Submission attached

Brendan Baker and Chantelle LeBrocq
355F Redmanvale Rd
Jerrys Plains NSW 2330
[email protected]



21 September 2016

The Director General
The Department of Planning & Environment
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Dear Sir/Madam

RE: OBJECTION TO UNITED WAMBO OPEN CUT COAL MINE PROJECT APPLICATION NUMBER SSD 7142


We are writing as concerned landowners and residents from the Jerrys Plains area of the Hunter Valley and object to the proposed United Wambo Open Cut Coal Mine Project (Project). Our reasons for objecting to the proposed Project are as follows.

Our Property

We live with our 18 month old son, with another child due in March 2017 (and hope to have more children in the future) on a 42.29 hectare parcel of land which is currently an estimated 1.4 kilometres from the Wambo and United mines and 5 kilometres from Hunter Valley Operations.

By comparison, the Warkworth mining area is 2.6 kilometres from the closest neighbour whereas our house will be only 1.4 kilometres from mining activity.

We occupy our property for residential and rural purposes (the land is zoned RU1 Primary Production) and keep 7 dogs, 22 head of cattle and 1 horse.

When we purchased the property, there was a 5 year mine life and if the proposed Project is approved, this will extend significantly by approximately 23 years.

Under the United Wambo Open Cut Coal Mine Project Environmental Impact Statement August 2016 (EIS), our Property is identified as "Receiver 343" and we are considered to be within "Active Noise Management Zone - moderate impact" where operational noise level is predicted to be between 3-5dB. The noise level is predicted to get worse as the proposed Project continues.

Overview of Objection

Whilst the proposed Project's proponents (United Collieries on behalf of the joint venture between United Collieries and Wambo Coal) believe that the Project will "result in significant benefits at a local, regional and State level.." our objection to the proposed Project is based on the impact (and exacerbated impacts) that the proposed Project will have on local land use, cumulative health effects of mining in the region, destruction of the environment and post mining rehabilitation.

The proposed Project is in the vicinity of world class horse studs, prime dairy and agricultural land and residential land and has the potential to worsen the already negative impacts on the Hunter River, local watercourses and aquifers. Further, the cumulative environmental, social and health impacts of the surrounding mines need to be evaluated. Land values in the area, including ours, are and will undoubtedly continue to be negatively impacted by current mining activities and the proposed Project.

Further, our family experiences mining impacts on a daily basis which destroy the serenity and enjoyment of our rural lifestyle and contribute to negative health impacts.

Impacts

Our family is currently affected by mining impacts from the Wambo and United mines as follows:
* Brendan's asthma has increased especially when air conditioning is in use as well as hay fever and congestion experienced by all members of the family including our young son;
* indoors, the air conditioning system blows dust, causing and exacerbating hay fever and asthma incidents;
* outdoor furniture, cars, clothes on the washing line, verandah area, vegetable garden, fruit trees, shed, furniture stored in the shed, indoor surfaces and bedding are constantly covered in layers of dust;
* we wash bedding more often to reduce dust and are constantly cleaning and vacuuming to try and keep on top of the dust;
* visible dust particles floating in the air in head lamps at night time and in the house during the day;
* one of the house water tanks has not been filling up due to a thick layer of coal dust blocking the pipe that fills the water tank. Not only are we unable to receive water from this tanks when this happens, the water runs off and is wasted;

* the house shakes during blasts, to the point where it scares the animals causing them to be agitated for hours;

* there has been noticeable cracking to the tile grout near all 4 cornices in the bathroom and a crack to the centre of one bathroom wall;

* there is a large crack running through the external concrete slab near the back door;

* we hear dozer tracks, trucks en route and trucks dumping overburden at all hours, which is particularly disruptive at night and can be heard from the furthest point of the house away from the Wambo mine even when all doors and windows are closed;
* the serenity of country living is constantly overtaken by the murmur of mine noise;
* potential for blast fumes to reach our vicinity in future with our property only being 1.4 kilometres from the proposed Project;
* water quality (blast fumes/dust) may be affected in the future in dams and waterholes for livestock consumption.
It is not in ours nor our childrens' best health and quality of life interests to grow up in an environment with the current impacts which will only be exacerbated if the proposed Project is approved.

