Longwall Mining is permanently destroying to rivers of the Illawarra.

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Waratah Rivulet is a stream that is located just to the west of Helensburgh (55km south of Sydney) and flows into the Woronora Dam.  Along with its tributaries, it makes up about 29% of the Dam catchment.

The Dam provides both the Sutherland Shire and Helensburgh with drinking water. The Rivulet is within the Sydney Catchment Authority managed Woronora Special Area.

There is no public access without the permission of the SCA. Trespassers are liable to an $11,000 fine.  Yet mining companies are authorised to destroy complete river systems.

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Longwall Mining under Waratah Rivulet

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<<Metropolitan Colliery operates under the Woronora Special Area. Excel Coal operated it until October 2006 when Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal mining corporation, purchased it. The method of coal extraction is longwall mining.

Recent underground operations have taken place and still are taking place directly below the Waratah Rivulet and its catchment area.

In 2005 the NSW Scientific Committee declared longwall mining to be a key threatening process. The Waratah Rivulet was listed in the declaration along with several other rivers and creeks as being damaged by mining. No threat abatement plan was ever completed.

In September 2006, conservation groups were informed that serious damage to the Waratah Rivulet had taken place. Photographs were provided and an inspection was organised through the SCA to take place on the 24th of November.

On November 23rd, the Total Environment Centre met with Peabody Energy at the mining company’s request. They had heard of our forthcoming inspection and wanted to tell us about their operation and future mining plans. Through a PowerPoint presentation they told us we would be shocked by what we would see and that water had drained from the Rivulet but was reappearing further downstream closer to the dam.

The inspection took place on the 24th of November and was attended by officers from the SCA and DEC, the Total Environment Centre, Colong Foundation, Rivers SOS and two independent experts on upland swamps and sandstone geology.

We walked the length of the Rivulet that flows over the longwall panels. Although, similar waterways in the area are flowing healthily, the riverbed was completely dry for much of its length. The cracking of the sandstone streambed caused is typical of that caused by longwall mining in the Southern Coalfield. The SCA officers indicated that at one series of pools, water levels had dropped about 3m. We were also told there is anecdotal evidence suggesting the Rivulet has ceased to pass over places never previously known to have stopped flowing.

The whole watercourse, where the coal has been extracted by the longwall machine, has tilted to the east as a result of the subsidence and upsidence. Rock ledges that were once flat now sloped. Iron oxide pollution stains in the streambed were also present. The SCA also told us that they did not know whether water flows were returning further downstream. There was also evidence of failed attempts at remediation with a distinctly different coloured sand having washed out of cracks and now sitting on the dry river bed or in pools.

Also undermined was Flat Rock Swamp at the southernmost extremity of the longwall panels. It is believed to be the main source of water recharge for the Waratah Rivulet. It is highly likely that the swamp has also been damaged and is sitting on a tilt.

The longwall panels that have damaged the river are LW 8-13. These pre-dated the new approvals process that came into force in 2004. A Subsidence Management Plan for LW 14-17 was recently approved by the DPI and LW 14 is currently being mined. The SMP states that land above LW 8-13 had subsided about 1.3m on average and that there has been no significant impact upon net flow or water quality.

The Total Environment Centre has applied under FOI legislation to the SCA for documents that refer to the damage to the Waratah Rivulet.

During the meeting with Peabody on 23rd November, the company stated its intentions sometime in 2007 to submit a 3A application under the Environmental Planning &Assessment Act 1974 to extract a further 27 longwall panels that will run under the Rivulet and finish under the Woronora Dam storage area.

This is very alarming given the damage that has already occurred to a catchment that provides the Sutherland Shire & Helensburgh with 29% of their drinking water. The dry bed of Waratah Rivulet above the mining area and the stain of iron oxide pollution may be seen clearly through Google Earth.>>

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Damaged: Cracked rocks along the Waratah Rivulet

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Longwall Mining under or close to Rivers and Streams

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<<Seven major rivers and numerous creeks in NSW have been permanently damaged by mining operations, which have been allowed to go too close to, or under, riverbeds. Some rivers are used as channels for saline and acid wastewater pumped out from mines.

Many more are under threat. The Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, is continuing to approve operations with the Department of Planning and DEC also involved in the process, as are a range of agencies (EPA, Fisheries, DIPNR, SCA, etc.) on an Interagency Review Committee. This group gives recommendations concerning underground mine plans to Ian Macdonald, but has no further say in his final decision. A document recently obtained under Freedom of Information rights by Rivers SOS shows that an independent consultant to the Interagency Committee recommended that mining come no closer than 350m to the Cataract River, yet the Minister approved mining to come within 60m.

The damage involves multiple cracking of river bedrock, ranging from hairline cracks to cracks up to several centimetres wide, causing water loss and pollution as ecotoxic chemicals are leached from the fractured rocks. Aquifers may often be breached. Satisfactory remediation is not possible. In addition, rockfalls along mined river gorges are frequent.

