Cracking Sparks New Fears
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday February 2, 2008
HUGE cracks have been discovered in the water catchment area behind Mt Kembla, the first evidence of impacts from longwall mining on the southern front of the region's coalfields.
The Mercury was given exclusive access to the Sydney Catchment Authority land to see first-hand the deep chasms that have opened up in the forest floor, alarming environmentalists and the authority.The forest cracks are above BHP Billiton's Dendrobium mine, where longwall mining has been underway for just over a year. BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal is waiting for State Government approval to expand its mining north-west of the existing area.The catchment authority has major concerns about the impact of longwall mining on water supply and has told a public inquiry into the NSW Southern Coalfield more research needs to be done (see separate story). The Total Environment Centre claims mining-induced subsidence could be catastrophic for the landscape, ecosystems and the water supply.The chasms are wide enough for wombats and wallabies to fall down, but too deep for animals to climb back out of.There are also concerns for thousands of indigenous rock carving sites within the closed water catchment area above the mines.Illawarra Coal said in a brief statement that "claims that expansion of its Dendrobium mine on Mt Kembla spelt further disaster for the environment were misleading".Environment centre representative Dave Burgess discovered the cracks last month when he and a group of environmentalists were escorted to the area by the authority."The mines are using Sydney and the Illawarra's catchment as a giant subsidence experiment," the Austinmer resident said.The authority is limited in the public comment it can make but urged caution in its submission to the coalfields inquiry.The NSW Government set up the independent inquiry last year to review the impacts of underground mining on rivers, streams, swamps and cliff lines and to report on the social and economic significance of the coalfield resources. Its findings are expected in the next month or so.Environmental impacts of the region's coalmining has been contentious for more than a decade but most focus on the northern fringe. The SOS Rivers community group revealed this week that sections of the Nepean River are simmering with methane gas from underground mines.BHP Billiton is one of five companies that have mining leases in the Southern Coalfield.Peabody Pacific has the lease for Metropolitan at Helensburgh, India NRE operates its No 1 Colliery (the old South Bulli) and Elouera, Xstrata operates the Tahmoor mine at Bargo and Centennial Coal runs Berrima in the Southern Highlands.BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal is responsible for Appin, Appin West (including Douglas and Tower), West Cliff and Dendrobium.As part of Illawarra Coal's Dendrobium lease, it has approved mining rights under land between the Avon and Cordeaux dams.However, NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor is assessing the company's proposal to extend mining in area three.BHP Billiton said proposed changes in its application to the NSW Planning Department "were aimed at minimising the impacts to the surface environment while maximising the volume of coal produced". Repeated requests for more information about the subsidence-induced cracks were refused.Mr Burgess said the latest mining proposal had been pulled back to about 80m from the rivers, but now the swamps would be undermined.
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury