Glendell Continued Operations Project

Attached is my submission

The Glendell Continuation Project will result in 230.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the life of the project. This is in addition to the greenhouse pollution from the rest of the Mount Owen complex.
• The assessment admits that the project is consistent with the IPCC’s “high emissions A2 emission trajectory scenario.” This is a shocking admission and all the more shocking that it did not prompt the company to withdraw the proposal. The A2 scenario is projected to result in warming by approximately 3.4C by 2100. As the greenhouse assessment outlines, this scenario is associated with increased maximum temperatures, hot days and severe fire danger days.
• This project is not consistent with NSW’s climate change policy, the principle of inter-generational equity nor the public interest, as it clearly assumes failure to meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals and worsening climate change impacts for New South Wales.

This project further extends mining in a heavily-mined area, exacerbating air pollution and water loss.
The mine’s groundwater assessment shows that dramatic drawdown of the coal seam under the Bowman’s Creek alluvium propagates upward into the alluvium and causes drawdown and loss of surface water.
• This adds to stress already being experienced in the area from other mines, and the groundwater assessment also shows cumulative draw down of over 2 metres in the alluvium during the proposed mining operations.
The mine assessment admits that most air quality monitoring sites in the vicinity of Glendell Mine have experienced at least one day above the national standards for PM10 particulate pollution in the past seven years and some exceeded annual average thresholds in the last two years. Camberwell and Singleton also exceeded the PM2.5 criterion last year.
• But the EIS uses a low pollution year, 2014, as its base year, setting background air pollution levels at less than half of the pollution concentrations experienced in the vicinity more recently. Nevertheless, the assessment shows intensification of PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution in Camberwell and surrounding areas.

I am in support of the extension at Glendell mine.
The support, the local community that Glendell proves is outstanding. In the proposal, it stated that the Ravensworth homestead would be relocated to a different location. I live at Fordwich New South Wales 2330. I’m part of the Broke community with my kids attending Broke Public school, I’m also a volunteer firefighter at broke station. This homestead would be a great boost for the community. This would put broke on the map( as many might say).but to the point,
Glencore Glendell mine is not just a mine, it’s a community that does not only make money for the employees but makes money for the whole of NSW.
I support the extension of Glendell mine.

I would like to express my support for the relocation of the historic Ravensworth homestead to the township of Broke. This project would provide a major economic boost to the Broke township and surrounds. The immense negative impact (FINANCIAL & HEALTH) of the open cut mines around Broke would be partially offset by an increase in tourism and community spirit provided by the Broke Village Square Ravensworth project.

To whom this concerns,

I am objecting today to the Glendell Continued Operations Project.

There are many reasons why I object to this proposal, but here are some of my biggest reasons:

This project further extends mining in a heavily-mined area, exacerbating air pollution and water loss.

The mine’s groundwater assessment shows that dramatic drawdown of the coal seam under the Bowman’s Creek alluvium propagates upward into the alluvium and causes drawdown and loss of surface water.

This adds to the stress already being experienced in the area from other mines, and the groundwater assessment also shows cumulative drawdown of over 2 metres in the alluvium during the proposed mining operations.

The mine assessment admits that most air quality monitoring sites in the vicinity of Glendell Mine have experienced at least one day above the national standards for PM10 particulate pollution in the past seven years and some exceeded annual average thresholds in the last two years. Camberwell and Singleton also exceeded the PM2.5 criterion last year.

But the EIS uses a low pollution year, 2014, as its base year, setting background air pollution levels at less than half of the pollution concentrations experienced in the vicinity more recently. Nevertheless, the assessment shows intensification of PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution in Camberwell and surrounding areas.

The Glendell Continuation Project will result in 230.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the life of the project. This is in addition to the greenhouse pollution from the rest of the Mount Owen complex.

The assessment admits that the project is consistent with the IPCC’s “high emissions A2 emission trajectory scenario.” This is a shocking admission and all the more shocking that it did not prompt the company to withdraw the proposal. The A2 scenario is projected to result in warming by approximately 3.4C by 2100. As the greenhouse assessment outlines, this scenario is associated with increased maximum temperatures, hot days and severe fire danger days.