The high price of coal and the royalties gained from expanding mines are making it all too tempting for the Iemma (Labor NSW) Government to compromise the integrity of our water catchments and sacrifice natural heritage.>>

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Longwall Mining in the Catchments

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<<Longwall coal mining is taking place across the catchment areas south of Sydney and is also proposed in the Wyong Catchment.

A story in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2005 stated that the Sydney Catchment Authority was developing a policy for longwall coal mining within the catchments that would be ready by the middle of that year. This policy is yet to materialise.

The SMP approvals process invariably promises remediation and further monitoring. But damage to rivers continues and applications to mine are approved with little or no significant conditions placed upon the licence. Remediation involves grouting some cracks but cannot cover all of the cracks, many of which go undetected, in areas where the riverbed is sandy for example. Sometimes the grout simply washes out of the crack, as is the case in the Waratah Rivulet.

The SCA was established as a result of the 1998 Sydney water crisis. Justice Peter McClellan, who led the subsequent inquiry, determined that a separate catchment management authority with teeth should be created because, as he said “someone should wake up in the morning owning the issue” of adequate management.

An audit of the SCA and the catchments in 1999 found multiple problems including understaffing, the need to interact with so many State agencies, and enormous pressure from developers.

Developers in the catchments include mining companies. In spite of government policies such as SEPP 58, stating that development in catchments should have only a “neutral or beneficial effect” on water quality, longwall coal mining in the catchments have been, and are being, approved by the NSW government. Overidden by the Mining Act 1992, the SCA appears powerless to halt the damage to Sydney’s water supply.>>

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Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal

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<<Waratah Coal is an exploration and coal mine development company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mineralogy Pty Ltd.

Formed in 2005 and based in Brisbane, Waratah Coal is focused on the exploration and development of coal projects in Australasia. Along with another Mineralogy subsidiary, Galilee Pty Ltd, Waratah Coal proposes an $8 billion coal mine and infrastructure project in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland.

The Galilee Coal Project includes a large scale thermal coal mine near Alpha, west of Emerald. The complex will include four underground mines, two surface mines and associated coal handling and processing facilities. The mine will be linked to a new coal terminal at Abbot Point near Bowen by a new 471km standard gauge, heavy haul railway line.

The Galilee Project and Waratah’s Galilee Power project have both been granted ‘significant project’ status by the Coordinator-General of Queensland in November, 2008, and September, 2009, respectively.

After being listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and later the Australian Stock Exchange, Waratah Coal in December, 2008, accepted an offer from Mineralogy Pty Ltd for a controlling stake in the company.

Waratah Coal became part of the Mineralogy Group and the company is 100 per cent owned by Mineralogy Pty Ltd. The Mineralogy Group and associated entities have 25 years’ experience developing, managing, and funding a range of major projects. Mineralogy Group has a current market capitalisation of approximately $11 billion.

The Group currently employs around 2,200 Queenslanders in its activities in the state. Through its diversified interests (which includes the $6 billion Yabulu Nickel refinery in Townsville, oil and gas exploration in Papua New Guinea and the $5 billion Sino Iron magnetite iron ore development in Western Australia) the Group has formed major international alliances in China and domestically.>>

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[Source:  Waratah Coal, ^http://www.waratahcoal.com/corporate-profile.htm]

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Mining Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

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<<Waratah Coal believes that outstanding staff are a vital key to its success as an organisation and is committed to providing a rewarding and challenging environment for its staff.

Current Roles available at Waratah Coal:  “There are currently no positions available.”>>

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The Jamison Valley Landslide

Blue Mountains Mining Legacy of Katoomba Colliery

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Further Reading

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[1]    2010:  BHP Billiton threatens Dharawal Swamps and Rock Art

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Possibly the cleanest water in New South Wales

Cobong Swim Hole in O’Hares Creek in the Dharawal State Conservation Area

Photo by Kate Geraghty

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<<A vast new coalmine planned for Sydney’s south-western outskirts will damage the city’s natural desalination plant – the ”hanging swamps” that filter pure water down into the Georges River.

More than 50 swamps in the little-known Dharawal State Conservation Area, south-east of Campbelltown, will be undercut by longwall coalmines, which the mine owner, BHP Billiton, admits are likely to crack the bedrock and drain swamps. Aboriginal rock art above the mine site is also at risk.

The proposal, being considered by the NSW Government, calls for a huge expansion of existing coalmines near Appin, which would lock in mining there for 30 years.Opposition to the plan is growing, and a coalition of local residents and environment groups and the National Parks Association are calling for mining to be excluded from the conservation area.

”It is literally underground and metaphorically under the public radar,” said Sharyn Cullis of the Georges River Environmental Alliance. ”There should be widespread outrage or, at the very least, public debate about whether we really want the landscape desiccated … sacrificed for the sake of coal.

