Warkworth Coal Mine Continuation

i have worked in the hunter valley for the last five years i feel that we need this approval to go forward and to help support the local community. i always try to spend with local singleton business when i can and have done community work in that area if this approval doesn't go ahead i will have to do fly in fly out to support my family we dont need any more job losses for the hunter valley

I am a miner at Mount Thorley Warkworth.

I moved here 2 1/2 years ago from a remote mining town in WA to seek a better life style for my family and a chance for better schooling for my children. We chose the Hunter Valley to keep our family together and not have to resort to a fly in fly out situation.

I am very concerned if not stressed about our extension for our mine. The worries we have that if this is not passed the job security for our future, of not only ourselves but our community as a whole will be hugely impacted...
And the Fly in/out that I was avoiding may be my only option for my family....

Mount Thorley Warkworth put $200 million into the local Hunter Valley economy each year. They also pay $220 million in wages and salaries to their employees me being one of them, which in turn we spend it locally and not to mention the $95 million in royalties that the government receives a year that is then reinvested back into the community for example health and education which benefits us all.

I honestly urge you for my family, my workmates and their families and the families in the Hunter Valley that rely on mining, that you look favourably for the extension of this mine.

Yours Sincerely

Joanne-Lea Chirgwin

I have been employed at MTW for eighteen years. My brother and son in-law are also employed at MTW. Our families depend on MTW for or lively hood. I have good mates that also work at MTW, they depend on mining for their lively hood. 1300 employees and families depend on the mine. I have a mate that has a business at Thornton who employ's Fifteen people. The biggest percentage of work they do is in the mining industry. His employees depend on mining for their job security. I live at Clarence Town and there is a large number of people in this town alone that work in the mines or work for companies that do work for the mining industry. All these people spend their money at the small local businesses which keeps their employees in work. The mining industry is the back bone of the Hunter Valley economy so I strongly support the MTW extension and mining activities in the hunter valley. Take away mining from the Hunter Valley and you will affect more than just miners you will affect the whole Hunter Valley economy, the economy of NSW and Australia because the flow on tax effects will be enormous.

I use to work at MTW as a vehicle mechanic and see hundreds of people each day. It would be the worst thing in the world if they lost their jobs. Not to mention sad. Not only that but the horrific domino effect it would have on other businesses who's sole trading is from this mine.

My friends and family rely on the mine so they can earne an imcome to support their loved ones. Also the community including many charitys and churches depend on the working community so that they can give to the sick, poor and diadvantaged. Any extra money that I have is given to my church and I know that if I didnt have a job my donation would be missed. My church feeds the poor, sick, homeless and has helped many people with marital problems, cured of drug problems etc. I thank you for your acknowledgement of my submission.

I personally would love the extention to go ahead, Ive waited years till my children were old enough , so i could throw myself into this career, I didnt wait all this time for my career to end so suddenly, I see the great work they do to get the areas that were mined back to there former glory, I also think that without mining alot of areas would suffer, especially my cessnock area.

For me personally this submission is extremely important as my employment at Mt Thorley/Warkworth is my only source of income of which my children are also dependant on. Keeping MTW going is also beneficial to the local and its surrounding areas in regard to follow on effects of if the expansion does not go ahead and there are job losses these job losses also go down the chain to other industry as when people dont have money they can not spend can they and this affects the little and big people from the local supermarket to the local hairdresser or newsagent. MTW provide a lot of funding to local communities in regard to donations and these people will also be affected.

as one of 1300 direct empolyees i worry not only for all our familys but the thousands of other people indirectly affected should we loose our jobs! above and beyond the mine reducing and eventually stoping spending with many locals companys, also will cease donations to countless charities and comunity groups. i personallly have recieved the rewards of such donations when the wespac rescue helicopter was called to my 10 day old daughter! many if not most of us have donations taken fortnightly directly out of our pay to this fine service. the effects of this submission are far reaching, well beyond just our jobs and that is the thing that should be kept first and formost in peoples minds!!!

as a farther to a young family i need to keep my job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.APPROVE THE APPLICATION

I personaly suport this application as i moved my family to the hunter valley to provide a good future for them and have recently purchased a house in the local comunity and put a lot back into the comunity as do a lot of the 1300 employees at mtw. mtw also injects .a massive amout of money with local and surounding comunity For Mt Thorley Warkorth to gain aproval to keep mining is extremly important not only to myself and my fellow co-workers but is just as important to the local and surounding comunities. For this mine to shut down it will have a massivly devistating efect on the businesses

I would like to see this proposal go forward not only on a personal level but the region as well. Personally i rely on MTW for employment to have a lifestyle, put food on the table for my family, get my kids a good education and pay for my daughters medical needs which are lifelong. On the other scale the Hunter region has not faired very well with a number of significant employers closing the doors and reducing the numbers over the last decade or more. There also hasnt been much employment growth in the region so without this proposal going through i will be forced to move from the valley and seek employment elsewhere uprooting my family as well as money from the hunter economy. Lets hope sense prevails and this porposal goes ahead. Thanks

I strongly beleive the mine lease should br granted,

I have lived in Singleton for 5 years and worked at MTW for that amount of time i relocated to Singleton to commence work at MTW. We live local 10 mins from the mine i can honestly say Singleton needs the mine to go a head times are very tough. I need my job as iam the sole bread winner in my house hold

Who will provide jobs to 1300 unemployed workers ??

The depth of those affected by the result of the Mount Thorley Warkworth extension application extend beyond myself, a 23 year old female independant home owner, as well as the thousands of individuals, families, businesses and industries across the Hunter who are directly supported by the operation. It stretches across the entire country. I understand and am a passionate and active supporter of sustaining the environment. I believe the importance of the families who reply on the mines operations outweigh the impact on the environment as there is constant active measures being made to reduce and improve the effects.

i feel that this submission need to go ahead as a manager of a retail business in a mining community i have seen personally what a mine being shut down can do to local business and community. in the past 12 months my local community has started to suffer due to local mines shutting down there operations and for nsw to go forward i think we need mining

*The new application for Warkworth mine, whilst touted as different, proposes to mine an area that has previously been denied by two courts.
We believe that to submit such an application is extremely arrogant, an abuse of process, a contempt of the Court system and shows a disdain for the residents of Bulga and the fragile ecology of the Warkworth Sands Woodland. It is breathtaking in its indication of the self importance that Rio Tinto feels and the hide which the company exhibits in
re submitting the application.

*The NSW Land and Environment Court examined the proposal to mine this area in very great detail and rejected it as without merit. In its' examination, the Court allowed very great leniency to Rio Tinto in daily adducing more and more evidence in support of its application, even though all matters to be raised should have been submitted to all parties in the `discovery ` period before the case.

Subsequently this Company cried "foul" and they, and the Government of NSW lodged an appeal with the NSW Supreme Court claiming a lack of fairness and a number of other procedural errors. In a unanimous decision, the three most senior judges in the Supreme Court found against them and dismissed the appeal.

*The EIS submitted in support of the application is a massive 14 volumes. This is written in response to a document called "the Secretary's Requirements" (previously known as DGR requirements). This document, issued by the NSW Dept. of Planning, was published on 22 May 2014. The 14 volumes of the EIS, purporting to answer the Secretary's Requirements was published on or before 13 June 2014. It beggars belief that such a document could have been prepared in this time, properly addressing the matters in the Secretary's Requirements. And, in fact our case is, the document does not properly address these requirements.

