The New South Wales government has approved the extension of coalmining under one of Greater Sydney’s reservoirs in a move that environment groups say could affect the quality of water in the drinking catchment. The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment has granted approval to Peabody Energy for three new longwalls that will extract coal as part of its Metropolitan mine.
Environment groups, including the National Parks Association of NSW and Greenpeace, are angry the decision was made before a petition with more than 10,000 signatures could be debated in the NSW parliament. Parliament has been suspended due to the Covid-19 crisis. Jonathan Moylan, the spokesman for Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said decision was “highly contentious” and “has snuck through amid the Covid-19 health crisis”. Stuart Khan, a professor in the school of civil and environmental engineering at University of NSW, said subsidence as a result of mining caused issues with water quality that resulted in water having to be treated.
A NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment spokeswoman said the Metropolitan mine was “carefully designed to limit subsidence and surface impacts, including the depth of mining, the narrow width of the longwall panels and larger pillars between longwalls”. She said the extension had been reviewed by independent experts and key regulatory agencies, including the independent expert panel for mining in the catchment within the office of the NSW chief scientist and engineer, the dams safety committee, WaterNSW and the Woronora reservoir impact strategy panel.
Source: Guardian
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