The Snowy Hydro project has struck another snag with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) issuing it with a clean-up notice for contaminated drill and blast spoil within the Kosciuszko National Park.
Snowy Hydro self-reported elevated levels of nitrate in surface and groundwater near spoil storage areas on the Snowy 2.0 construction site to the EPA in August.
Now the authority has ordered a halt to any more spoil being added and over the next two weeks, for a program to pump and treat the polluted water.
In addition, they must set up a "hot spot" identification program to identify high nitrate areas within existing spoil piles and take action to prevent any further pollution.
Snowy Hydro is required to provide the EPA with monitoring data and meet weekly with the authority to provide updates about the progress of their clean up actions.
EPA's executive director of operations Jason Gordon said his officers are investigating to determine what occurred at the site and the extent of potential areas affected.
The clean-up notice follows on from a prevention notice issued in August requiring Snowy Hydro to investigate the source and extent of contamination, assess relevant pollution controls and develop an action plan to address the issue.
The Snowy Hydro has now racked up 19 EPA notice variations since March 2020. Two of its three tunnel boring machines are running, with the third, Florence, still stuck in soft ground 150 metres into its planned 15km task.
The cost of the project has blown out by $12 million and it won't be delivered until the second half of 2027.
