The Chairperson of the Thirlmere Lakes Inquiry Committee will present the Inquiry’s Draft Report and Dr Philip Pells, who has been conducting his own independent research, will present his conclusions. We expect the two to be vastly different so it should be very interesting. Xstrata were to present as well but have since declined. They will be in attendance though.

We would urge everyone to spread the word and attend if possible. Given the shambolic procedure of the Inquiry, with very poor advertising/timing of the call for submissions and the public hearings, resulting in limited public awareness, we hope that the Council’s Forum at least is well-attended and that people will take the opportunity to question the participants.

The river systems and water resources of NSW are our concern. Without water, prime agricultural land is useless. In the most arid continent, water supplies must be carefully
conserved. We fear that money power and short term vision prevents the conservation of water.

Since our inception we have called for a 1 km safety zone to protect 3^rd order rivers and above from mine damage.

This distance is based on research into irreparable damage to river systems caused by longwall mining, as witnessed in the Southern Coalfield (e.g. Lower Cataract and Georges
Rivers), in the Hunter (Diega Creek, Bowmans Creek, Glennies Creek, South Wambo Creek), in the Western Coalfield (Goulburn River) and in the Woronora Special Area of Sydney’s drinking water catchment (Waratah Rivulet).

The 1 km safety zone would also protect major tributaries near confluences. We have witnessed serious damage to numerous tributaries, e.g. in the Upper Nepean River, where
some are polluted and/or  have virtually ceased to flow due to typical subsidence-induced cracking. At sites in places like Kurri Kurri we have witnessed devastation by acid mine drainage in Hunter River catchment creeks.

With the more recent expansion of CSG extraction we are further alarmed at the millions of litres of water extracted from aquifers as part of the process. Underground aquifers of
course feed our river systems and the gross depletion envisaged will have drastic impacts on our water supplies.

In the worst cases, the approval given for CSG bores in Sydney’s drinking water catchment’s Special Areas is, in our view, totally irresponsible, as is the ongoing depletion of the already depleted Great Artesian Basin.

Leakage of saline and naturally BTEX contaminated dewatering waste is contaminating groundwater and river systems, as is the breaching of aquifers, even before inevitable
recourse to fraccing chemicals to extend the lifetime of a gasfield as gas yields decline.

In view of the increasing threat to NSW’s water resources, we were encouraged by the present government’s pre-election promises to protect valuable water assets from mining and CSG extraction. However the draft Aquifer Interference Policy fails to honour this promise.

The threat to water resources is not resolved in this draft, in spite of the fact that more research and hurdles such as “minimum harm requirements” make approvals more complex. More hoops to jump through, at the end of which the policy – to our great disappointment – allows business as usual to prevail.

It does not in the end offer protection to our priceless rivers and water sources, and their
dependent ecosystems. It will allow drastic interference with groundwater systems.

We urge you to revise this draft in order to protect 3^rd order and above rivers, to keep mining and CSG extraction outside drinking water catchment areas, and to keep mining and CSG extraction at a safe distance from major lakes and storage dams.

Following are some comments on certain items in the draft:

S2.5:  We strongly oppose the suggestion that State Significant mining and CSG developments will be exempt from the need to hold an AIA (aquifer interference approval). These are generally the largest and most damaging developments. It is correct to leave such decisions to the Planning Assessment Commission but hardly reassuring when from past experience we have found that PAC panels of experts have been weighted with people who regularly work as consultants to the mining industry, despite the availability of well-qualified people without conflicts of interest.

We trust that this situation will be rectified. But we remain opposed to exemptions of any kind. There certainly must be no exemptions and no approvals for interference under
Biophysical Strategic Agricultural Land in particular.

S1.2, S3.2:  Fraccing chemicals must be banned altogether. Bland assurances by exploration companies that no fraccing will be used are meaningless. Once the lease is sold to a production company, infrastructure is in place and the yield eventually begins to decline the company will have increased leverage on the Government for planning concessions. Surely there is sufficient evidence about the contamination of rivers and drinking water in the USA to prevent their use in NSW.