”The hanging swamps are shallow sandstone bowls, packed with matted sedge, native grasses and banksias that act like a sieve and a sponge, holding water in dry times and allowing it to seep out and feed some of the state’s cleanest creeks.

”I would rather they mined under my own house than in the conservation area,” said Julie Sheppard, of environment group Rivers SOS, whose home lies above another planned longwall panel near Appin.

O’Hares Creek, which flows through the conservation area and provides more than two-thirds of the water to the Georges River, is itself fed by the swamps.

”A total of 226 swamps have been identified within the entire Bulli seam project area, of which the Dharawal State Conservation Area is a part,” a BHP Billiton spokeswoman said in a statement.

”There is some potential for impact but a monitoring and management plan has been developed.

”The company said its plans had been designed to minimise impact on larger rivers.”Illawarra Coal has not mined directly beneath rivers since 2002, and consistent with this commitment, we have positioned longwalls away from major rivers and streams in the Bulli seam project.

”A detailed study by the staff at the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change found the swamp network to be a ”priority fauna habitat” for several endangered species, including the ground parrot and the giant burrowing frog.

The area also contains dozens of Aboriginal sites.”Once you take the coal away, there’s nothing to support the sandstone, and our artwork is cracking,” said Alan Carriage, an elder of the Wadi Wadi people.

A June 2009 report produced by Biosis Research for BHP Billiton found that 11 Aboriginal rock art sites in the southern coalfields had already been damaged by subsidence from longwall mining. But hypocritically and consistent with darkside consultants who will say anything for a buck concluded that “overall there is a low risk of significant impact to Aboriginal cultural heritage values”.

Before damaging a recognised Aboriginal site, a mining company must obtain a “permit to destroy” under the NSW heritage protection system. However Bev Manton, of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, dismissed this process as a “regime to manage destruction”.

She said five permits allowing damage to Aboriginal heritage sites are being issued a week by the State Government, and called for a new regime that gives more power to Aborigines to protect their significant sites.>>

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[Source:    ‘Mining ‘threat to swamps and rock art’, 20100130, Ben Cubby with Andrew Small, Sydney Morning Herald, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mining-threat-to-swamps-and-rock-art-20100129-n48w.html]

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[2]    2012:  Apex Energy’s coal seam gas threatens Sydney’s drinking water

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<<A coal seam gas company’s bid to save its Illawarra exploration project has triggered a flood of community opposition and again raised fears about mining in the water catchment.
Apex Energy’s approval for a 16-borehole exploration project around Darkes Forest and Maddens Plains expires tomorrow.

By comparison, coal company Gujarat NRE’s application to expand its mine and open a new longwall beneath the water catchment only received 23 public submissions and two from interest groups.Stop CSG Illawarra spokeswoman Jess Moore put the difference down to greater community awareness about Apex’s project and its threat to the catchment.‘‘It’s outrageous that I can be fined up to $44,000 for walking in the catchment yet the government will allow CSG development in that area,’’ she said.Gujarat’s proposal faced harsher criticism from government agencies than Apex’s, which is located partly in the water catchment and is still at the exploration stage.Further approvals would be required before production.Wollongong City Council opposed Apex’s time extension, saying even with stringent environmental controls it would be hard to argue CSG activities would have only a neutral or beneficial effect.The Office of Environment and Heritage said it would be ‘‘unlawful’’ to drill the three proposed boreholes in the national park.Apex’s application said more than 10,000 boreholes had been drilled in the southern Sydney basin during the Illawarra’s long mining history, but only 50 exploration boreholes had been drilled by the coalmining industry in the timeframe they had followed.An independent panel will determine the application.  A spokesman for Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said the government’s new Strategic Regional Land Use Policy applied Australia’s ‘‘toughest protections and regulations’’ to CSG mining..

[Source:  ‘ Opposition grows to coal seam gas bid in Sydney’s drinking water catchment’, 20120921, ^http://coalseamgasnews.org/news/world/australia/nsw/opposition-grows-to-coal-seam-gas-bid-in-sydneys-drinking-water-catchment/]

 

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[3]   2012:  Peabody Energy’s Longwall Mining irreversibly cracking riverbed  – government turns a blind eye

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<<Sutherland Shire (New South Wales) environmentalists are calling on Peabody Energy to release information on the state of the Waratah Rivulet, which supplies drinking water to the Woronora Dam.   They claim the company has failed to divulge the success or failure of its attempts to remediate the damaged riverbed.

The rivulet, which is in the Woronora special area and off-limits to the public, first hit the news in 2007 when cracks were discovered in the riverbed and some its waters disappeared underground.  The damage was blamed on longwall coal mining underneath the riverbed undertaken by the Peabody-owned Metropolitan Colliery.

The National Parks Association of NSW has released a video documenting a visit to the rivulet by a group of environmentalists and Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham six months ago.

It shows unremediated cracks, as well as some of Peabody’s remediation attempts.

