FURTHER investigation of the April Singleton compliance office audit report has found a number of mines have not followed consent conditions but are a warning only. Two warning letters were sent out by the Singleton office for the month of April, one of which was to Coal & Allied’s Hunter Valley Operations in relation to a report on the slow-leaking of saline water into the Hunter River for nine months. A Department of Planning and Infrastructure spokesperson said the leaking water pipe discharged saline water into the river between April 2010 and January 2011. A spokesperson for Coal & Allied said action was taken immediately to prevent the leaking from happening again as soon as the source of the leak was identified as mine water. “Testing showed there was no detectable deterioration of river water quality as a result of the leak. “Hunter Valley Operations conducts regular monitoring of water quality in the Hunter River, in accordance with its surface water infrastructure program. “We also regularly inspect all water infrastructure, including pipelines transferring mine water.” The department advised the mine in their letter that no further action would be taken on this occasion, but warned the mine that future unauthorised discharge of mine water could result in further enforcement action. The Singleton Argus contacted the Department of Planning and Infrastructure on Friday to ask why no action was taken this time, but did not receive a response by the time of going to print. A warning letter was also sent to Vale’s Integra mine concerning a blast which recorded 128.37 decibles at the Dulwich monitor on March 23, exceeding the maximum permitted noise level of 120 decibles. A spokesperson for the department said in view of the mine’s actions, the department took no further action and warned the mine that future exceedences of blast impact criteria could result in further enforcement action. The mine provided information about the incident and has taken measures to reduce the risk of a reoccurance. A further breakdown of the Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s report found a number of other issues including faulty blasting equipment and noise exceedences. An advisory letter was sent to Mt Arthur mine relating to faulty blasting equipment and requesting its internal procedures be revised to include regular inspections of blast monitoring equipment to ensure it is operational at all times. Integra and Ashton mines were issued advisory letters to report back on the department’s review of each mine’s annual review of environmental performance. A letter was sent to Integra advising that noise monitoring completed as part of an independent review was inconclusive, and further noise monitoring would be carried out during winter.