Sydney Morning Herald
26th June, 2009
IN THE first decision made under new mining laws, the NSW Government has approved modified plans for a massive expansion of coalmining under Sydney’s drinking water catchment.
The first proposal put forward by a subsidiary of the United States mining giant Peabody Energy was changed after the Government found it would cause unacceptable river damage but yesterday it accepted a scaled-back plan as a trade-off between the environment and jobs.
The company will be able to mine under Woronora Dam, which supplies drinking water to the Sutherland Shire and Wollongong, but will leave buffer zones around sections of the Waratah Rivulet and other catchment rivers.
Waratah Rivulet was affected by longwall mining in 2004, when subsidence caused large cracks to open, draining the water away. The company’s attempts to fix the cracks with resin had mixed results.
The new plans allows mining under other sections of the river but a kilometre-long stretch will not be touched, and 8.6 million tonnes of coal will be left in the ground.
“The result is a determination that protects our drinking water supply and the environment, streamlines assessment and regulation and, significantly, captures $154 million in annual wages and 1950 jobs”, said the Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally.
The plans were modified in response to public criticism of the mine expansion, along with concerns raised by the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Sydney Catchment Authority.
While it has scaled back its plans, the company has been allowed to undertake longwall mining – where the mine roof collapses after coal is removed – under waterways where it had dug preliminary shafts.
The department said mining here would “result in some adverse residual environmental impacts, primarily by way of subsidence impacts” and recommended these be remediated “where reasonable and feasible”. The company’s environmental assessment also predicted damage to the nearby Princes Highway, parts of which could sink by up to a metre.
Yesterday’s decision is the first since the Southern Coalfields inquiry recommended that the onus of proof be put on mining companies to demonstrate they they would not cause unacceptable damage to the environment.
The director of the Total Environment Centre, Jeff Angel, said he was disappointed the project was granted 20-year approval instead of staged approval.
