MORE than 10 million litres of "radioactive contaminated" water is sitting in ponds at the Territory's only uranium mine, an indigenous leader said yesterday.

Northern Land Council chief executive Kim Hill said a CSIRO study estimated 150,000 litres a day leaked into Kakadu National Park from the Ranger mine.

He called on Energy Resources Australia to guarantee that the "environmental monitoring process" would not suffer during the shutdown of the mine.

Ranger will be closed until July because the heavy wet season has almost filled the tailings dams.

Mr Hill said ERA would "cut cost wherever possible" because of its falling share price and "disastrous environmental record".

"The World Heritage-listed environment that surrounds the mine mustn't suffer further as the company looks to protect its bottom line," he said.

 

Mr Hill said the troubles at Ranger added weight to his calls for an end to self-regulation in the Territory mining industry.

But Ranger is unusual because it is not self-regulated it is monitored by the Federal Government-appointed Office of the Supervising Scientist and is often described as the most highly regulated mine in the world.

ERA spokeswoman Shannon McRae said Ranger was independently monitored and the Supervising Scientist had confirmed in all its reports "that the surrounding environment has remained protected".

She said additional water monitoring stations were being set up.

"The water is confined to the mine site there has been no evidence of contamination of Kakadu National Park," Ms McRae said.

"The Supervising Scientist has a comprehensive chemical and biological monitoring program which demonstrates that Ranger continues to have no detrimental impact on the environment of Kakadu. Any review of costs will not compromise any aspect of environmental protection."