 23 November night to assess the damage, after four senior ministers, including Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro and Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, travelled to the explosion site.

Fire ball as Pertamina line explodes: The explosion on Wednesday night, believed to have been triggered by a rupture in the main east Java gas line after tonnes of the hot mud suddenly shifted, produced a fireball up to 100m high, affecting power supplies to Indonesia’s second-largest city. Tobarso, a spokesman for the national resources company Partamina, said the ruptured pipeline, which carries gas to East Java from several fields, including one majority-owned by Santos, had been affected by the mudflow for 15km. “There was a plan to move the pipeline, but it hasn’t happened yet," Toharso said.

What mates are for: It was revealed this week that although the Bakrie companies had evaded Indonesian regulatory scrutiny in its deal with Freehold Group, the British company was owned by Mr Bakrie’s business associate James Belcher. Mr Belcher, a member of the Indonesia America Chamber of 25 years’ history with the Bakrie family businesses, told The Financial Times newspaper that he and about eight associates had acquired Freehold to take over Lapindo and help out Mr Bakrie.

The Australian, 24/11/2006, p.1

Full story, go to The Sydney Morning Herald

CANCER cases among Aboriginal people living near Australia’s biggest uranium mine appear to be almost double the expected rate, a study by the Federal Government’s leading indigenous research body shows.

The study also found there had been no monitoring in the past 20 years on the Ranger mine’s impact on local indigenous health. Yet since 1981, there have been more than 120 spillages and leaks of contaminated water at the mine, located in the world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

For the full story, go to The Sydney Morning Herald

The Australian, 20/11/2006, p.6

Sousrce: Erisk Net

Forests consume half the runoff for 50 years after a bushfire