Nationa Parks Association Southern Sydney Branch Secretary, Gary Schoer:

“No one has been able to find out if the damage to the rivulet was ongoing or if remediation was actually working.  When we visited we found out the remediation is still proceeding,” Mr Schoer said.  “We saw many cracks which had not yet been filled.  But we don’t know how extensive the damage is, or how successful the remediation is.   The NPA has been trying to meet with Peabody for the past six months.”

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Peabody Energy, NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker and NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodginkinson, who is responsible for the Sydney Catchment Authority have all declined to comment.

Turning a blind eye

Katrina Hodginkinson

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Georges River Environmental Alliance Secretary Sharyn Cullis, who visited the rivulet with Mr Schoer:

“What I saw on a tour of inspection, inside what is supposed to be a protected catchment, really horrified me. 

The riverbed of the Waratah Rivulet was smashed.  What should have been clear, clean water in the stream, which is 30 per cent of the inflow into the (Woronora) dam, was a murky orange brown.   What should have been drinking water didn’t look fit for a dog to drink. 

Remediation attempts so far appeared to be “futile”.

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Gary Schoer said tests conducted by environmentalists had confirmed chemical changes to the water which flowed through the damaged areas of the rivulet, but said he did not know, and had been unable to find out, how much of this water was flowing into the Woronora Dam.

Should there be greater protection for the rivulet? >>

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[Source:  ‘Fears for ruined water source’, 20120528, by Kate Carr,  The Leader newspaper, St Georgeand Sutherland Shire, ^http://www.theleader.com.au/story/266961/fears-for-ruined-water-source/]

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[4]     2013:   BHP Billiton’s Illawarra Longwall Coal Mine threatens stream subsidence

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Ed:  In what?

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<<An Illawarra Coal mine plan could cause significant cracking in parts of the Upper Nepean swampland leading to surface water loss, a Sydney Catchment Authority submission states.

The bulk of Macarthur’s drinking water is sourced from these catchments, where Illawarra Coal is proposing to operate a new underground coalmine, seven kilometres west of Port Kembla.

In its submission to the Planning Department, the Sydney Catchment Authority said: “Significant cracking is predicted that would lead to diversion of surface stream flow . . . resulting in surface water loss.”

An Illawarra Coal spokeswoman said BHP Billiton had been successfully mining at Dendrobium without any significant environmental impacts since the NSW Government approved mining in the area in 2001.

“Illawarra Coal has modified its mine plan to avoid significant impacts to key environmental features in the area such as Avon Dam and Wongawilli Creek,” she said.

“Illawarra Coal has developed a mine plan which has our longwall blocks positioned well away from the full supply level of Avon Dam and several kilometres away from the dam wall. We have no evidence of impacts to the dam.”

The National Parks Association has expressed fears Macarthur’s water catchments are under threat from the mine plan and called for a “rejig” of the longwall layouts to avoid damaging the swampland.

Illawarra Coal was granted conditional approval for the Dendrobium project in 2001 but is now seeking approval for its subsidence management plan to move into Area 3B.

National Parks Association spokeswoman Julie Sheppard said measures should be put in place to avoid harming an important part of the catchment.

The Sydney Catchment Authority, in its submission, recommends more stringent conditions be placed on the subsidence management plan.

The NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning says the Dendrobium project expects to extract 5.2 million tonnes of coal a year over 21 years.  It also said the project expected to provide up to 261 full-time construction jobs and up to 277 direct jobs during the operational time.>>

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[Source:   ‘Swampland ‘at risk’, 20130122, by Michael Cox,  journalist with Wollondilly Advertiser, ^http://www.wollondillyadvertiser.com.au/story/1250517/swampland-at-risk/]

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[5]    Rivers SOS

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In 2005, Rivers SOS (a coalition of 30 groups) formed with the aim of campaigning for the NSW Government to mandate a safety zone of at least 1km around rivers and creeks threatened by mining in NSW.   The peak environment groups of NSW endorse this position and it forms part of their election policy document.Rivers SOS, ^http://riverssos.org.au/

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[6]     Stop CSG Illawarra

^http://stop-csg-illawarra.org/csg-in-water-catchments/

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[7]    Coal Seam Gas News

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<<The purpose of CoalSeamGasNews.org is to provide quick access to Coal Seam Gas mining news, research, forums and public meeting schedules, provide a voice for the many Australians who want a sustainable mining industry, and to help people get the facts – not myths –  about the Coal Seam Gas industry. ^http://coalseamgasnews.org/

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[8]  Australian Coal Alliance

^http://australiancoalalliance.com/main.htm

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When Coal Seam Gas fracking contaminates underground aquifers

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Since 2008,  Anna Bligh’s Queensland Labor Government has encouraged and welcomed the establishment of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) across Queensland with open arms…

“The Queensland Government welcomes the establishment of a new energy industry, which diversifies our State’s fuel mix and capitalises on our state’s extensive coal seam gas (CSG) reserves to meet the growing global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG).   The LNG industry provides Queensland with an exciting opportunity to create new jobs in our regional centres, affected by the recent downturn in resource exports, and increases the potential prosperity of all Queenslanders through greater export revenue and royalty payments.”

