A multinational mining giant’s recently announced plans to explore for coal under more areas of the Sydney and Illawarra drinking water catchment highlight how a broken planning regime is failing local communities and the environment.
American-based Peabody revealed the plans in an advertisement in the Illawarra Mercury earlier this week, with the company seeking to explore for coal in a 4.6 square kilometre area west of the Royal National Park.
The application is part of the company’s attempts to expand its Metropolitan coal mine at Helensburgh.
Earlier this year, Peabody was ordered to pay $500,000 after being found guilty of two separate pollution events in 2022 that allowed coal sludge to flow into Camp Gully Creek and the Hacking River in the Royal National Park, turning the water black.
Sutherland Shire Environment Centre Chair Ian Hill said, “We are alarmed that the NSW Government is considering allowing Peabody to continue expanding mining into new areas.
“The immediate concern over the granting of exploration licence is this begins the continued westward expansion of longwall mining in the Woronora drinking catchment.
“From a historical perspective, should the exploration lead to a licence being granted, it would then be the first in-principal new approval since Labor first allowed the mine to go ahead in the catchment in 2009.
“We are concerned about the impacts on the water table and any rivers and creeks. Mining for coal in this area is mobilising toxic chemicals in the substrate. These pollutants would not be mobilised if there was no mining underground.
“Peabody is ravaging the landscape the further west they go. Mining here has the potential to ruin the surface water and risks causing the collapse of land above.”
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Nic Clyde said, “Sydney is the only major city in the world that allows the mining of coal beneath its drinking water catchment. It’s a national shame.
“Our drinking water catchments are meant to be protected. In this case, the Woronora Special Area supplies the Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south, and northern suburbs of Wollongong, with high-quality drinking water.
“The Minns Government promised it would overhaul the previous government’s pro-coal planning policies yet here we are more than two years after the election and big multinational companies are trying to mine beneath new areas of the drinking water catchment.
“The Minns Government should be doing all it can to protect our precious water. It should not be considering sacrificing it to polluting coal companies.”
ENDS