In the EIS, Rio has included huge volumes of data and statistics from far and wide in the Hunter Valley. And some local and relevant matters. Some of these statistics are so demonstrably wrong as to lead one to assume that the writers were being loose with the truth, or more blatantly, lying!! One particular in demonstration of this is in Table 4.4 in Appendix P. The Company states that 23.8% of privately owned properties in Bulga are unoccupied that is 37 houses. Of the 156 houses in the Bulga area, we know of 3 that are unoccupied, two are mine owned, one being fire damaged and uninhabitable for years, the other having been found to contain asbestos. The third house is not occupied full time as it is a deceased estate, however the family do spend weekends there. Another statistic shows the demographic of miners employed at the site. It shows 30 odd percent live in the Singleton Shire and 17 odd percent live in Maitland. This figure must have been taken from a very limited survey of employees as we have other statistics which show 25% live in Singleton Shire and 32% live in Maitland. The skewing of these statistics would then heavily influence subsequent figures showing the economic impact of the mine closing, etc., There are many other errors (or lies) found on a close reading of the 14 volumes.

*The Managing Director of Rio Tinto Coal keeps bleating that 1300 jobs are at risk, in the Executive Summary of the EIS it shows 1187 jobs, our information is somewhat less than that, however, were the mining to cease in 2015 as claimed by the EIS (current approval continues until 2012) some hundreds of jobs would still exist in care and maintenance and rehabilitation. We would say that Mr. Salisbury is trying to blackmail the Government by continuously repeating the 1300 number. The truth would be appreciated.

In any event, what price a number of mining jobs over the 380 residents of Bulga and the other locals living in Warkworth, Long Point, Gouldsvillle, Broke, Fordwich and Milbrodale. These folk will have their lives made intolerable by the presence of the mine with the additional dust, noise, blast effects etc., These folk have seen their property values decline by more than 11% (by Valuer General Figures) and in fact cannot sell at any price as demonstrated by the local market.

*In an interesting statistic, it is shown that the population of Bulga has grown by almost twice the National average between the 2006 and 2011 Census. This demonstrates that people did consider this a good place to live, and raise a family. It certainly puts paid to the statements that villages in the area are declining as people move to larger towns or cities. In addition - and very importantly - the growth was in no small part due to a sense of security felt by locals after the 2003 approval, when the Government required Rio Tinto to sign a Deed which was to preserve Saddle Ridge and other areas in perpetuity - but Rio Tinto, in an incredible display of disdain for rules, never executed the requirements of the Deed and subsequently secretly induced Minister Hazzard to amend it so it has no effect.

Many residents made life decisions based on the existence of the Deed, bought homes, built homes, induced families to move here or stay here, or did not move when they could. Those families feel particularly cheated. More so when Rio Tinto says they cannot be held responsible for the life decisions of others!

*In the Secretary's Requirements, specific mention is made of the concerns of Bulga residents and certain criteria are to be addressed. In the EIS various vague statements like "local residents perceive that there will be increased noise/dust - but we will out in place measures to address that" This Is not addressing the social impacts, but making a general statement which is not in the terms or spirit of what is required. In fact a "Social Impact Management Plan" is necessary under the terms of the Secretary's requirements to address the likely impacts - this is totally missing from the EIS.

*Considerable work was done by the consultants to the Mine, EMM in interviewing local residents and assessing their `perceived', `subjective' views - none of this material is included in the EIS

*MTW does not employ 1300 workers, as indicated by parts of the EIS and statements by Managing Director Rio Tinto Coal Australia. At various stages in the EIS it talks of 1300 employees, a table 5.1 in Appendix P shows a total of 1300, but in the Executive Summary is a reference to 1187 employees - is this a lie?

*EIS says there is no measureable impact on water. This is a patent lie. The present landform west of Saddle ridge slopes substantially to the west, towards the Wollombi Brook. Rain which falls on this slope would normally find its way , via creeks, seasonal streams and underground aquifers into the Brook. When the area is subject to Open Cut mining, all water will fall into the pit. At the simple equation of 25mm of rain on 1 hectare = 1 megalitre of water, then if the 768 Hectares is mined, at the average annual rainfall of 600mm per annum, the potential is to lose at least 18,432 megalitres of runoff water per annum. A total of over 313,000 megalitres over the projected life of the project. This number does not take account of the consequent loss of flows from unidentified underground aquifers that are in the area that will be impacted by these mines, neither does it take account of interrupted flows from the amended plan for Mount Thorley Mine. It is well known that exposed ground of Open Cut mines and the consequent unfilled pits create and collect polluted water, mainly saline, this will increase if the mine goes ahead and creates a huge new void.

