24 October, 2012
Dismal mining impacts outrage
TEC and a coalition of environment and community groups have warned Barry O’Farrell’s NSW Government that it must recognise the unacceptable impact that mining continues to have on Sydney and Illawarra’s water supply catchments.
The coalition was spurred to action by the NSW Mineral Council’s Environment and Community Conference, which opened in Wollongong this week, at $1000 per head.
“It was expected that mining in drinking catchments would be addressed by in the NSW Government’s Strategic Regional Land Use Policy,” said Pepe Clarke, Chief Executive Officer of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
“However the policy failed to protect any areas from mining and left drinking catchments in limbo by excluding the Special areas from its areas of assessment.”
David Burgess, Natural Areas campaigner at Total Environment Centre, noted that “Mining in the Southern Coalfields is linked to cracked and polluted rivers, the draining of endangered swamps critical to the catchments’ integrity, the use of loopholes to gain mine approvals, endless breaches of approval conditions, and an aggressive approach to community engagement. Each and every mine in the water catchments is having serious impacts and more mines are proposed.”
“BHP’s Dendrobium mine has undermined, cracked and drained three small upland swamps,” said Julie Sheppard from the National Parks Association’s Macarthur branch. “But its new plan targets four massive swamps which are the headwaters of feeder streams for the Avon Dam. If the government approves this in the face of damage so far, then we know that the noble concept of Special Areas for Sydney’s high quality drinking water means nothing anymore – not to industry or government.
Sharyn Cullis, Secretary of the Georges River Environment Alliance, said: “The ever growing Westcliff Mine Dump near Appin, euphemistically known as “the emplacement area” is a weeping sore. It is responsible for a toxic plume traceable for kilometres in the Georges River. Instead of complying, BHP is trying to have their licence conditions watered down so they’re no longer in breach. This is not best practice.”
"Peabody are mining the second longwall of the Metropolitan Colliery expansion and say they’re pleased with their performance,” said Peter Turner, spokesperson for the Save Our Water Catchment Areas campaign.
“But the new longwalls have shattered a beautiful waterfall, caused further riverbed cracking, reactivated the old subsidence damage, and turned the Waratah Rivulet pea-green with iron and other metal contaminants that ultimately end up in the Woronora Dam. If this is best practice coal mining, it has no place in our Special Areas,” Turner said.
In the short time Gujarat NRE have been mining in the Illawarra, Kaye Osborn from Illawarra Residents for Responsible Mining, noted that “they have been fined for mowing down a threatened swamp to do a survey, and have failed to declare political donations as required and recorded subsidence six times the predicted levels in their current longwall. They have taken an exceptionally poor approach to community consultation. They are currently planning a 120,000 tonne mountain of coal only 200m from residences and are either not willing or able to stop their truck drivers speeding through the suburbs or covering their loads.”
Caroline Graham is a founding member of the Rivers SOS Alliance and won a landmark case against BHP in the 1990s, when its longwall mining destroyed a section of the Cataract River at Douglas Park.
“We formed Rivers SOS as witnesses to the wrecking of the Cataract and Georges Rivers by BHP Billiton,” said Graham. “They promised to remediate the hundreds of cracks in the bed of the Cataract, and re-supply the river with fish after most had died, but vanished after cementing a couple of cracks as a media stunt. They moved on to the Georges River where rock falls spoiled Marhnyes Hole and the pollution continues to this day.
“It’s time the Premier acts on his promise,” Graham said.
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