31 July, 2015
Rio Tinto’s mine will leave a toxic, dangerous hole for taxpayers to manage
Tomorrow (Friday, July 31) is the last chance the public has to convince the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) to reject Rio Tinto’s controversial plans to expand the Warkworth open-cut coal mine in the Upper Hunter Valley. [1]
In its final submission to the PAC, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW has highlighted the lasting environmental harm that will result if the project is approved.
“When all the coal is dug up and burned, Rio Tinto’s Warkworth open-cut coal mine will leave a hole 4½ times the size of Sydney’s Centennial Park as a lasting legacy for the people of NSW to manage forever,” Nature Conservation Council of NSW CEO Kate Smolski said.
“The company has ruled out filling the 800 million cubic metre hole to return the site to something similar to what was destroyed, reasoning that to do so would be ‘prohibitively expensive’.
“Rio Tinto is one of the world’s oldest and richest mining companies, with a turnover of almost US$48 billion in 2014, yet it is happy to offload the environmental and social costs of this project to the people of the Upper Hunter and NSW.
“The pit itself will become a permanent drain on local groundwater supplies, taking up to 1000 years to fill.
“The water will be useless for livestock or crop irrigation because it will be poisoned by mine toxins.
“There is also a serious risk this toxic water will leave the site and infiltrate clean groundwater reserves nearby.
“This terrible damage may be allowed to enable a foreign company to dig up coal that will be burned to add to dangerous climate change experts say will harm agricultural production of Australia’s southeast more than many other regions of the world.
“Under these circumstances, how can anyone think this project is a good idea?
“The PAC’s decision, which is expected within a month, will demonstrate whether the government’s changes to the Mining SEPP have restored some balance to NSW planning system, or whether economics continues to be a trump card the coal mining industry can play to destroy ecosystems and communities.”
[1] Submissions to the PAC on the Rio Tinto project were extended to July 31 after the NSW Government announced plans to amend the Mining SEPP to give environmental, social, and economic considerations equal weight when assessing applications. Currently the SEPP requires decision makers to make the economic benefit of a resource the primary concern.
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Coal and gas
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