Port Waratah Coal Services - Terminal 4

I am writing in support of jobs and investment in infrastructure in NSW and in particular to support Port Waratah Coal Services' Terminal 4 project (T4).
NSW needs new infrastructure to meet future demand for the state's biggest export industry, including an additional coal export terminal at Kooragang Island in the Port of Newcastle.
The T4 expansion will ensure sufficient terminal capacity to meet the long term needs of industry in the Hunter Valley and bring jobs in construction of the new facility and in mines and the hundreds of businesses supplying our mines into the future.
Like most people in NSW, I want to see a strong and prosperous future for our sate's mining industry so that jobs and economic opportunities continue to be provided throughout regional NSW.

Support our coal industry.

The NSW Govt put in place a set of legal and commercial arrangements to provide land to PWCS to develop T4 as a common user terminal as part of a long term solution to the growth requirements of the Hunter Valley coal chain.
PWCS T4 development will provide the certainty for otther stakeholders to make very large investments in expanding the coal chain.
PWCS has the track record in developing, operating and expanding terminals, it has a world class safety and environmental record and engages well with the community.
Regardless of alternate energy scenarios coal will still be required for decades as the most efficient way to export base load energy around the world ( the only more efficient way is nuclear).
I support this submission as the appropriate solution on the appropriate site to the needs of NSW and the Hunter Valley coal chain to provide certainty for growth.
Newcastle, the region, the State and the Country benefit from the trade that this terminal will service.
I support PWCS as a good corporate citizen with excellant track record and I support the concept and location of the terminal as the most appropriate.

PWCS is a major part of the Hunter valley coal chain which provides many benifits to the community. These include jobs and revenue for school and hospitals funding

I support the development of T4. It will create jobs for the Hunter Region and income for NSW. It will also make use of a site which was a former dumping ground in need of remediation.

PWCS T4 Development provides environmental solutions to fix up the problems of the existing waste site. In addition, the construction and operation of the T4 coal terminal will create significant economical benetifs to the Newcastle and Sydney regions.

Being a local resident I agree with the building of a 4th coal terminal on Kooragang. I believe it is a great boost to the region to have this industry succeed as the worlds largest coal export terminal, it "puts Newcastle on the world map" and gives jobs to many.Having worked in the industry for 32 years I have seen how this industry is a great blessing to so many.

I object to this project and believe that the community health, environmental and socioeconomic impacts will have far outweigh any short term benefits it is claimed it will deliver. These include:

Global warming: The burning of an additional 70Mt of coal a year will add 174.2Mt of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This is equal to 30% of Australia's total annual GHG emissions. The International Energy Agency predicts that to limit global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius, global coal demand must peak in 2016, at least a year before PWCS indicates T4's will begin operation.
The Hunter Estuary supports 112 species of waterbirds and nationally and internationally listed threatened species, including the Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus), listed as endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
Deep and Swan Ponds: The Project will wipe out 80% of Deep Pond, which supports at least 11 species of migratory recorded and above the threshold of 0.1 per cent of the Australian flyway population for three migratory shorebird species, and will develop part of Swan Pond which supports three species in numbers that exceed the threshold of 0.1 per cent of the Australian flyway population.
Misuse of public conservation lands: Swan Pond is public land, owned and managed by the National Parks Service under Part 11 of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act. It is part of a highly successful long-term restoration project, the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project (KWRP) and has been the site of significant hours of volunteer labour by the local bird watching club.
Air quality: Newcastle and the Hunter Valley communities are impacted by dust from the mining, transport and stockpiling of coal. An additional 70Mt of coal exported will mean about an additional 7000 trips of 80 wagon trains between the Hunter mines and the port and back again per year, the capacity to export coal from an additional 8 to 10 mega mines and four new 1.5km coal stockpiles will substantially add to PM10 emissions in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.
Air quality modelling flaws: PWCS's air quality modelling continues to use 2010 as a base year. NSW Health has suggested that PWCS should have included "a justification for assuming the PM10 levels in 2010 would be a realistic baseline for modelling future particulate levels or alternatively use, as a baseline, average levels over a longer period of time". This recommendation is ignored in the PPR.
Particle pollution from rail transport: The PPR does not address air quality issues from rail transport returning to the Upper Hunter Valley. PWCS continues to focus on air quality impacts within 20m of the rail corridor, but there are almost 30,000 people living within 500m of the rail corridor and 23,000 students attend 16 schools in that vicinity. The submission to the EA by NSW Health noted that the contribution of coal dust from coal trains beyond 20m from the rail corridor needs to be carefully considered, but this recommendation is ignored.
Justification for the project: There is no justification for the project. PWCS does not commit to building T4 and only suggests an indicative build date of 2015 with operation maybe in 2017. During a major downturn in global coal demand, Newcastle's approved coal export port capacity of 211Mt seems optimistic. Last year only 141Mt of coal was exported meaning 60Mt or 42 per cent of capacity was uninstalled.
Employment: The 120 Mt facility proposed in the EA identified no additional employment would result from its operation. The revised T4 project of 70Mt million of the RT/PPR is identified as employing 80 additional people. How is this possible? This dubious additional employment is not explained.
Economics: PWCS's claimed economic benefits to the region are based on a type of economic modelling the Australian Bureau of Statistics calls "biased" and the Productivity Commission says is regularly "abused", usually to overstate the economic importance of specific projects. The original economic assessment of the T4 project suggests its annual operating costs will only be between $45-50 million a year. Since that assessment was made, the size of the project has "almost halved", so the amount of money it will "inject" into the economy has presumably declined considerably. For the terminal to achieve its economic potential, a lot more coal has to be dug up and exported. This means that a lot more bush and agricultural land needs to be turned into coal mines. A lot more coal trains need to pass through Newcastle's suburbs. At the site of the proposal, a significant wetland would have to be destroyed. And, of course, the extra coal being burned would contribute to climate change. None of these costs are considered in the economic assessment commissioned by PWCS. (Read Rod Campbell's economic analysis here.)

