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The Wallarah 2 Coal Project will be directly beneath a major flood
plain - Dooralong and Yarramalong Valleys. This area is the major
water flow-through of the underground aquifers, which supply 68% of
the water to Wyong Creek/River and Jilliby Jilliby Creek.
Jilliby Jilliby Creek will be situated directly above the proposed
coal mine (vertical subsidence zone) and Wyong Creek will run
parallel to it. The Wyong River and Creek, Wyong catchment weir, the
‘pump pool’ for Mardi Dam, and the proposed Porter's Creek weir, are
all located within the horizontal subsidence zone of the proposed
coal mine project. This horizontal subsidence zone also encroaches
on the northern boundary of Mardi Dam and a portion of the dam
itself, which was proclaimed water catchment in 1987.
The mining company cannot predict when, where or the extent of
damage caused from
horizontal subsidence. It can extend for up to
three (3) kilometres. The Wallarah 2 coal project puts at risk the
major water facilities of the Central Coast.
At
the June 2006 Wallarah 2 Coal Project community liaison meeting, Mr
Graham Cowan, a senior engineer with the Department of Primary
Industries, said this about subsidence predications and subsequent
damage: “Until it (the longwall coal mine) is mined you won’t
know, things will change and they will be dealt with.”
Longwall coal mining not only poses a threat to the water supply,
both surface and subsurface, it also poses a threat to the habitat
of the various endangered and threatened species of flora and fauna.
There are nineteen (19) international waders, recorded under the
Australian Government agreements with China and Japan, whose fragile
habitat is entirely dependent upon the health of the water catchment
river systems, and thirty-three (33) endangered or threatened
species of flora and fauna within the catchment valleys.
In
2004 a report by River Care, in association with Hunter-Central
Rivers Catchment Management Authority, National Heritage Trust and
the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources,
declared the Jilliby Jilliby Creek water system as one of the most pristine in New South
Wales. This report also condemns the damage that will be caused by
the impact of longwall coal mining.
Longwall coal mining has an appalling record of environmental
destruction, and history clearly shows that remedial measures in
respect of lost and damaged water systems have been unsuccessful. |
