Wollongong City Council has not properly enforced approval conditions of the mining development at Russell Vale, a residents group has said.
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The accusation centres on a 2.2 million tonne waste dump or “emplacement area” within the mining area, which has been allowed to expand over many years.
The emplacement area, which is on council-owned land, is used for the storage of reject material from Wollongong Coal’s mine.
But council approval conditions such as a security bond, drainage plan and water quality testing had simply not been implemented.
Illawarra Residents for Responsible Mining (IRRM) member Dr Alison Edwards told an extraordinary meeting of Wollongong City Council on Monday night, telling councillors WCC needed to lift its game as landowner and enforcement body, as there were safety concerns about the site.
She said there was about 200,000 tonnes of oversize coal there, on top of 2 million tonnes of spoil (refuse from excavation). Dr Edwards said leaving the flammable coal in bushland was hazardous.
Despite owning the land and granting the development consent for the reject emplacement area in 1990, council had to perform a several-month audit of the site to work out what was being done properly, and what was not. It found at least 18 of 54 conditions were non-compliant – but IRRM argues it is actually many more.
Deadlines were set for action by the mine operator, but these deadlines have now been pushed out to January 2016.
Mr Farmer said the non-compliances included: payment of a security bond for the site, provision of a final landform/rehabilitation plan, provision of stormwater plans and a spillway design, current compaction testing, establishment of a permanent water supply, and water quality testing.
“Over the past twelve months we have been working with Wollongong Coal to deal with a number of issues,” Mr Farmer said. “Our first concern is to address safety concerns raised by the community and to that end we have already taken a number of actions working with the current owner.”
A spokesman for the miner said it was “currently undertaking works” to meet the council’s conditions.
“Wollongong Coal will continue to work with Wollongong City Council to ensure the relevant operating conditions are met appropriately,” he said.