This project is not consistent with NSW’s climate change policy, the principle of intergenerational equity nor the public interest, as it clearly assumes failure to meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals and worsening climate change impacts for New South Wales.

The ANZ bank had formulated a plan to shed more than $700 million in thermal coal loans within the next four years: a 75 per cent reduction, with many other lenders pulling out of loans for coal production. This shows that there is no future in coal expansion such as that of the Glendell Continued Operations Project.

Thank you for your time in reading this objection.

Crystal

I am concerned about the estimated 230.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the proposed life of the project. Australian fires have recently greatly increased our national emissions and the proposed project already admits it is consistent with the IPCC’s high emissions A2 emission trajectory scenario. I also believe that with the current trend for renewable energy the mines relevance will be obsolete way before the projects lease end.

I support relocating Ravensworth Homestead and it’s outbuildings to McNamara Park in Broke to develop a Town Centre in this rural village. This will service the needs of residents for additional recreational venues as well as opportunities for tourists to the region to experience local produce and tourism information.
This will be a unique opportunity to celebrate the Upper Hunter Valley’s heritage in a re-purposed heritage sandstone homestead building which would become a tourist destination in it’s own right.
It could incorporate a museum celebrating local indigenous and European history, a local wine tasting centre, a shop selling local produce, a cafe/restaurant and a function/exhibition space, which would provide an income to help maintain the buildings.
The proposed architectural design by SHAC Architects for relocation of Ravensworth homestead and outbuildings and the landscape design is excellent.
This project will give Broke Village a Civic Centre to be proud of. It will engage local community residents with a multi function public facility and a purpose built venue for community and tourism functions, which is a great step forward.
I am a founding member of Broke Fordwich Wine & Tourism Association and have been operating a tourist accommodation facility in Broke since 2000.

I believe the recent and current extremes of bushfire emergencies, severe drought, water shortages, impact on communities and our wildlife provide ample evidence that we can not continue increasing our use of fossil fuels. It is not just the increase of carbon emissions that I am against, it is also the despoiling of the natural environment that mining ventures are guilty of ( usually with little regard to remediation), their profligate use of water (such a scarce resource), and their impact on air quality. A few jobs and dollars in our government’s coffers can not make up for a diminished future for our coming generations!

The expansion will provide job security and career development opportunities for Glencore employees, as well as continued economic benefits for the community as a whole through increased tourism, injections of money into the local economy (shopping, property rentals, and use of local restaurants, facilities etc), and increased infrastructure. It will also allow for the restoration of Ravensworth Homestead; to return it to the property to its former glory so that it is accessible to the public and historians, and to preserve the history of the property for future generations to enjoy.

Coal is a necessary mineral to support quality of life as we know it; it supports delivery of reliable electricity and the materials necessary to build our homes, schools, hospitals, roads, highways, bridges and airports. Glencore considers all practices and actions, and their impacts. Continued access to clean land and water is a key ongoing concern for the company, and one which is not taken lightly. Air quality targets are reached monthly and we monitor dust suppression as part of daily measures. The extension will allow better quality coal to be extracted and for more environmentally friendly mining practices (i.e. burning hotter and for longer), benefitting the community and the environment long-term through lower emissions.

• This project further extends mining in a heavily-mined area, exacerbating air pollution and water loss.
• The mine’s groundwater assessment shows that dramatic drawdown of the coal seam under the Bowman’s Creek alluvium propagates upward into the alluvium and causes drawdown and loss of surface water.
• This adds to stress already being experienced in the area from other mines, and the groundwater assessment also shows cumulative draw down of over 2 metres in the alluvium during the proposed mining operations.
• The mine assessment admits that most air quality monitoring sites in the vicinity of Glendell Mine have experienced at least one day above the national standards for PM10 particulate pollution in the past seven years and some exceeded annual average thresholds in the last two years. Camberwell and Singleton also exceeded the PM2.5 criterion last year.
• But the EIS uses a low pollution year, 2014, as its base year, setting background air pollution levels at less than half of the pollution concentrations experienced in the vicinity more recently. Nevertheless, the assessment shows intensification of PM2.5 and PM10 air pollution in Camberwell and surrounding areas.
• The Glendell Continuation Project will result in 230.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the life of the project. This is in addition to the greenhouse pollution from the rest of the Mount Owen complex.
• The assessment admits that the project is consistent with the IPCC’s “high emissions A2 emission trajectory scenario.” This is a shocking admission and all the more shocking that it did not prompt the company to withdraw the proposal. The A2 scenario is projected to result in warming by approximately 3.4C by 2100. As the greenhouse assessment outlines, this scenario is associated with increased maximum temperatures, hot days and severe fire danger days.
• This project is not consistent with NSW’s climate change policy, the principle of inter-generational equity nor the public interest, as it clearly assumes failure to meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals and worsening climate change impacts for New South Wales.

