WARKWORTH open-cut coalmine appears to be operating in breach of its development consent and should either comply or be closed down, the state government’s planning assessment commission will be told next week.
A 2003 pre-mining consent condition for the pit, requiring a rezoning deed of agreement to protect land near Wallaby Scrub Road, Bulga, was signed but never carried out.
This is the thrust of a submission Bulga resident John Krey will make to the commission when it visits Singleton next Thursday for a public hearing on a controversial $600million expansion.of the Coal and Allied mine.
A spokesman for the mine disagrees with Mr Krey, saying the company has complied with the deed as there was no timeframe attached to rezoning.
The land in question has not been mined, and if approval was now given to do so, a much larger area of land would be provided as a conservation offset, said Warkworth operations general manager Cam Halfpenny.
New South Wales Planning and Infrastructure officials have recommended that the planning assessment commission approve the expansion which involves extracting an additional 200million tonnes of coal over 11 years.
About 30 people are expected to address the commission in Club Singleton from 9am on Thursday.
Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association and other individuals have objected to the expansion for numerous social, economic and environmental reasons.
Singleton Council has backed the community by unanimously opposing the expansion and flatly refusing to negotiate a “voluntary planning agreement” for Wallaby Scrub Road.
The council has rejected Coal and Allied’s offer of $10million for the road.
Mr Krey said: “The deed of agreement involves non-disturbance areas, which must be permanently protected from open-cut mining, and habitat management areas, which can only be mined after proper processes are carried out in accordance with development consent.
“The deed requires the mining company to have Singleton Council create a new conservation zone prior to carrying out any development on the mine site.
“But the coal company has taken out the coal for years without having the council create a conservation zone over Saddle Ridge or the Warkworth Sands Woodlands.”
The 2003 deed was signed by the state government’s Minister Assisting the Planning Minister, Diane Beamer, and Warkworth Mining director Mark Eames and secretary Matthew Horton.
The Environmental Defenders Office has supported Mr Krey’s view, saying Bulga residents could make a claim against the government and the company based on the fact that they made decisions about their properties in the belief that environmental offsets and buffer zones were permanently in place.
The deed was stamped “confidential” and was only available to the public after extensive efforts through the Freedom of Information Act.
Mr Krey said this was of concern as there was no need to keep secret a document aimed to protect the environment.
Mr Krey said: “Approval to mine in 2003 wasn’t a question about any particular date.
“The intent of the deed is clear, it says the company ‘must’ request the council to create the conservation zone ‘prior’ to development.
“I believe the company must now either comply with the condition or stop mining as the consent condition should be enforced by the planning department.”
Mr Krey said he was also concerned that the latest Warkworth expansion proposal was just another step towards open-cut mining within 2.6 kilometres of the Bulga village.
Mr Halfpenny said: “Coal and Allied has complied with the deed of agreement in its operations to date and has not impacted the non-disturbance areas.
“The deed of agreement did not specify a timeframe to rezone these areas and Coal and Allied undertook to do this by 2013.
“In the meantime, the proposed extension area, which includes one of the non-disturbance areas, has become economic to mine due to the dramatic increase in coal prices.”
Mr Halfpenny said the company’s current expansion application addressed a proposed change to the deed.
“The Warkworth extension will deliver a far more significant conservation package than the current deed of agreement, securing the long-term protection or rehabilitation of more than eight times the land we are proposing to disturb through mining,” he said.
“This extension is extremely important to our operations at Mount Thorley Warkworth and will provide ongoing employment for our existing workforce of more than 1300 people as well as creating 150 new jobs.”
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