A controversial plan for a US company to mine coal beneath a Sydney drinking water dam has been approved by the New South Wales state government while focus was on COVID-19.
Woronora reservoir, an hour’s drive south of the CBD, is part of a system which supplies water to more than 3.4 million people in Greater Sydney.
The approval will allow Peabody Energy to send long wall mining machines 450 metres below the earth’s surface to crawl along coal seams directly below the dam.
Dr Kerryn Phelps says the fact the decision was made “under the cover of coronavirus” is “unfathomable”.
NSW has spent 12 of the last 20 years in drought, with record low rainfall plunging much of the state into severe water shortage last year.
“We know about the potential for catastrophe,” Dr Phelps told 9News.com.au.
“We just cannot let this [decision] go unchallenged.”
University of Western Sydney water quality expert, Dr Ian Wright, told 9News the complicated scientific reports which accompany mining approvals have “obscured our ability to know what’s going on”.
Given the spate of droughts in NSW, Dr Wright said it is “extremely poor practice” to approve the long walls when there is no definitive answer for how much water is being lost in the catchment areas due to mining.
He believes the fact these areas are closed off to scientists makes it difficult to hold companies to account, saying it is almost impossible to even access basic data about the area.
“It’s hidden and locked up,” he said.
Peabody Energy has mined under the catchment area – including under rivulets and smaller tributaries linked to but not directly under the primary reservoir – for years.
Dr Wright describes the rare glimpse of the Woronora catchment he saw last year as “shocking”.
“[There is a] yawning gap between what is on paper and what people find on the field,” he said.
“The mining has caused severe damage in the past. So how we can go ahead and do more without showing how we fix that damage?”