Please see attached response.

Graeme and Kay Cheetham
936 Middle Falbrook Rd
Singleton 2330

23/01/2020

Dept Planning Industry and Environment

We wish to make a submission to the Glendell Continued Operations Project Our property is identified as 7b.
We opposed the project in regards to Noise and Air Quality.We do not trust or believe that the predictions for both are correct,we understand that the overburden dump will be up to 60 meters higher than it currently is.We believe that at that increased height that the noise from mining activity will be herd from a much greater distance than the predictions made in the EIS
We are already burdened by excessive dust from mining activities impacting our health,drinking water and lifestyle. With the dumping of overburden up to 60 meters higher than present we will be impacted even more. Glencore state that they stop operating or move operations to lower levels during windy conditions but this is not so. On Friday the23/08/2019 at 3.30am note AMI witnessed 4 lighting plants visable from our property working on top of Glendells overburden dump,this was during a period of strong westerly winds including that early morning,I could see a regular movement of haul trucks coming and leaving the dump,under these weather conditions the dust leaving the site would have been horrendous but the general public don’t see this in the darkness of night. I reported the incident to the EPA (Ref No 102851) at 4.45am along with reporting to Glendell environment hotline,only to have the incident recorded as a lighting complaint by Glendell.
Once again on Friday the 8 /11 /2019 at 9.30pm I witnessed lighting plants in a similar position on Glendells overburden dump and haul trucks working,this was during the period of horrendous windy weather and at the same time as the bad bush fires in the north of the State.On this occasion I phoned Glendells hotline and spoke the the lady that takes the calls to pass onto the mine,I received a call from a person from Muswellbrook Coal,nowhere near us or Glendell so this complaint was never recorded by Glendell,Glendell state they have a low level of complaints that is made easy when they do not receive them from an answering service. These are just two times that I witnessed these activities being carried out by Glendell, how often dose this occur in the dark of night. I was a member of the Mt Owen Complex CCC and raised these events at a meeting on the 10/10/2019,the meeting was told by a Glendell representative that the dust levels were within compliance,interesting Glendell self administer their dust and noise compliance.
We spoke to representatives from Mt Owen when their last modification was submitted regarding acquisition areas and was assured that no additional area adjacent to us would be included.at that stage We owned property 7a on the maps, we now find that properties 21, 22, 23 adjoining 7a to the north are included in acquisition zones, also property 112 to the west of 7a and properties 4 and 5 to the south of 7a how can a property be surrounded on three boundaries by acquisition not be included in acquisition zones.Also properties 112 and 5 were not recommended by the EIS for acquisition so how do they become entitled to acquisition in the approval process.
Our community of permanent residents has been reduced severely buy the purchase of properties by Glencore, Ashton and Rixes Creek coal mines that apart from the Glennies Creek Rural Fire Brigade which has moved they Station to Mt Olive have all closed and no longer exist. This includes the Glennies Creek Public Hall which has not been used for six years,We feel that the hall should be purchased by Glencore as it is surrounded by mine owned properties and the funds from the sale be distributed to Mt Olive Hall.With the purchase of some properties the buildings have been partially removed leaving the unsightly residue to lay unattended for years making our community look uncared for and a community of neglect,since mining in our area the roadside rubbish is terrible with workers not caring where they throw their litter.
As always the EIS states that the benefits from continuing the Glendell Operation far exceed the negative impacts from mining,why should our community and ourselves suffer the negative impacts of mining for the benefit of others,there is a group of seven families living at Middle Falbrook that do not work in the mining industry,we receive no benefit from mining activity but are to accept the impacts of noise and dust on our lives and health.Most of my neigbours are not making submissions because they have made so many submissions to previous projects with there concerns only to fall on deaf ears.