[Source: ^http://www.industry.qld.gov.au/documents/LNG/Blueprint_for_Queenslands_LNG_Industry.pdf   [>Read LNG Blueprint]

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Coal Seal Gas mining permeating across Queensland food bowl

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Geoscience Australia:  

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‘Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a naturally occurring methane gas found in most coal seams and is similar to conventional natural gas. In Australia the commercial production of CSG commenced in 1996 in the Bowen Basin, Queensland. Since then production has increased rapidly, particularly during the first decade of the 21st century. CSG has now become an integral part of the gas industry in eastern Australia, particularly in Queensland.

Information about reserves of CSG has grown significantly, particularly in the Bowen and Surat basins in Queensland. In New South Wales reserves have been proven in the Sydney, Gunnedah, Clarence-Moreton and Gloucester basins. Exploration has been undertaken or is planned to be undertaken in other coal basins including the Galilee, Arckaringa, Perth and Pedirka basins.

A major driver for the growth in CSG was a decision in 2000 by the Queensland Government that required 13% of all power supplied to the state electricity grid to be generated by gas by 2005. That requirement has been increased to 15% by 2010 and 18% by 2020.

CSG reserves have grown to such an extent that a number of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plants have been proposed based on exports from Gladstone, Queensland.’

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The grossly financial wasteful Labor Government in Queensland has become so desperate for new revenue that the promised millions in CGS royalties from this new LNG industry is tantalisingly irresistable to the extent that Queensland farms and environment have become deliberately ignored and railroaded by the Bligh Labor Government.

Bligh’s Labor Government has wasted:

• $2 billion on the Toowoomba water recycling plant, now a white elephant
• $1.1 billion on another rusting desalination plant at Tugun
• $600 million on the failed Traveston Dam plan
• $450 million on the Traveston Crossing plan
• $350 million on Wyaralong Dam, not even connected to the grid
• $283.5 million on the health payroill debacle
• $112 million on Smart Card drivers licenses that aren’t smart
• $7 million a month in government advertising
• $450,000 rental bill for an empty State Government office in Los Angeles

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[Ed:  This is criminally negligent misappropriation of the entrusted Queensland Treasury]

Goodna Sewage Pump Station (outer Brisbane)

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So with $5 billion in Queenslander taxes squandered by Queensland Labor, no wonder the Bligh Labor Government has been so desperate for the lure of mining royalties.. at any cost including jeopardising the prime agricultural land of the Darling Downs.

The development of energy resources in the Surat Basin (Darling Downs and South West Queensland region) and associated LNG projects in the Gladstone (Fitzroy and Central West Queensland) region is set provide annual royalty returns of over $850 million to the Bligh Labor Government.  Bligh is more than happy to send in the corporate miners to undermine the food bowl of Queenslanders and pollute their drinking water by fracking in the process.

As the above LNG Blueprint disloses above, it is all about ” greater export revenue and royalty payments.”…at any cost – social, heritage, environmental.  Queensland Labor Premier Anna Bligh has prrepared to take on the Federal Government over any increase to red tape from its new oversight of the coal seam gas industry.

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Bligh – new CSG cash royalties

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Federal Labor’s Environment Minister Tony Mr Burke has said that Queensland farmers are safeguarded by federal regulations that went much further than those of Queensland.

But in November 2011, confidential advice obtained by The Australian newspaper under Freedom of Information laws, shows that Tony Burke has known about coal-seam gas developments in southern Queensland have serious uncertainties about the impact on groundwater and salinity.

The documents include departmental briefings for Mr Burke’s decision to approve the APLNG project, a joint venture between Origin and Conoco Phillips that involves 10,000 production wells and more than 10,000km of access roads and pipelines.

It is the biggest CSG project ever approved in Australia.

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On the groundwater impact, the advice says Geoscience Australia warned of “high levels of uncertainty in the predicted impacts of CSG developments on groundwater behaviour and on EPBC (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) listed ecological communities”. It says that Geoscience Australia believed that “APLNG’s modelling requires further work to fully establish uncertainties”.

The advice to Mr Burke provided in February recommended he approve the $35 billion project because he had approved two smaller projects. This indicates the department has ignored the cumulative effects of these projects on groundwater and water use.

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Bligh’s Labor Mates in Canberra

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14th March, 2012:

‘Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke (Ed: Labor Party) has removed a possible electoral problem for the Bligh government in Queensland by delaying environmental approval for the massive expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal in north Queensland until well after the election.