S2.4:  The policy on post-closure of mines takes into account that there will be a continued take of water after closure until an aquifer system reaches equlibrium. It is acknowledged that this may take “months to centuries” after cessation, and therefore the proponent must retain a water licence for the whole period or surrender the licence to the Minister. This policy is impractical if the process takes many decades and therefore we would recommend that a substantial bond is asked for upon closure. We are extremely concerned over the issue of acid mine drainage from abandoned mines. Companies must pay substantial bonds in advance, as remediation is very expensive if indeed possible.

S3.0:  We approve of the advertising of all AI applications and hope that this will be extensive. We also approve of the proposition that advice from the NSW Office of Water will be publicly available.

S3.1, S3.3.4:  We are not convinced that any forms of remediation are successful. Given our current state of knowledge, it is ludicrous to utilise the “remediation” mantra uncritically. Underground aquifers breached by CSG bores cannot be re-sealed. Connectivity of aquifers breached by CSG bores cannot be reversed. Contamination of groundwater by naturally occurring coalseam contaminants  or fraccing fluids cannot be reversed. Grouting of cracks in damaged river beds is at best a short term band-aid solution. Attempts to rehabilitate open cut mines with new vegetation fail to regenerate either agricultural land or biodiverse environments due to disturbance of the top soil. The NSW Office of Water slogan of “account for, avoid, prevent and remediate” is a recipe for
and acknowledgement of failure, to which we should add “abandon”, as eg for the Canyon Colliery in the Grose Valley.

S3.3.1:  Exemptions of one sort or another will be countenanced for all water zones. Even in the Highly Productive Groundwater Zone within the Water Protection Zone, not to mention the Limited Intrusion Zone, CSG extraction may be approved. The use of language is Orwellian at this point: where is the “protection?”

S3.3.2:  Concerning the list of the Minimal Harm Criteria, we note that most of these destructive impacts are already known to be caused by CSG and mining processes, so the process of re-inventing the wheel should be sidestepped. Impacts may vary somewhat from one site to another but they are predictable in essence if not always in scale. But even so, the predictions of impacts need careful site-specific research and we note that there is no army of qualified personnel equipped to undertake adequate research in this or other related fields.

S3.3.3:  We very much endorse  the commitment not to approve CSG bores if they will “modify the existing hydraulic connection between aquifers” and “cause more than minimal harm to the aquifer.” We think this would apply to the majority of CSG bores, and therefore we need to know who will be carrying out the research enabling such decisions. We do not have confidence in research carried out by consultants employed by CSG or mining companies.

In the above comments on your draft we are engaging in a less than satisfactory exercise,
because, as stated at the outset, we find the failure to offer proper protection to vital water resources a travesty, and a policy disaster for which future generations will pay dearly.

Rivers SOS member Denis Wilson took some photos, which can be seen here and here.

There was a lot of media coverage, a sample of which is below:

Sydney Morning Herald
ABC Radio’s PM
The Australian

Rivers SOS groups are concerned over the expansion of coal mining and CSG extraction, to the detriment of river systems, aquifers and prime agricultural land. We were happy to have this dialogue with senior politicians and decision-makers.

Groups represented were from the Hunter, Merriwa, Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands, Gloucester, Wedderburn, Georges River, Sutherland, Illawarra, Oakdale, Putty Valley, Stanwell Park, Sydney, Douglas Park, Helensburgh, Picton, Razorback,Thirlmere, Campbelltown, Robertson, Penrith and Wollondilly. Drew Hutton, Lock the Gate leader, and Keith Muir of the Colong Foundation were among prominent speakers.

Speaking on a panel of MPs from the three major parties were Chris Hartcher (Lib), NSW Minister for Resources and Energy; Luke Foley (ALP), Shadow Minister for Environment, Energy and Water; and Jeremy Buckingham (MLC), mining spokesman for the NSW Greens.