*This project cannot be considered in isolation. In this area of the Hunter Valley we have Bulga Underground and Open Cut mine to the South East, Mount Thorley and Warkworth Mine to the East, Hunter Valley Operations to the North East and Wambo mine continuing around from North to North West. All of these mines create noise and dust, which are the major immediate impact on residents. If a dust exceedence is recorded, it is very difficult to identify the culprit mine, leading to a lot of "don't talk to us - it was them" statements when complaints are made.

Similarly all of these mines make noise and each blames the other for exceedences. Despite fairly sophisticated monitors being available, Warkworth mine, operating as Mount Thorley Warkworth does not have real time monitors in place in proper locations to measure noise and therefore adjust their operation to ensure compliance with limits. They seem to rely on complaints from residents, and then deny an exceedence because their measuring and monitors are in the wrong place.

* In the EIS, Executive Summary it is stated that the mine has very few issues of non-compliance with consent conditions - this was obviously written by someone who does not read the call logs of complaints. Whilst we do not have numbers, it is clear from conversations with residents that hundreds of complaints are made each year to the Mine and to Compliance Officers. These complaints are not trivial and very often noise exceedences are three and more times the consent limit.

*Same with dust, if we have a windy day the thousands of hectares of exposed ground from SE to NW produce huge volumes of dust, much of it PM10 fine particulates. The Many millions of litres of diesel burned each year in the mines produce PM2.5 very fine particles.

There are NO safe levels of exposure to PM2.5 and PM 10 particles, someone in the Dept .of Planning has set an arbitrary number of so much per cubic metre per day - not in accord with NSW Dept. of Health or World Health Organisation guidelines - these are constantly exceeded, leading to a high incidence of respiratory disease, asthma in children and general illness in the community.

* Warkworth Sands Woodlands is a unique landform and ecology only occurring in this area, no amount of offsets can replace or replicate it. If mined the Warkworth sands will disappear forever. As demonstrated during the Land & Environment Court hearing, the WS supports a plethora of endangered species of flora and substantial colonies of endangered fauna. Should the woodland be mined it is likely that the remnants of this flora and fauna would struggle to survive in new and different environments.

* Offsets. Again in the Land and Environment Court hearing, much was made of the fact that the mine was offering large volumes of offsets to the mined area, but some of them hundreds of Kilometres away, near Ulan and Putty. Mr. Justice Preston found this very unsatisfactory as the offsets were not "Like for Like", that is the forests were different, both ecologically and in species of flora and fauna. In any event it was noted that these offsets already existed, so did nothing additional to improve ecological quality or diversity per se., but , the judge noted, like for like offsets should be just that, and close by so that, the local ecology could be somewhat maintained. Further, there is nothing in Law that says these offsets will remain, should a coal reserve be found below these areas there is no bar to them being mined!! Thus demonstrating that the offset policy is little more than farcical.

* In the Warkworth Sands Woodlands and on Saddle Ridge are significant aboriginal heritage sites, grinding grooves, middens, Burial and Bora Grounds. These must be preserved to protect and preserve our indigenous heritage. No coal sold overseas is worth the destruction of these important sites. This is not a specious claim, these sites have been identified for many years and many of the Wonnoruah people who live locally recognize and respect them.