The Queensland government plans to expand Abbot Point, near Bowen and directly beside the Great Barrier Reef, from its current capacity of 50 million tonnes of coal a year to 400 million tonnes, but the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the expansion needs to be approved by the federal government first.  The EIS was lodged in December and there is a statutory requirement for the federal minister to respond within 40 working days.

Last week, Mr Burke quietly slipped through an extension of the timeframe until the end of this year, although a hand-written note on the briefing paper written by him states that “I note the decision may still be made earlier than the extended deadline”.

The expansion of Abbot Point is particularly sensitive as the port is right beside the Great Barrier Reef.  It is designed to cater for the new coalmining area in the Galilee Basin.

Concerns about possible damage to the reef through a build-up of coal ships passing through the reef have been highlighted in recent days by a visit from UNESCO officers.

Mr Burke’s decision will delay the construction of 12 coal-loading berths at the terminal that have been allocated to six companies, including Waratah Coal, owned by billionaire Clive Palmer.’
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Coal Seam Gas kills American cattle

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Meanwhile, exposure to coal seam gas drilling operations in the United States has been strongly linked to serious health problems in humans, pets, livestock and other animals, a new US study has found.  Australian environmentalists say the study shows the need for caution in opening the country up to coal seam gas extraction.

University of Massachusetts researchers interviewed 24 US farmers affected by shale gas drilling and found the practice was “strongly implicated” in serious health problems in humans and animals.   In one case, 17 cows died in one hour from respiratory failure after shale gas fracking fluids were accidentally released into an adjacent paddock.

Fracking refers to the controversial method of injecting chemicals, water and sand at high pressures to crack rock and release gas.

On another farm, 70 of 140 cattle exposed to wastewater from fracking died, as did a number of cats and dogs from a neighbourhood where wastewater was spread on roads as a method of disposal.

The study also cites a case in which a child was hospitalised with arsenic poisoning soon after drilling and fracking began near their home.  Occupants of another home near gas wells suffered headaches, nosebleeds and rashes, and their hearing and sense of smell was affected.

The study’s authors recommend more research into the effects of shale gas extraction in the US, or a total ban on the practice.

NSW Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham says the study shows the need for caution in the expansion of CSG mining in the state.

“Many of the methods, chemicals and techniques used in US conventional and unconventional gas extraction are the same as those used in Australia with coal seam gas,” he said in a statement.

The National Toxics Network called on Australia’s state governments to conduct a full assessment of the impacts of CSG on animals living close to gas wells.
“We know so little about the long term impacts on the health of wildlife and farm animals of this industry,” the network’s senior adviser Mariann Lloyd-Smith said in a statement.

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‘Centralia’, Pennsylvania (USA) and its 1000 residents the victims of a coal seam mine fire in 1962,which has been burning under the area ever since.

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Coal Seam Gas poisons cattle in Pennsylvania

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‘Stillborn and deformed cows, ponds that turned black and poisoned drinking water.  Those are some of the little-reported effects being visited on Pennsylvania in the rush to tap natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, two angry Washington County farmers told about 100 people at a forum in Lancaster city Sunday afternoon.

“This has been nothing but hell for my family and neighbors,” said Ron Gulla, whose farm near Hickory was the second Marcellus Shale well drilled in the state….’

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Back in Queensland, on 30th May 2011, Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Queensland Labor Premier Anna Bligh unveil the coal seam gas expansion plant at Curtis Island

‘New Gas Age’ for Queensland – enthusiastically opened by Bligh

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‘Premier Anna Bligh and Prime Minister Julia Gillard herald the ‘new gas age’ as a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage plant opens Curtis Island off Gladstone in central Qld.’

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Three months later in August 2011, Bligh’s Queensland Government was forced to investige traces of cancer-causing Benzene, toluene and xylene at Arrow Energy’s 14 CSG bores at Tipton West and Daandine gas fields near Dalby.

Benzene, toluene, ethylene and xylene (commonly known as BTEX) were outlawed last October in Queensland for use in fracking, a process used in the CSG industry to split rock seams and extract methane.

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Queensland Conservation Community (QCC) on Coal Seam Gas

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Expansion of the QLD Coal Seam Gas (CSG) industry has been occurring at a very rapid rate over recent years.

While the CSG industry is bringing wealth and jobs to areas like the Surat Basin, the immediate and longterm environmental impacts potentially caused by the industry are largely unmeasured and unchecked. This is mainly due to the rapid growth of the industry outstripping legislative and regulatory frameworks, resulting in an imbalance between the CSG industries, primary production and protecting the environment.

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Key issues

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The key environmental issues that QCC is concerned about include:

• Impacts to over and under lying aquifers
• Extraction of substantial volumes of groundwater as part of the CSG extraction process is likely to have a significant impact on over and under lying aquifers, which are connected to coal measures from where gas is extracted.
•  Independent scientific assessment must determine that potential impacts to adjacent aquifers can be avoided and managed before CSG projects are approved.

