A spill from Clarence Colliery into the Wollongambe River last week illustrates why the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area needs special protection under council’s local environment plan, according to the mayor, Mark Greenhill.
Coal waste allegedly spilt from the Centennial Coal mine into the river last Thursday.
Clr Greenhill said the Wollongambe River flows straight into the World Heritage Area. While acknowledging that an LEP wouldn’t have prevented the contamination, “events like this remind us that we need as many different protections as we can for our precious World Heritage Area”.
Council has been negotiating with the Planning Department about the latest LEP, lobbying to include special provisions — including waterways protection — that take into account some of the unique features of the Mountains.
The parties met last Friday to review details of the first full draft of the draft LEP.
“The meeting was constructive and discussions indicate that the department are actively working to address the concerns raised by the council,” a council spokeswoman said.
Clr Greenhill said the talks were “constructive”.
“I also note the promises previously made at ministerial level [about special provisions] and I note the lack of confirmation as to the suite of these. Events like the spill last week remind us why it is so important for us to have the highest order of protection for our World Heritage Area.”
The Clarence spill was described by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) as “a serious environmental incident”.
EPA director south, Gary Whytcross, said samples were being taken to determine the extent of the damage.
“This is a serious environmental incident with tonnes of coal fines material estimated to have left the site and entered the surrounding environment,” he said. “The cause of the incident is still being investigated and the EPA is continuing to collect evidence to determine potential breaches of the environmental legislation.”
The Nature Conservation Council also expressed its concern over the incident. Campaigns director, Daisy Barham, called it “an environmental tragedy” in one of “the few wild rivers left in NSW”.
“The NSW government must make Centennial Coal pay to fully remediate any harm it has caused to the river and the World Heritage Area, and the EPA must thoroughly investigate how this disaster was allowed to occur.
“Coal waste dump usually only collapses after heavy rain, but this incident has occurred in fair weather, which demonstrates that the design of this dump was clearly flawed. This raises the prospect of more collapses if something is not done to shore it up, so the public has a right to know what Centennial Coal is doing to ensure this never happens again,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald revealed on Saturday that an environmental consultant to Centennial was sacked after warning that its Springvale longwall mining near Lithgow was causing serious damage to endangered swamps on Newnes Plateau.
Keith Muir, director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, said the news should force the government to hold another public hearing over the mine’s expansion proposal. Mr Muir said a second hearing was necessary to ensure 29 nationally threatened swamps were protected from longwall mining.