Regards Graeme Cheetham

Dear Major Projects NSW,

I am writing to you to object to the Glendell Continued Operations Project.

Any individual who accepts scientific consensus would view any expansion of fossil fuel mining as dangerous with overwhelming evidence of the link between carbon emissions and warming already discussed ad nauseum, although it is worth stating that the GHG contribution of an expanded Mount Owen Complex mine would exceed 230million tonnes which is in keeping with a “high emissions trajectory” as per the mines own admission. This would cause a catastrophic projected temperature increase over the next 80 years to almost 3.4 degrees.

In the specific case of the Glendell Continued Operations Project there are a multitude of additional reasons the mine needs to be wound back as planned besides just its contribution to global temperature increase.

Specifically, the Mount Owen Expansion;

• Ignores that the public tolerance of air pollution is less following increased awareness of its damaging health effects in the 2019-2020 fire season. Recent high levels of hazardous exposure to carcinogenic PM10 particles due to the fires makes it even more unethical to increase PM10 exposure for Hunter residents further burdening our families and health services.
• The mine will exacerbate the Hunter drought crisis. Groundwater assessment shows dramatic drawdown of the coal seam under the Bowman’s Creek alluvium propagates upward causing loss of surface water. This is in the context of 40 towns being estimated to have less than 3 months of water supply in the upper Hunter and towns like Murrurundi, Blandford and Gloucester being totally dry, relying on drinking water shipments from other areas to survive.
• Leaves the Hunter region again at risk of a bankrupt mining concern not fulfilling its contractually obligated environmental repair and regeneration duties (as has happened in this region previously).
• Coal mining expansion lacks national public support due to increased awareness and concern about climate change and its social and economic damage. The risk versus benefit of mining concerns has drastically shifted in the public perception now we are experiencing the effects of unmitigated climate change on our lives, homes, businesses, wildlife and landscapes.
• 2044 is well after Australia has agreed to stop burning coal to meet already agreed upon targets. Ignoring Scope 3 or downstream emissions within this agreement leaves two options: either we don’t meet global targets or we do with reduction of overseas emissions which would leave mining concerns like the Glendell expansion insoluble with no country to export to.
• Expanded coal mining delays the transition of mining employed workers into more sustainable career options which could cause worse long term unemployment.

To paraphrase the old song; is nothing as precious as a hole in the ground?

Regards
Doctor Eliza Milliken
Dept. of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, John Hunter Hospital New Lambton

I wish to support the relocating of the Ravensworth Homestead to Bulga. It is an important part of our heritage and should be maintained for the future.
Mining and local communities can work together to achieve balance.

Dear Minister,
I write as a long term resident of the Pokolbin/Broke district and also as a long term member of the Great Hunter Valley Wine Industry.
I have been informed that the possibility of moving the old Ravensworth homestead to a particularly attractive area of Broke is a possibility.
The Ravensworth homestead is well known to me, and others in the wine industry, because of its Hunter Valley agricultural and viticultural heritage. We are of the opinion that to move this great historic monument to the pioneers of our district, would be well-placed in the centre of the wine-growing district of Broke.
I am sure that you will receive letters of support for this activity from many of the local vignerons and landholders who do espouse the same desire.
Anything we can do to assist in this endeavour would be forthcoming promptly, should you need any help from the local community.
Such a monument from the past being reinvigorated for the future, would be an everlasting monument to the early settlers of our incredibly significant Hunter Valley.
Yours faithfully,
Brian McGuigan A.M.

I fully support the extension of Glendell open cut mine in the hunter valley, as I believe it provides great employment for hunter valley family’s. The way Glencore operation run, are great for the environment and surrounding areas. Thanks

Attached is our submission

I object to the project,however, I support the relocation of the Ravensworth Homestead to Broke.Ref: Appendix 23 Heritage Assessment

I believe that ALL fossil fuel extraction across Australia should cease. We are in a climate emergency. Continuing business as normal is Not OK. Any new energy projects need to focused on renewables. Please do not approve this mine, it clearly assumes failure to meet the Paris Agreement temperature goals. We do NOT need the money that this project is looking to make. We do not need worsening climate change impacts for NSW. We NEED clean air and water. We need biodiversity.