More river damage caused by DPI

Thursday, 08 March 2007 00:35

"The DPI is on record as having been told as part of the approval process that mining should not come within 350m of the Cataract River. Yet they ignored this advice and approved mining to come within 80m.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Minister Ian Macdonald and his department cannot be trusted to approve longwall mining", said TEC Natural Areas Campaigner David Burgess.

"The only way to stop the destruction of rivers by longwall mining is to enact legislation enforcing clear protection zones and to strip the DPI of its powers as the sole approving body. There is a massive conflict of interest when the collector of mining royalties for the NSW Government approves mining that continually damages our water resources".

Numerous rivers and creeks in Sydney's drinking catchment, the Hunter Valley and rare swamps in the Blue Mountains continue to be damaged by longwall mining, despite it being listed as a key threatening process in 2005. The NSW Government attempted to address the problem by introducing the new approvals regime but the latest damage proves that the new policy has failed.

The NSW Government responded to further incidents of damage by announcing a southern coalfields inquiry late last year. The NSW Liberals yesterday issued calls for the inquiry to be made more independent.

"The call by the Shadow Environment Minister for greater independence is welcome but an inquiry isn't going to prevent the ongoing damage. There should also be a moratorium on new longwalls.  Rivers and other water resources are being damaged with every new approval and these approvals are being made in the full knowledge of what will occur", Mr Burgess continued.

"Comments made by Frank Sartor today are also intemperate and unhelpful. This isn't just 'one crack' and members of the community concerned about repeated damage to water catchments are not 'headless chooks'. There are thousands of Longwall induced cracks, pollution and damage taking place to ecosystems across the catchments. He should get his facts right.”