With the price of coal so low can the threat to our farms and water supply be justified? Destroying valuable pristine country and risking our irreplaceable artesian water basin is very short-sighted and totally unnecessary in my view.
I strongly object to any proposal to mine in the area indicated.

Coal mining cannot be the future of the planet.
The short term gain cannot be allowed to threaten the survival of the planet & it's inhabitants.

Buffer zones or areas of affectation.
My residence is 2kms from the project. I will be affected by noise, dust, increased traffic, new rail loop, blasting and other impacts that I probably don't know about yet.
The modelling done by this company puts my residence ( I am receiver 65)at moderately impacted and therefore maybe I am due some mitigation, yet all my neighbours in the village of Bylong are severely impacted therefore acquisition could be their scenario. How does that work?
Nowhere in the EIS can I find any information on buffer zones. Why is that?
How can this company suggest to me after me having lived here for 17 years that their modelling for all the above impacts will have little or no affect on me or my business.
I am saddened, frustrated and anxious by the complete lack of disregard for my situation by Kepco.

I wholeheartedly object to the proposal by KEPCO to mine the Bylong Valley for coal. Governments have the attitude of rip it out and sell it off as quickly as possible and be damned to the long-term consequences.
The Bylong valley is and area of prime agricultural land and of great scenic beauty. It is an environmentally diverse region that cannot be adequately protected from the ravages of open cut mining.
The short term gain of mining should be balanced against the long term need for agricultural land Once the coal is mined it is gone forever, however there will always be a need for food. The impact on the community there needs to be considered also. Too often we see Governments prepared to ignore the requirements of a community in their desire for resources mining. The stress and disruption to families in this instance is too high a price to pay.
I therefore appeal to the Minister to refuse to allow this development to go ahead.

I don't live in the Bylong but visit it regularly and come from a long line farmers and graziers. Destroying this food producing land is a despicable thing to do and ironical that Asia wants our clean food so why destroy the land that produces it? Quasi rehabilitation is a joke; why destroy it in the first place? And who supervises the rehabilitation? Many mines around the country have just been left when production ceases. You can't replace water tables and put top soils back where they were or bring back the dead animals to a non-existent habitat. Crazy on so many levels.

Why would the state and federal govt let Kepco build a new greenfield mine in the Bylong Valley which will significantly impact the following.
Prime Agricultural land, BSAL plus critical equine cluster land.
Almost 2,000 million litres of water per year in a valley which is already over allocated with irrigation water.
Threatened bird, mammal and plant species.
Important aboriginal and European heritage.
Noise and dust pollution on a pristine valley.
Possible negative impacts on the natural population of the Wollemi Pine, discovered close by.
Social impacts.
The list goes on, why not let these first time miners practice on an already up and running project, no new mine in Bylong!

Mental health/ well being issues.
The first time I met a representative from Cockatoo Coal, I immediately thought these guys not only have done a geology/mining degree, they also do psychology. The average rural folk tell the truth, believe they are hearing the truth and a handshake deal is all that is needed. What a game changer when a mining company rolls into town.
To see the social fabric ripped apart, friends not friends anymore, closure of our local school, population decline, a famous Bylong charity event fold from lack of numbers to run the event,because they now own 78% of the exploration licence. I bet they smile and rub their hands together, thinking the plan is working, divide and conquer, in next to no time everyone we need will fold and stuff the others that are left behind. All this and they haven't got a mining licence yet. All this worry, stress, anxiety for the last 5 years and it was only on the 14th October this year that the community got to voice an opinion to the planning dept without the miners present. What a total lack of disregard for the community by the NSW govt.
you hear the same scenario all over, every mining company treats the local inhabitants exactly the same, disrespect, disregard, very disappointing.
No wonder people go to extreme measures to get their point across and will continue to do so while the shoddy treatment of hard working honest rural people by mining companies and govt departments continues.
You can run out the slogans RU OK and beyond blue etc, just a bandaid, tick box measure, no one cares, no one is asking. An epidemic will be created if these issues are not addressed, I kid you not.

My heart just breaks at the thought of what is about to happen. Ugly, disgusting coal mines disfiguring our beautiful country all for short term gain for a foreign company . I have seen and will never forget the site of the open cut mines in the Hunter. The people running this country should be ashamed of themselves. We need innovation and thought of a sustainable future. Food bowls not dust bowls.
WE DON'T NEED COAL for energy! WE have SUN, WIND AND THE SEA.

I request that this application is rejected in its entirety.
There should be no coal mines allowed on or anywhere near the prime agricultural land, such as Bylong Valley.
Furthermore, Bylong Valley is on the edge of the Wollemi National Park, and potential effects on the park (water table and air contamination, visual pollution) are unacceptable. I have visited the valley many times in the past and walked in the adjacent national park, so can say that it is sheer madness to even consider an open cut or underground coal mine in that location. The area has also rich Aboriginal habitation history, and the proposed mine is going to destroy over a hundred of identified sites (over 40% of the total sites in the valley). If it were allowed to happen, it would simply be criminal.

Dear Sir/ Madam

I am 73 and in all my life have I never seen such a disgraceful act of selling out our Country to the Overseas Multi Nationals as I have over the last decade.
I am absolutely disgusted with the Government and the nameless Bureaucrats who make these decisions without knowing anything about the communities they want to destroy by selling out to Overseas Companies who up and leave a landscape destroyed for ever.

I travel from Maitland to Rylstone about 5 or 6 times to visit my sister and the drive through the Bylong Valley never seems to amaze me to all its beauty, but prior to the Sandy Hollow turn off all there is slag piles from mines thru the Hunter Valley, nothing to look at , no beauty nothing. Yet this NSW Planning Department want to destroy this lovely Valley with approval of these mines they will destroy the Bylong Valley for ever, but these faceless men who sit in Sydney would not have a clue to this wanton destruction to so many lives who have farmed this lovely Valley for centuries. The thought of digging up graves of our pioneers is next to lowest thing I can think of.

I am sorry but my respect for the NSW Liberal Government has gone, not that the Labor are any better, but you are in Government, and have the say and stop this desegregation of our Agriculture land.

This fight is not just for the Bylong Valley but the Liverpool Plains also who have the same fight.

I am not a Greenie by any means but an all round Aussie, who has travelled this lovely country and seen it in all its glory, but Governments are selling out the real Australia.

I have lived in a great time, but I feel sorry for the future Generations to come as the Governments of the day are stuffing it up.

Men of the Planning Commission think before your name is attached to this list of people who stuff this Country up.

Remember food and water are our life blood, don't destroy it.

KARMA

Regards
Kevin