Please find submissions attached

I strongly object to the granting of a mining lease, and the conjunctive rail and electrical power projects, on the grounds that it cause irreparable damage to the local aquifers. My full submission is attached. Thank you.

Supporting submission for the Hume Coal project
The Southern Highlands is an established coal mining area.
The first coal mine in the Southern Highlands, the Cataract Mine, was opened in 1867 to supply the Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong. That colliery closed in 1877, the same year in which the ironworks blast furnace was shut down.
There have been numerous coal mines operating in the shire. There were at least 8 in the Medway area, another 4 in the Bundanoon area and 7 in the Mittagong area. However, most people living in the Southern Highlands are not aware that of all of these collieries operated in the Wingecarribbee Shire.
Berrima Colliery opened in 1924 at Medway and served the Berrima Cement Works until the colliery reached the end of its economic life and closed in November 2013. It had operated for 89 years making it the longest operating colliery in the Southern Highlands.
Very few people even realised that the coal mine was there, so residents in the Southern Highlands should not be in fear of another colliery being opened and in particular the Hume Coal project.
The reason why I know these facts is that I was the Mine Manager at Berrima Colliery in the Southern Highlands in the 2008 to 2009 period and I am co-author of a recently published book titled Â"A History of the Prospecting and Development of Coal Mining in the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and Burragorang ValleyÂ" (Book 2). This book is available for purchase on-line from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) website. Also, this book is stocked in libraries such as Wollongong Library and UOW Library.
The mine design of the Hume Coal project minimises the impact of surface subsidence by not having coal extraction systems such as longwall mining.
It is a standard operating condition of the NSW government that the mine must provide an alternative water supply if any landholder, farm or other industry should lose its water supply. The practical method of achieving that is to provide one or more boreholes to an aquifer below the Wongawilli coal seam for each landholder, farm or other industry. This is exactly what was done at Berrima Colliery when I was the Mine Manager there. Farmers should not be fearful of losing their water which is what the Â"scaremongersÂ" are telling them.
The Hume Coal project has installed a Â"sight screenÂ" of trees so the nearby landholders and other members of the public will not see the mine.
The environmental reports show that the nearby landholders will not hear the project being constructed and the impact on air quality will be minimal for the life of the project. The Hawkesbury Sandstone groundwater resource will not be impacted long term by the Hume Coal project.
Coal is one of AustraliaÂ's most important and valuable exports. Our national, state and local economy relies heavily on coal mining so the Hume Coal project benefits all Australians. The net benefit of the Hume Coal project to the local Southern Highlands economy will be more than 120 million dollars and the net benefit to NSW will be more than 360 million dollars.
Coal mining provides coal for steel making, cement manufacture and generates over 80 per cent of the electricity for the three eastern states of Australia. The coal from the Wongawilli seam in the Hume Coal project area is excellent for blending with other coking coals and it is perfect for cement manufacturing at locations such as the Berrima Cement Works which is presently trucking its coal supply into the area from Lithgow.
More than 300 direct employees living locally would be employed at the coal mine and their employment will benefit many others. The federal governmentÂ's tables of multiplier effects show that more than three times as many indirect jobs are created for every person employed in a coal mine.
The coal mined by the Hume Coal project will be transported by rail, utilising the Berrima Branch Line. The state government benefits by its charges for the rail transport of coal which enables passenger rail fares to be cheaper in this state. Road safety is enhanced by rail transport of bulk products such as coal instead of having more coal trucks on our roads.
For all of these reasons I fully support the Hume Coal project.