Mitigation

Potable water for our property comes from tank water. We have installed water filters which filter sediments, chemicals and odours. Prior to filtration, we could not drink from the tap and had to buy our water. Sometimes after rain, water from the tap is brown in colour and emits a foul odour. We are advised that the filters should be changed every 12 months but that we will need to monitor this closely due to the thick dust which will more than likely require more frequent replacement. As noted above, the pipe to one of our water tanks has become blocked with mine dust.

Regardless of whether or not a new air conditioner is installed, it will not resolve our dust and related problems due to our current experience and the proposed Project's closer proximity to our property.

The Wambo mine representatives have mentioned to us that we are out of their noise, dust and blast parameters which does not accord with what we actually physically see and hear and inhale on a daily basis which brings into question the accuracy of the parameters associated with our property under the EIS.

Double glazing of windows does not assist with noise mitigation when we are outside and does little to reduce mine noise at night. It will certainly be less effective if the proposed Project is approved.

We are extremely unhappy with current levels of noise and dust and the proposed Project will only make the situation worse. The mitigation measures offered by Wambo mine are currently not adequate and will be less so if the proposed Project is approved.

The Project will result in our property and another neighbour being completely surrounded by mining activity. We consider it the appropriate outcome that our property be in the acquisition zone and make this the main request of our submission. The suggested mitigation measures will be insufficient to resolve our concerns.

We respectfully ask that you register our objection to the proposed Project and seriously consider our objection and request for acquisition when assessing the appropriateness of the proposed Project.

Please find attached photos of dust that has taken over outdoor furniture, cars, sheds etc on our property.

Yours sincerely
BRENDAN BAKER AND CHANTELLE LEBROCQ

This part of the Hunter cannot cope with any more damage to its air and water and bushland. The cumulative impacts of open cut mining are already appalling; 38 residences will suffer from the increased noise if this super pit is allowed, let alone the inevitable increased impacts on health from the air pollution. These are known; it is unconscionable to add to them.

United Wambo's plan would destroy an irreplaceable - and unoffsettable - area of critically endangered bushland and the 20 threatened species for which it is habitat.

The Hunter cannot manage the extra two final voids it will create. Our rivers cannot afford to lose more base flows.
All these adverse impacts are for no public benefit; the proponent has not adequately addressed the cumulative social and environmental impacts.

There is no accountability for the 259.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases that the burning of this coal will cause.

And on top of it all, Peabody is not a fit entity for a mining lease, given their bankrupt state. They ought not be allowed to proceed with this ecologically unsustainable development.

United was meant to close in 2012, Wambo in 2017. Let them.

Please find attached submission in an attachment.

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.

The mine is significantly impacting on our property by virtue of:-
reduced or static property value
dust
noise
visual impact
quality of village life
aesthetic considerations of village/county lifestyle.
quality of drinking water, particularly water tank contamination
air quality.
A once pretty village has been reduced to an industrial site. Values are reduced on the basis of post code so while the rest of NSW flourishes with increased property values ours is diminished because of the mines and so that the mine's investors can make large sums of money. This needs to be balanced by compensation by those mines, not only in a financial way but in contributions to quality of life, the appearance of the village, assistance to property owners to maintain their property to alleviate the stresses imposed by the mine. The presence of the mine needs to be an asset to Jerry's Plains, not a damnation.

I wish to object to the Wambo Open Cut mine proposal. The clearing of such a large area of vegetation (464 ha) in the already overtaxed Hunter Valley is regarded as environmental vandalism. Included in this is an area of 223ha of critically endangered species which makes this proposal even more disastrous.
The proposal also compromises the integrity of the alluvial aquifers of the Hunter and Wollombi Brook which we know now is a dreadful legacy left by mining practices in NSW. Any further threats to the water resources of the Hunter catchment area from such large mining plans as this has to be wholly rejected. We have no right to continue this activity by denying future generations critical water resources.
Water loss from mining is now considered to be well beyond acceptable levels.
Voids being left also for future generations to deal with is now an issue in the public forum. Planning cannot simply just go on as though this is not a major problem.
The full economic cost/benefit of another huge open cut is again not realised by this proposal. The physical cost of repairing the void and the ongoing heath problems of dust and noise, including coal transport , and the denuding of vegetation are not costed in.
The Wambo project is an absolute disaster and cannot be allowed to come to fruition. If this were put to a vote of NSW constituents there would be outright objection.
I ask that this project be not approved due to the broad environmental costs including emissions from extracted coal adding to climate change affecting all species on the planet.

see file

Please refer to attached document for submission