HVO South Open Cut Coal Continuation Project

Please see the Chamber submission supporting the HVO North Continuation Project.
The reasons for our support of HVO South Continuation are the same.
We thanks you for the opportunity to comment and look forward to a favourable determination.
Yours sincerely
Mike Kelly
President MCCI

Letter of support attached.

I support this project and have jobs longer in the hunter valley

I support the continuation project

I object to the Hunter Valley Operations Open Cut Coal Continuation Project (North and South) (“the Project”) because the:

1. Economic analysis is inadequate and does not consider the impact on the Equine Critical Industry Cluster. The economic analysis does not reflect the true costs of the Project as it underestimates or ignores the environmental and other industry impacts/costs and over estimates the benefits;
2. Project will result in air quality impacts and exceedances exacerbating already unacceptably dusty and polluted conditions in the Upper Hunter;
3. Project will result in unacceptable noise impacts on neighbouring studs, negatively impacting the studs’ operations and the people and their families who reside on those studs;
4. Project will impose health impacts for humans and horses which have not been properly assessed;
5. Water impacts of the Project are unacceptable to us as a community and an industry.
6. Project presents deficient surface and groundwater assessments, imposes additional risks and stresses on the already vulnerable Hunter River and its tributaries; breaches of the Aquifer Interference Policy; and will leave as its legacy a final void that will be hyper-saline, take 1000 years to reach equilibrium and impose an unacceptable perpetual impost on future generations;
7. Project will bring the visual impacts of mining (dust, noise and blasting) closer to the town of Jerrys Plains, and closer to the operations of Coolmore, one of the central players in our industry.
8. Project will bring the visual impacts of mining much closer to residents, towns and roads at the southern Gateway of the Hunter’s Thoroughbred Breeding Industry at Jerrys Plains.
9. Cumulative impact assessments –for air quality and water sources in the Hunter – are absent from this EIS contrary to the Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) and NSW Guidelines;
10. Impacts on investment and economic diversity in the region will be deleterious;
11. The impacts on the Hunter’s Equine Critical Industry Cluster have not been assessed; and
12. Project, a significant expansion to open cut coal mining in close proximity to an international scale stud operator and one of the central players critical to the functioning of the Equine CIC, is an incompatible land use which cannot coexist in close proximity.
13. Project represents unacceptable social, economic and environmental risks that are contrary to Government net zero and land use policies.
14. Project does not abide by the principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development, particularly intra and inter-generational equity.
15. Project is not in the public interest and should be rejected.

This would be a climate change catastrophe as it is the single most polluting project in NSW since the Paris Agreement.
The Hunter Valley Operations Continuation Project would be responsible for 1.2 billion tonnes of total carbon emissions.

I support the project

Please find attached DAMSHEG INC's and Prof Penny Sackett's Climate Change evidence to the IPC for the Mt Pleasant expansion, which equally applies as evidence against these continuation projects.

Object to project attached my submission

Integrated Reliability Solitons provides mining maintenance and reliability services to HVO through onsite labour hire and material purchases.

This continuation project will provide reassurance in our market (which can generally be hot and cold) that will allow us to plan and hopefully grow internally and therefore support HVO further if demand requires or expand to take on new clients.

Integrated Reliability Solutions (IRS) supports HVO in its projects and endeavours, this project will not only benefit IRS but the local and wider community through continued and growing employment, local manufacture and materials procurement.

We look forward to continued working with and support to HVO

Regards

Matthew Pullin
Engineering and Commercial Manager
Integrated Reliability Solutions

I run a small business that has been supported by the coal mining industry for nearly 25 years. I wish to continue my business in the coal mining industry and the mine expansion will assist in that regard. Hunter Valley Operations being a current client of mine.

Please see the attached letter to explain our reasons for supporting this project.

I object to the Hunter Valley Operations Open Cut Coal Continuation Project (North and South) because the project will impose health impacts for humans and horses which have not been properly assessed.

I object to HVO North Open Cut Coal Continuation Project and HVO South Open Cut Coal Continuation Project
I understand that, although listed as two separate projects on NSW DPE’s submissions page, HVO North Open Cut Coal Continuation Project and HVO South Open Cut Coal Continuation Project, the projects are being assessed as a single Project, so a single submission will be accepted covering both Projects.
1. Greenhouse Gas emissions
We are all aware of the need to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions if we are to stay within the levels agreed to in the Paris Agreement. We have all witnessed the escalation of extreme weather events caused by climate change across the world.
We are increasingly aware of the harmful consequences of PM 2.5 emissions
Approval of this project, which would be responsible for 1.2 billion tonnes of total carbon emissions, would be unconscionable.
2. Indigenous heritage values compromsied
Further the Plains Clans of the Wonnarua People (PCWP) object to any expansion of open cut coal mining at HVO because of the significant Aboriginal cultural heritage values which would be impacted by this Project and concerning which the PCWP have lodged a Section 10 application to the Commonwealth under the ATSIHP Act
3. Environmental degredation
The proposal poses a completely unacceptable impost on the environment in that:
the Project would clear 397 ha of native vegetation, 97.4 ha of which is home to Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs), an additional reason to reject the application
and
two huge voids, which will slowly be filled with salty water, will be left in perpetuity.
4. The NSW Mining Act and the Commonwealth Environment Protection And Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 both have provisions which require a mining title holder to be ‘fit and proper’. Glencore, which owns 49% of this project, has been found guilty of behaviour which marks it as not ‘fit and proper’ in a number of jurisdictions across the world. In Australia, Glencore is facing an investigation by ASIC over greenwashing and “misleading and deceptive” conduct linked to their claims about cutting carbon emissions.
In the interests of intergenerational equity and the precautionary principle this Project must be rejected.

We need to keep this mine going for local employment both directly and indirectly.

Economic analysis is inadequate. The economic analysis does not reflect the true costs of the Project as it underestimates or ignores the environmental and other industry impacts/costs and over estimates the benefits.
The Project will bring the visual impacts of mining (dust, noise and blasting) closer to the town of Jerrys Plains, and closer to the operations of Coolmore, one of the key operators in the Hunter Valley thoroughbred breeding industry.

as attached.

This project will provide ongoing local jobs both in the construction and operational stages.

I have been involved in the Hunter Valley Mining Industry both directly and indirectly for over 44 years. In this time I have seen many positive changes in the industry, environmentally, industrially, technologically and productivity wise.
There is no argument the world is changing, and we must change with it, however the worldwide demand for Australian energy assets is at an unprecedented level with prices at levels never seen before.
I support the HVO South Open Cut Coal Continuation Project for the following reasons:
- World wide demand for Australian Fossil Fuels is high due to its relative cleanliness and reliability of supply.
- Prices are high contributing to increased government royalties and company profits.
- To not approve this Project would put 2000 people directly out of a job without considering the multiplier effect. This would turn the Hunter Valley into a rust belt overnight.
I propose the Project should go ahead with Coal Companies and State and Federal Governments putting together a working group developing a strategy with strict timelines that allows the Hunter Valley to transition and diversify its economy over time.

The project will provide sustainable employment futures for many people over the course of the project.

HVO has invested in new technologies to mine at an industry best practice for the duration of the project.