A coal mine surrounded by residential areas and sensitive water catchment needs the highest level of environmental scrutiny and monitoring, residents told the Planning Assessment Commission in Corrimal on Thursday.
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But the Russell Vale colliery has enjoyed neither excellent performance nor monitoring, residents said.
Mine neighbour Kaye Osborne showed the PAC members a jar of water which she said was collected after heavy rain a fortnight ago.
She said the overflow creek, on Hicks St, was flowing dark with coal runoff from the coal ‘‘emplacement’’ area above.
Almost 40 speakers addressed a PAC public hearing at Corrimal Library into Wollongong Coal’s application to modify its approvals so 400m of longwall 6 can be mined.
Most spoke against the proposal.
Retired geomorphologist Dr Ann Young said the subsidence caused to water catchment creeks above the mine area could cause the land to drop 3m, cracking creek beds.
‘‘Most of the flow that falls down these cracks fails to emerge and therefore catchment yields decline,’’ Dr Young said.
Ms Osborne said the mine did not have ‘‘best practice’’ history in its environmental performance.
She showed consultants’ reports from 2012 estimating fine particulate emissions, which found the Russell Vale colliery emitted 779 tonnes of particulate matter each year - compared with 80 tonnes per year at the larger Dendrobium mine operated by Illawarra Coal.
The hearing was also told that redirecting Bellambi Creek through the mine site, a condition of earlier approvals, still had not been done.
Bellambi Lane resident Desmond Jacobs said his family struggled with the noise from coal trucks and feared an expansion.
‘‘Conversation is impossible in my house sometimes with the trucks lining up waiting for the green light,’’ he said.
Fourth-generation coal miner and company employee Jeff Brown asked the PAC to approve the plan so his children and grandchildren could also work in the mines.
Wollongong Coal chief operating officer David Stone was listed to be the first speaker but he pulled out.
The company instead issued a statement in the afternoon.
‘‘Compliance is a key priority for Wollongong Coal and we are committed to working closely with all of the relevant regulators to ensure we avoid or minimise our impacts on the community and the environment,’’ Mr Stone said.
‘‘We take the concerns of our fellow community members extremely seriously and the new management team can clearly demonstrate delivery on this commitment.’’
It emerged on Thursday that Wollongong Coal has engaged lobbying and public relations firm Statecraft to help ease its way through the regulatory approvals process.
Statecraft, which also counts the Southern Highlands-based explorer Hume Coal among its clients, enjoys strong links with the National Party through its consultants’ previous positions.
Expanding longwall 6 is a stop-gap measure which the company says it needs in order to remain viable.
A more extensive application for expanding the mine is going through planning processes.
It has been delayed amid criticism from government agencies about the quality of information provided in environmental assessments.