Other MPs in attendance were Chris Patterson, Liberal MLA for Camden; Russell Matheson, Federal Liberal member for Macarthur; Andrew McDonald, ALP Shadow Minister for Health, Labor MLA for Macquarie Fields, and Jai Rowell, Liberal MLA for Wollondilly. ALP guru and elder statesman Rodney Cavalier was also present.

Minister Hartcher outlined reforms made by his government to the mining approvals process, and was congratulated for removing the requirement for mining companies to buy exploration licences for fees running into hundreds of millions. However the government’s Strategic Regional Land Use and Aquifer Interference draft policies were criticised for failure to give promised protection to vital agricultural land and water resources. The government was also criticised for failure to give adequate support to alternative energy sources.

Luke Foley admitted that the ALP need to revise the lack of balance in the pro-mining policies it held while in government. Jeremy Buckingham outlined Greens policies, insisting on proper research being carried out before approvals are granted. The Greens had proposed a moratorium on expansion until this is done, a motion which was defeated in parliament.

After lunch, a panel of speakers concerned with coal mining and CSG extraction in Sydney’s drinking water catchment Special Areas included Cr. Larry Whipper, Deputy Mayor of Wingecarribee Council and member of the Sydney Catchment Authority Board; Dr Ann Young, expert on the upland swamps of the Woronora Plateau; and Dr Peter Turner, founder of the Save Our Water Catchment Areas campaign.

Group representatives signed a letter to Minister Katrina Hodgkinson, cc to the Premier and Minister Robyn Parker, protesting at the removal of environmental and community positions from the boards of the EPA and the SCA, and asking for a meeting with a Rivers SOS delegation about this and other matters.

Channel 2′s camera crew and local media were present, and a long segment on the event was included on the ABC’s national news that evening.

On Sunday morning a large group was shown over the Thirlmere Lakes, suspected to have been badly depleted through longwall mining nearby.

Rivers SOS will hold our 13th regional meeting in August, venue to be decided.

PHOTOS:

Speakers lineup: Chair, Julie Sheppard -Secretary Rivers SOS; Luke Foley, Chris Hartcher and Jeremy Buckingham (seated on far right: Larry Whipper , Deputy Mayor of Wingecarribee Council and member of SCA Board ,and Peter Martin of the Southern Highlands Coal Action Group)

Lunch break: Drew Hutton, spokesman for Lock the Gate Alliance, with Denis Wilson of Australian Water Campaigners. Dr Peter Turner of Save our Water Catchment Areas in background.

The transcript and video can be viewed here.

SOUTHERN Highlands representatives at the NSW Upper House Inquiry into coal seam gas (CSG) mining in Mittagong on Friday were overshadowed by a powerful statement from Rivers SOS.

Wingecarribee Council’s Larry Whipper and Scott Lee addressed the committee as did Peter Martin and Alan Lindsay from Southern Highlands Coal Action Group.

However, the witness who made the biggest impact at the hearing was Caroline Graham from Rivers SOS who received a rousing applause from the gallery.

Ms Graham spoke about the “white elephant” in the room being the “undue influence” that mining companies had over Australia’s political process.

She alluded to a recent statement by the former chief of the Environmental Protection Authority, Barry Carbon, who called Western Australia’s development approval system “corrupt”.

Mr Carbon told the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand that mining companies and other proponents were forced to make contributions, sometimes millions of dollars, to government agencies before approvals were even considered.

He said detailed environmental assessment reports, paid for by proponents, were not being read by bureaucrats because they were “too long” and that these problems “existed at commonwealth and state levels across most of the country”.

Ms Graham said there was a general “air of corruption” and “undue influence” happening in our consultancy processes.

“Consultants are writing favourable reports or removing items that the mining companies don’t like in order to submit them to the government,” she said.

“Rivers SOS is also concerned about the Planning Assessment Commission because it has been weighted by the panel of experts appointed to the Commission often, people who work as consultants to the mining industry.

“We need independent scientists to go on these panels, not people who get regular work with the mining companies.”

She said the group was not happy with the draft Aquifer interference policy which, she said, was leaving out things out such as pollution of water by CSG and high water usage.

Independent MP Tony Windsor is threatening to derail the Government’s mining tax unless it clamps down on coal seam gas exploration and provides millions of dollars for research into the environmental effects of coal seam gas drilling.

The Government needs the support of Mr Windsor and fellow independent Rob Oakeshott, who is also said to be wavering on the tax, to secure the numbers to get the measure through Parliament.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard says while she will discuss Mr Windsor’s concerns with him, coal seam gas is “predominantly a state government matter”.

Mr Windsor says he has “had enough” of the tactics of coal seam gas companies which are exploring large areas of prime arable land in Queensland and New South Wales.

He says he does not trust assurances by the companies that mining will not affect the water table or destroy arable land.

Mr Windsor told AM the issue had been brought to a head by the activity of mining giant Santos on the Liverpool plains in northern NSW.

He said Santos part funded the environmental study that gave it the all-clear to drill.

“I’ve made it clear to the Government that this sort of nonsense from some of these companies has gone on long enough,” Mr Windsor said.

He said he wanted up to $400 million to be allocated each year from the mining tax revenue to fund bio-regional assessments to scientifically assess the impact of mining on aquifers, flood plains, native vegetation, farmland and native species.

“It would look at all the spatial landscape issues from landform, soil productivity, vegetation management, threatened species, other environmental issues, including groundwater, and surface water, and how the cumulative effects of some of these industries would impact downstream on others who are nowhere near the mining or gas activity.”

He is also demanding the Commonwealth legislate powers to give itself final approval of mining projects, effectively overriding the states.

Greens MP Adam Bandt says Mr Windsor has his party’s support and the Greens have a bill in the Senate designed to tighten environmental controls.

And he says while the Greens will try to amend the mining tax bill to include gold miners, they will support the tax even if the amendments are defeated.

“We are not in the business of blocking this mining tax but we do respect the right of others to bring to the table issues they want considered,” Mr Bandt told reporters.

It seems unlikely Mr Windsor’s demands will find support from the Government.

Ms Gillard says she is aware of the controversial coal seam gas projects mooted for Mr Windsor’s New England electorate, but says land use is not a Commonwealth matter.

“Predominantly this is a state government matter, to manage land use and resources, but of course we will discuss Tony Windsor’s concerns with him,” Ms Gillard told ABC local radio.

Mr Windsor is concerned about a dispute on a property near Spring Ridge, in northern NSW, where farmers are trying to stop Santos sinking exploratory boreholes.

A previous dispute lasted six months and Mr Windsor said people should not have to go through it again.

The Chinese province of Shaanxi has striking similarites to NSW: coal mining is important and expanding, but in the process adding to the pollution of river systems and the destruction of groundwater sources. Water shortages loom large – groundwater is being extracted at an unsustainable rate and water treatment plants are unable to treat all contaminants successfully.

Shaanxi delegation and Mayor

They arrived on their bus yesterday, with their interpreter. We held the meeting in Wollondilly Council Chambers at Picton, thanks to the help of  Council’s Environment Officer Brad Staggs. We briefed them on the work of Rivers SOS and our campaign for a 1km safety zone around river systems to protect them from mine damage. We showed them photos of dried up swamps, polluted rivers and creeks, and dry dams round NSW.

The Mayor and General Manager of Council exchanged presents with the delegation and they were then taken to view the tragedy of nearby Thirlmere Lakes, and told of the newly released Pells report which implicated mining in the loss of water. They lunched at Tahmoor Inn before going to Warragamba for a tour with the Sydney Catchment Authority.

It seems extraordinary that they sought out a meeting with a non-government activist group like Rivers SOS. Of course they won’t have the freedom to protest as we do, but perhaps this is changing, and we will be remaining in contact.

This suggests that other factors, such as the longwall mining under the Lakes, have contributed to loss of water.

Click here to read the full press release.