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Groundwater contamination

The quality of groundwater in coal seams is generally inferior to that in over- and underlying aquifers. There is a high risk that poorer quality coal seam water will leak into better quality aquifers from the large number of proposed gas wells and poor well management practices.
There is also a high risk of groundwater contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing, an industry process used to stimulate gas flows by using chemicals and applied at high pressures to fracture the coal seams.

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Many of the chemicals used to fracture the coal seams are toxic and are known to affect human and environmental health.

• Independent scientific assessment must determine that inter aquifer contamination can be avoided and managed before CSG projects are approved
• Hydraulic fracturing must not occur until robust scientific assessment has demonstrated that groundwater contamination can be avoided.

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Impacts to springs and groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDE)

The scale of potential long-term adverse environmental impacts to springs and groundwater dependent ecosystems caused by CSG extraction is largely unmeasured.

• Impacts to springs and GDE’s must be avoided. Independent scientific assessment must determine that potential impacts to springs and GDE’s can be avoided and remediated if impacts do occur.
• Protecting springs should be achieved by establishing set back distances around springs where CSG activities are prohibited.
• Using CSG water for beneficial purposes

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While the Government has introduced regulations requiring CSG companies to treat CSG associated water to ‘fit for purpose’ standards, the potential environmental impacts that could occur from using treated CSG water for different purposes has not yet been fully assessed. The environmental impacts that could occur from using treated CSG water for beneficial purposes includes potential changes to soils chemistry, structure and biota; as well as water quality changes in waterways in areas where CSG water is used.

• CSG water used for a beneficial purpose must match the background environmental water quality conditions of areas where it is being used.

• Using waterways to distribute CSG water

CSG companies are seeking to release treated CSG water to rivers to distribute this water to areas where it will be used for beneficial purposes. As waterways in areas where CSG development is occurring are mostly ephemeral, introducing large volumes of CSG water year round to these waterways will change them from being ephemeral to permanently flowing. This will substantially alter the ecological composition and water quality of waterways, which will potentially cause significant adverse impacts to these aquatic environments. For these reasons, QCC does not support CSG water being introduced to river systems.

•   CSG water should not be allowed to enter or be introduced to waterways

Disposal of salt and other contaminants

It is estimated that millions of tonnes of salt and other toxic substances will be produced from CSG operations. Under current arrangements CSG companies can hold untreated CSG water and brine effluent from reverse osmosis water treatment plants in storage ponds, and then dispose of this waste in a variety of ways.

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Allowable disposal methods include:

• Creating useable and saleable products,
• Burying residual solid wastes on properties owned by CSG companies or
• By injecting the brine effluent into aquifers with a lesser water quality.

QCC does not support CSG companies being allowed to bury salt on their properties or injecting brine effluent underground due to the inherent environmental risks associated with these disposal methods.   A more environmentally safe disposal method that QCC favours is to require CSG companies to rapidly dehydrate the brine effluent using waste heat generated from water treatment power plants; and then either marketing the residual solid waste or burying it in regulated hazardous substance landfill sites.

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• Injection of brine effluent into aquifers should not be permitted
• Residual solid waste from CSG water treatment processes should only be disposed into registered hazardous substance landfill sites
• Avoiding good quality agricultural land

The CSG industry is seeking to expand into some of Queensland’s prime agricultural areas. The is likely to effect food and fibre production from impacts to groundwater resources that primary producers depend on.

Along with the impacts to groundwater, it is increasingly evident that the number of roadways, pipelines, brine storage dams and other necessary CSG infrastructure will have a significant impact on farming activities and operations.

• CSG exploration and development must be prohibited on good quality agricultural lands

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Avoiding areas of High Ecological Significance (HES)

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Under current legislative arrangements, the only tenure of land that is exempt from CSG exploration and development are National Parks. This means that important areas of High Ecological Significance outside of National Parks, such as wetlands, springs, biodiversity corridors and threatened ecological communities, can be degraded by CSG exploration
and development.

Although CSG companies are required to offset environmental impacts, it is unlikely that the full extent of environmental impacts caused by the expansion of the CSG industry as a whole can be effectively offset. This will result in an overall net loss of environmental values throughout the areas where CSG development occurs. That must not be allowed to occur.

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• CSG exploration and development must be prohibited in areas of HES such as wetlands, springs, biodiversity corridors and threatened ecological communities
• Strategic re-injection of CSG water Estimates indicate that up towards 350,000Ml of groundwater per year could be extracted from coal seams as part of the gas production process.

There are significant concerns about the impacts that may occur to other aquifers that are connected to these coal seams. An effective way to mitigate impacts to over- and underlying aquifers is by strategically re-injecting treated CSG water either back into coal seams or into effected adjacent aquifers.

•  Treated CSG water should be re-injected back into coal seams from where it has been extracted or into adjacent aquifers that have been affected by CSG operations
• Moratorium on CSG development

Many of the environmental issues associated with the CSG industry have yet to be satisfactorily addressed. QCC believes that a precautionary approach is needed and is calling for a moratorium to be placed on CSG projects until robust scientific assessment has determined that environmental impacts occurring from CSG operations can be avoided, mitigated and the industry can be managed sustainably.