I am writing in support of Port Waratah Coal Services' Terminal 4 project (T4).
NSW needs jobs and investment in the state's biggest export industry, including an additional coal export terminal at Kooragang Island in the Port of Newcastle.
This expansion will help ensure sufficient terminal capacity to meet the long term needs of industry in the Hunter Valley and bring jobs in construction of the new facility and in mines and the hundreds of businesses supplying our mines into the future.
I want to see a good future for our sate's mining industry so that jobs and other opportunities continue to be provided throughout regional NSW.

I am in full support of the T4 project.

PWCS is a responsible employer and member of the local business community with a vast number of donations made every year to a variety of local recipients.

The T4 project will benefit many businesses and families in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley both directly and indirectly through an increase in local jobs and $ spent in the area.
The habitat offsets purchased by PWCS for the T4 project more than compensate for the industry waste land that frogs and migratory birds have unfortunately taken to. This is no pristine environment being damaged wilfully by environmental vandals, it is a toxic dump that will be capped and managed in an environmentally friendly and responsible way to provide a useful area suitable for the industry.

I support T4 - excellent progress and opportunity for Newcastle

I absolutely support this project and the benefits it will bring to Newcastle

I wish to support the T4 proposal for the following reasons:-
1. PWCS has actively engaged with the community and have taken into consideration the concerns of the community. PWCS regularly meets with community members and addresses concerns in a consultative way
2. PWCS has demonstrated a strong commitment to be socially responsible and to take a lead on environmental improvements
3. PWCS employees approx 440 people directly but there are many more Hunter residents that rely on PWCS business
4. The T4 Project will be constructed on a waste site that is currently in a poorly contained site. This project will cap and contain any contaminates for future generations
5. Noise improvements that PWCS has already demonstrated at both CCT and KCT will be rolled out at T4.
6. Dust controls will mean that the total dust will not exceed the limits set by Government. Further the dust levels have not increased even though the throughput of the Hunter Valley Coal Chain has risen significantly - obviously the control are working
7. The large amount of people in the Hunter region who rely on the coal industry either directly or indirectly will be adversely affected if expansion plans are stopped
8. PWCS supports the community in many ways, donations and support to charities, local community infrastructure and events, training opportunities for apprentices, trainees, uni students etc etc
9. T4 will provide growth opportunities for the Coal Industry, employment opportunities for the hunter region (both during construction and ongoing) and economic benefits for the Newcastle, Hunter regions, NSW and Australia

We of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition in the Newcastle area represent a group of concerned youth in the Newcastle region for the proposed T4 terminal.

It has been made scientifically clear that 80% of fossil fuels must remain in the ground to stay below 2 degrees of catastrophic global warming. The failure to do this will result in particularly detrimental impacts on coastal towns such as Newcastle. The proposed T4 terminal with its significant increase in coal exports will fly in the face of predictions made by organisations such as the International Energy Agency, that coal production must peak in 2016, a full year before the completion of T4.

The PWCS have selected 2010 as the baseline for pollution levels without justification for using this particularly narrow set of data. Without a proper regulatory system of air quality in Australia, we are severely concerned that a project, which will increase particulate air pollution, can be deemed safe without relevant criteria with which to measure it. With a high population density surrounding the coal corridor, this poses significant and unconsidered health risks to residents.

