The Hunter Valley can't afford to lose any more of its critically endangered remnant woodland. It can't afford any worsening air quality or any more draw down of its rivers and alluvial aquifers. It can't afford to worsen the oversupply of coal that is costing jobs. It cannot afford this mine, and the project should not be approved.

Please refer to submission attached

As attached

I strongly object to the further expansion of Wambo and the addition of a new United mine.
If we are to come anywhere close to meeting our international commitments to keep global warming to significantly less than 2 degrees there can be no more new mines.
Committing to an approval for 23 years of 10Mtpa is unacceptable!
With coal in structural decline a very careful assessment also needs to be made of the company's capacity to meet ALL of its obligations should this mine become a stranded asset.
Please do not approve it.
Gillian Reffell

I object to this proposal for the open cut mine project.

I object to the proposed mine on the grounds that it will impact on the habitat of the spotted-tail quoll, a threatened species. I also object to the negative impact this development will bring to the nearby residents in terms of increased noise and other forms of pollution.

I object to the proposed Wambo United development.

The thing that I am most outraged by is the proponent's reliance in part on the Upper Hunter Assessment Strategy, which has not yet been released.

To quote the Newcastle Herald's editorial today (22/9):

"The Upper Hunter Assessment Strategy, first flagged four years ago, is supposed to be a sort of catch-all for biodiversity issues in the Upper Hunter. (...)

"But when a mine - in this case the United Wambo open-cut - seems to be able to refer to a document that no one has seen, it rightfully raises red flags.

"If the mine conforms to the assessment, what exactly is in the assessment? Why has its release been so thoroughly delayed? Is it based on rigorous science? How much say have the firms who helped pay for it had in its structure?"

Lock the Gate makes the following point regarding environmental impacts, showing that - in the absence of this yet-to-be-released strategy - the project violates offset clear offset obligations:

"The proponent is offering a 'biodiversity offset' package that will protect just 7% of the required area of this (Central Hunter Valley Eucalypt Forest) community protection as existing woodland. In contrast 56% of the offset requirement is proposed to be met through future mine rehabilitation. This is a clear violation of the 25% limit on meeting offset obligations through mine rehab promises, and is a clear indication that impacts on this community cannot be offset and the mine should be refused consent."

There can be no natural justice in a referral to the PAC without rigorous public examination of the UHAS: "falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus".

I object to the 'United Wambo Open Cut Coal Mine Project' and fully concur with all of the reasons that have been outlined by the Lock the Gate Alliance:

-This project proposes clearing 464ha of vegetation, close to half of which is Central Hunter Valley Eucalypt Forest, a critically endangered ecological community under the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act.

- The impacts of this project on biodiversity will be unacceptable and it must be refused development consent. It will clear 223ha of a critically endangered ecological community, including moderate to good quality patches that are critical to the community's survival.

- The proponent is offering a 'biodiversity offset' package that will protect just 7% of the required area of this community protection as existing woodland. In contrast 56% of the offset requirement is proposed to be met through future mine rehabilitation. This is a clear violation of the 25% limit on meeting offset obligations through mine rehab promises, and is a clear indication that impacts on this community cannot be offset and the mine should be refused consent.

- 38 nearby residences are predicted to be impacted by increased noise pollution from this project. This area of the Hunter has been severely depopulated because of large scale mining, and further loss of farmers and private residents will cause ongoing destruction of regional social fabric. Increased dust emissions will also exacerbate health problems in the region.

- Threatened species such as the Spotted-tailed Quoll will lose important habitat if this project proceeds. These species are already in severe trouble and any further loss of habitat will drive them towards extinction.

- This mine and the three surrounding it will cause more than two metres draw down in the productive alluvial aquifers of the Hunter River and Wollombi Brook. The cumulative loss of water and productivity in these water sources and the wholesale destruction of surface water catchments for their tributaries is already too great.

- This project has been developed at the expense of the owners of the United mine fulfilling obligations to close and remediate a mine that has been inoperational for six years and which was supposed to cease mining altogether four years ago.

- It's going to leave behind two final voids, and delay rehabilitation at both the United and Wambo mine sites. Final voids are an unacceptable impact of mining that damage waterways for hundreds of years into the future, and are not wanted by the NSW community.

- This is the first mine to be assessed under new economic assessment guidelines, but the economics of it don't stack up.

- There's increased unemployment in the local area for this project since early 2014. Over the same period at least half a dozen damaging mine expansion projects were approved by the State Government on the basis that doing so would be good for employment in the region. New mine approvals are not securing jobs in the Hunter, and we need another strategy.

- This mine is going to exacerbate the oversupply of coal in the export market, which has been a key driver of job losses. Further oversupply will drive further drops in the price of coal and this will lead to lay-offs and even mine closures, as it has in the last two years.

- Despite applying the new economic guidelines, the assessment of the mine fails to include the economic cost of worsening air quality from coarse particle pollution and lost water from the Hunter River and Wollombi Brook.

- It also fails to include the economic cost of the downstream greenhouse gas emissions from the coal mined at the site. The downstream emissions likely to be generated by this project are 259.3 million tonnes. Applying the per tonne carbon costs used in the economic assessment in Appendix 19, this would result in costs of a staggering $2.3-4.9 billion, dramatically reversing the proponent's claim that this mine will have a net economic benefit.

I have not developed the above text because I could not put it better myself. I have read all of these points and fully agree with each point.

yours sincerely,
Su Morley

Yours sincerely,

Su Morley
Islington
NSW 2296

I object on the grounds that there is no rational need for any new coal mines in Australia. I am also concerned that pressure from resource extraction industries has led to NSW being under the control of was is essentially a corrupt Fascist Government.

I oppose the Wombo Project.
This mine is being assessed on its biodiversity by the unpublished 'Upper Hunter Strategic Assessment'. Apparently assessed under current laws and policies. How are they laws when they have not been endorsed by the Govt?
The mining companies have access to the information in the assessment but the public do not. This process is biased to the mining companies and not fair and equitable towards the community who have to live with the consequences of the decision. That the mining companies paid $93,000 to cover costs for the assessment harks back to the fox and chicken scenario.
The critically endangered 200 hectares of 'Central Hunter Valley Eucalypt Forest' is ignored as being unimportant when compared to 250 jobs. What isn't taken into account is that people can find jobs elsewhere but the forest when gone is GONE forever. It is hypercritical of the NSW Govt. to label an area as critically endangered and then bulldoze it for a coal mine.
That and the reasons below are why I object to the expansion of this mine.
1. United Wambo is a joint venture superpit in an area of the Hunter Valley where cumulative impacts of mining are already too great
2. An important area of critically endangered bushland supporting habitat for over 20 threatened species will be destroyed and cannot be offset
3. Two large final voids will be left in the landscape
4. Wollombi Brook and the Hunter River will lose more base flows
5. Poor air quality in the region will continue to worsen
6. 38 residences will be impacted by increased mine noise
7. 259.3 million tonnes of additional greenhouse gases will be generated
8. There will be no public benefit from the project, cumulative social and environmental
impacts have not been adequately accounted for
9. Peabody Energy, now in bankruptcy, is not fit and proper to hold a mining lease
10. The project is not an ecologically sustainable development

It is time to get out of expanding coal mines. Give the Upper Hunter a new lease of life. Get out of the dust and move towards the light.