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•    moratorium should be placed on CSG development until scientific assessment can demonstrate that environmental impacts can be avoided and mitigated

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Threats by Coal Seam Gas to Australia’s Artesian Basin

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‘The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association acknowledge that CSG extraction has potential to deplete or contaminate local aquifers.

There are many of these in the northern Illawarra that recharge streams, creeks, lakes and dams in the water catchments and coastal plain.

The National Water Commission estimate that the Australian CSG industry will extract around 7,500 gigalitres (GL) of produced water from ground water systems over the next 25 years. To put this in perspective, that’s more than 13 times the capacity of Sydney Harbour. They also note that the potential impacts of CSG development on water systems, particularly the cumulative effects of multiple projects, are not well understood….’

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The coal seam gas industry is facing a rural revolt, with farmers threatening to risk arrest and lock their gates to drilling companies.

Organic farmer, Graham Back, at his property west of Dalby, southern Queensland

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Bligh’s gas infatuation is killing Gladstone Harbour

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Aerial views show Gladstone Harbour before and after dredging operations began.

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An independent report on Gladstone Harbour is scathing of State Government efforts to discover what is causing major disease problems.

The interim report by fisheries veterinarian and Sydney University lecturer Matt Landos says the Government has failed to adequately monitor animal mortality and used untrained observers despite evidence of a crisis.

Dr Landos says the Government has underestimated turtle deaths, made no baseline study of aquatic animal health before the harbour’s 46 million cubic metre dredging began, made no assessment of acoustic impacts and has not investigated dying coral.

The damning report was paid for by the Gladstone Fishing Research Fund with capital sought from public donations and fishermen.

The port is undergoing major expansion, mostly for the liquefied natural gas industry.

The LNG industrial invasion of Gladstone’s Reef World Heritage  Harbour

Labor’s mantra:   ‘jobs jobs jobs’ – while buggering Australia’s environment and local workers,

Where is Bligh’s empathy for Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef World Heritage?

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Former Queensland Seafood Industry Association president Michael Gardner, who helped organise funding, said yesterday that Dr Landos’ findings were at odds with the Government and Gladstone Ports Corporation view, which was that disease was related more to last year’s wet season than dredging.

46 million cubic metre dredging of Gladstone Harbour for Coals Seam Gas

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Environment Department director-general Jim Reeves said it was incorrect that studies had not been done to assess the impact of dredging. He said Fisheries Queensland had been conducting an extensive fish health survey since August last year and studies were continuing.

The department had monitored Curtis Island turtle populations for decades before dredging began and there was no evidence of turtle deaths being underestimated. All fisheries observers were trained scientists and surveys were conducted in April and June.

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Gladstone now has ‘Exploding Eye’ Barramundi

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“So far all we have seen from the Bligh government is flawed water quality monitoring, constant assertions that the problems of marine species’ deaths and fish disease have nothing to do with developments in the harbour and the desire to see developments proceed at breakneck speed.”

“The Gladstone Port Corporation’s dredging program is one of the biggest in our history and we need to know if dredging up historic layers of industrial pollutants as well as the acid sulphate soils that are known to be in the area are linked with this catastrophe.”

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Derec Davies, a Friends of the Earth campaigner

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Analysis showed water quality was consistent with historical trends, apart from the impacts of the January 2011 floods.

“There is no crisis for the green turtles and dugong that inhabit the area,” Mr Reeves said.

Australia’s Dugong

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Dr Landos said he and Dr Ben Diggles had made preliminary observations of fish health, including barramundi.

“In simple terms, all the barramundi captured were quite sick,” he said. “The vast majority, even those with no apparent external skin abnormalities, displayed tucked up abdomens and all were lethargic when handled. I would not recommend human consumption.”

Dr Landos said that despite the fish having no feed in the gut, there were ample baitfish around upon which they could feed. Mullet sampled did not show any external signs of disease.  A population of 27 queenfish were sampled near the dredge spoil dumping ground. All had skin organism infestations and 18 had skin redness.

“My findings … would suggest that the 2010 flood is unlikely to be involved in their causation,” Dr Landos said.

At Friends Point in the inner harbour, 17 of 76 crabs sampled had mild to severe shell changes. At Colosseum Inlet, south of the harbour, 12 of 33 crabs showed signs of lesions.  Other problems included mangrove dieback, low fish numbers and few signs of juvenile animals.  A final report is expected in one to two months.

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A dead Dugong

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The ABC TV Four Corners current affairs Program 8th November 2011 aired an in depth report on port developments in Queensland and their impact on The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and World Heritage Area.

Watch:  ABC Four Corners programme, by Marian Wilkinson and Clay Hichens:   Great Barrier Grief

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