PWCS have justified the proposed T4 with the basis of 80 the creation of 80 new jobs. Considering the clear ending of the mining boom and the Newcastle region undertaking a transition to an economy more reliant on the tourist industry, we fear this proposal will hinder such progress.

In light of this evidence, we as the inheritors of the Newcastle region see this as a triumph of short-termism over a broad strategic plan for the future of our economy.

The coal industry for the Hunter Region and as a export commodity for Australia is an essential part of how we live. It provides royalities that allow for important infrastucture to be built within our communities and allows for essential services to be provided for all. PWCS is a valued business within the community and has a high level of operational ethos driven by Senior Management that truley focuses around the company's social licence to operated within Newcsatle. I have no doubt that the T4 proposal and subsequent construction will bring further prosperity to the region and provide a state of the art Terminal adhering to all standards set and the expectations of the community.
PWCS has and has proven that it can deliver what it says it can do. I support this project completely.
The development of the Terminal 4 infrastructure will allow for the future expansion of mining within the Hunter Valley.
The coal industry not only provides employment to the valley but also provides royalities to the state government to allow for the building of critical infrastructure for the well being of the stae and its residents.
Port Waratah Coal Services is a environmentally responsible company with personnel at all levels striving to achieve the best environmental footprint for the new Terminal 4 but also its existing Terminals at Carrington and Kooragang. I am part of that team with a passion to deliver the best outcome for the local community and the minig industry.




I am concerned for the future of the region both in terms on coal dust and
global warning. There is no need for further expansion in fossil fuels
without any equalising carbon capture technology in place or any firm action
to reduce carbon emissions. This expansion is not beneficial for the Hunter
or our shared future.


The development of the Terminal 4 infrastructure will allow for the future expansion of mining within the Hunter Valley.
The coal industry not only provides employment to the valley but also provides royalities to the state government to allow for the building of critical infrastructure for the well being of the stae and its residents.
Port Waratah Coal Services is a environmentally responsible company with personnel at all levels striving to achieve the best environmental footprint for the new Terminal 4 but also its existing Terminals at Carrington and Kooragang. I am part of that team with a passion to deliver the best outcome for the local community and the minig industry.

I wish to support the Terminal 4 coal loading facility on Kooragang Island.
I see it as a great project utilising worlds best engineering practice as well as looking after the environment.

On behalf of myself and my family I strongly object to the PWCS Terminal 4.
In a place where the sun shines so much there should be investments made in solar energy and in a place where it's flat and windy there should be investments made in wind energy!
Insetad they want to invest more into coal mining which increases air and water pollution locally. The global impacts are obvious as we are reminded of global warming every day.
I worry about my childrens' health and for a valid reason as I can see the coal dust on our house, car and contents.
It embarrasses me to live in a country where the alternative energy sources are so accessible and still not used.
There need to be a longterm focus on global reduction in CO2 emissions and as Newcastle is the largest coal export port in the world this is where changes to more sustainable energy sources should be happening!
Australia could be on the forefront of alternative energy if investments were made into it. There will be greater financial gains from sustainable energy in the future.
I would like politicians who say they are for the T4 to move into a house next to the railway where the coal trains pass by, day after day. Have their kids go to schools in areas where the air quality is worst and then look us residents in the eye and tell us that they are confident that there are no residue particles in the air and that they do not feel worried about living next to the railway!

I SUPPORT THE T4 PROJECT

I support this project 100% Keep the economy in Newcastle strong

I am a medical practitioner and member of Doctors for the Environment Australia. As such, I am writing to oppose this development on several grounds.
The first is that particulate matter is harmful to human health, contributing to an increased burden of respiratory disease in the community (both acute such as asthma and chronic such as COPD and pulmonary fibrosis). This harmful effect is dose dependent and cumulative, i.e: the more an individual is exposed the more severe the adverse health outcomes. I have seen no convincing evidence of effective measures to control the increased coal dust which will be generated by this development and oppose it on this ground. For further information please refer to the DEA Coal briefing paper available online here: http://dea.org.au/topics/article/briefing_paper_on_the_health_aspects_of_coal_and_renewables
Secondly, the world is facing a crisis in the form of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. It is irresponsible to foster the expansion of coal mining and transport by developing coal infrastructure at this time. Funds need to be channeled into development of proven and cost-effective technologies such as solar photovoltaic, large scale solar thermal plants and windpower generation: the latter two can actually satisfy ongoing baseload demand as detailed in the Beyond Zero Emissions 2020 plan:http://media.bze.org.au/ZCA2020_Stationary_Energy_Report_v1.pdf