Miners and government in longwall denial

Thursday, 08 February 2007 03:35

“The industry and the mines department are engaged in greenwash. Their response to our recent report is selective and displays a lack of understanding of the approvals process. The evidence is clear - longwall mining is having a disastrous impact upon rivers and creeks, including many in Sydney's water supply catchment and the mines agency is the approval body for subsidence,” said TEC natural areas Campaigner David Burgess.

"Despite the damage to numerous rivers since the mid 1990s and calls for protection by government agencies and community groups the DPI still rejects the idea of a formally enforced buffer zone to protect water resources.”

"The department is operating as a law unto itself and has an inherent conflict of interest as the sole regulator of subsidence management. An example can be found last year with the approval granted to BHP Billiton's Appin 3 mine. Independent consultants employed by the Sydney Catchment Authority were employed to determine a suitable buffer to protect the Cataract River from mining, yet the 350m buffer recommended was ignored by the DPI and mining was allowed to come within 80m of the river.”

"All too regularly we are seeing a riverbed cracked and drained and Minister Macdonald and his department saying that the water is 'coming back downstream' or that the river will be 'fixed'. It’s greenwash - you cannot repair a damaged riverbed", Mr Burgess continued.

"BHP Billiton likes to use Marhynes Hole as the flagship of their remediation projects. The truth is that there is no long term evidence the area has been fixed and the damage to our rivers is not remediated. Agencies including the Sydney Catchment Authority have stated that they have little confidence in remediation methods. The Cataract River's flow never returned to normal since remediation was carried out and you wont hear BHP mentioning that as an example of their good work. Indeed, BHP's own studies have concluded that it is not always possible to determine where damage has even occurred", Mr Burgess concluded