Water courses within the drinking water catchment have run dry after recent longwall mining underneath them, environmentalists say after a recent visit to Illawarra Coal’s Dendrobium mining lease.
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Photographs and video taken during the visit illustrate how some impacts on the catchment have been worse than predicted by the mine’s scientists.
The video, taken by anti-coal group Lock The Gate, shows substantial cracks down the bedrock of the creek named WC21.
Hydrogeologist Dr Ann Young said the footage showed areas that were wet watercourses when she last visited in mid-2015 were now completely dry.
She said this was clearly the impact of Area 3B longwall mining.
“In the areas that have not been mined, WC21 is flowing,” she said. “As soon as you get to the area that’s been mined, the flow has stopped.”
Lock the Gate campaigner Nic Clyde said it was not appropriate that this level of damage to the catchment should be allowed by planning authorities.
“The most shocking sights were the orange iron oxide pollution and the cracked creeks that have run completely dry,” he said. “Our drinking water catchment is being damaged and polluted by these longwall mines and it doesn’t seem like the NSW Government is willing to take action to stop it.”
A spokeswoman for South32 said the company was “constantly looking at ways to reduce the impact of our mining operations”.
“We have extensive monitoring and reporting processes in place to ensure we operate within our approval conditions,” she said.
“A government initiated report released last year concluded that the scale and significance of most impacts fall within predictions included in our approved Area 3B subsidence management plan.”
The company did not address questions on whether these recent impacts on the swamp and creek were within the acceptable impacts.
In fact, the report, filed in December last year, specifically found the impact on WC21 was worse than the company predicted.
“The extent of the subsidence impacts at WC21 has exceeded the predictions of Illawarra Coal and its specialist advisers,” the Planning Department report said.
South32 (Illawarra Coal) is seeking permission to expand Dendrobium and wants to add four more longwall panels.
WaterNSW, the body that manages drinking water dams, has objected to the expansion plan, stating: “the risks of the proposal to the Sydney water supply and the Sydney catchment area are unacceptable, and that the uncertainties associated with the risks are unacceptably high.”