* In the 1820s and beyond, when Bulga was first found by our white ancestors, the Surveyor , General, Sir Thomas Mitchell, surveyed roads through the area, including what is now known as Wallaby Scrub Road. This road, running between the Putty Road and Bulga and the Golden Highway at Warkworth. This is a continuation of the Great North Road which began at Wisemans Ferry and allowed access to the Upper Hunter Valley. Now this road is still an important route, paralleling the wartime Wallaby Scrub Airstrip and cutting the corner between Mount Thorley and Warkworth and beyond. The Bulga Rural Fire brigade has responsibility for the area to the north, extending to a few Kilometres short of Jerrys Plains. If the Wallaby Scrub Road is closed, emergency vehicles will take a minimum of 8 minutes extra to travel the highways to these areas. In addition they will have to traverse considerable extra traffic which can lead to delays and its own emergency issues. In the last few years the area from Warkworth to jerrys Plains has been the site of a number of major vehicle crashes and fires, even an 8 minute delay in responding can mean that the situation becomes more critical. Bulga Rural Fire Service has members trained as "Community First Responders" that is they have had specialist trauma training and can render much more than emergency first aid to trauma victims and in cases of medical emergency.

While the mine has offered a fire trail within their western boundary this will only allow access to the mine site and not be a reasonable emergency vehicle route.

* The visual impacts of an Open Cut mine are dreadful, large piles of exposed rock, crushed by blasting and excavation, huge lights at night to facilitate night operations, dust clouds following blasting and on windy days and the general `moonscape' presented by a huge earthmoving operation. In its 2003 EIS Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine conceded that Saddle Ridge was an important visual barrier between residents to the west, including Bulga and Warkworth, now they say it is of no consequence and removing Saddle ridge will have minimal visual impact.

This is total rubbish, any of the residences in Bulga located higher than the creek bank will be looking directly into the mine and will be effected by the continuing workings. The mine proposes to plant screen trees - which would become effective as a visual barrier just about the time the mine finishes in 2031. Saddle ridge MUST remain as a noise and visual protection for the village and surrounds.

* Not being an economic expert makes informed comment somewhat difficult, however, since the Land & Environment Court found the project had no economic merit in 2012, the only thing that has changed is that the price of coal has reduced. The natural consequence of this is - if the project was not economically good then it is worse now!

* The social impact on residents of Bulga and surrounding districts is immense, as found by Professor Albrecht in his evidence to the Land & Environment Court. Residents feel constant abandonment and loss of sense of place and see that this project will substantially reduce their, quality of life, their property values, their ability to have their expected quiet enjoyment of their homes and the relaxed rural lifestyle that seemed guaranteed by the 2003 Deed. In fact they feel cheated by the Mine and the Government, they feel marginalized as a small community fighting a multinational mining giant and they feel a distinct lack of trust in the planning process.

This lack of trust is exacerbated by the NSW Governments recent amendment to the Mining SEPP that makes economics the key consideration in assessing such projects, the same Government changing the rules relating to offsets and the Government's failure to enforce consent conditions on the existing mine. They have NO faith that noise dust and blasting limits will not be exceeded as the mine demonstrates today it cannot (or will not) keep within imposed limits. If it is too noisy and too dusty when it is 7kms away, how could one expect it to be less noisy and less dusty at 2.6km distance!!

* Returning to economics, today 82% of mining profits are directed overseas, and recently it has been demonstrated that companies have many avenues of reducing their profits through international measures. Rio Tinto is a multinational and sends its profits overseas, it also is actively working to reduce its' workforce through automation, with driverless trains, driverless trucks, huge investments into automated mining processes and the recent moves to reduce its contractor workforce.

I support the expansion as it is vital to not only the 1300 employees at the mine but to the whole area. Coal mining has been in this area for over 100 years and should be for the next 100.

I support the expansion as it is vital to not only the 1300 employees at the mine but to the whole area. Coal mining has been in this area for over 100 years and should be for the next 100.

my name is greg eaton i have worked in the mining industie for 10 years all over australia,4 years of that has been at mount thorley/warkworth.we need the extention for job for the future of my family and all the familys and busneses that rely on suport