For the second time in a week the Civic Centre was the scene of a public planning meeting that attracted few speakers and only a handful of supporters.
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Where once there would have been a long list of speakers for and against a large scale mining project these days neither side appears to take the Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) hearings too seriously.
Community members held a small protest outside the PAC meeting on Thursday describing the event as simply a rubber stamp for the mining companies and that was the reason they no longer wanted to participate in the meetings.
Nor was there any show of force by mine workers in their high visibility shirts who were prepared to speak on the benefits of mining to the local community.
At least at the second PAC a proponent, Gary Wills, spoke on the United Wambo Open Cut Mine Project near Jerrys Plains which is a joint venture between Peabody and Glencore with Glencore to manage the operations.
At the Hunter Valley Hunter Valley Operations South Modification 5 PAC meeting held on Tuesday no one from the mining company Yancoal spoke on the virtues of the project.
Mr Wills, in his presentation, said if approved the project would sustain the existing 250 jobs at Peabody’s Wambo open cut and create an additional 250 mine workers jobs and a further 120 construction jobs during the development stage.
The mine will extract 150 million tonnes of thermal and semi-soft coal over a 23 year period.
Mr Wills described the project as a ‘brownfield’ site as 80 per cent of the proposed disturbance area is already mined or approved for mining.
“We began the planning process for this project four years ago and have spoken to 700 people and changed the plans following those discussions to lessen the impacts on the local community,” he said.
“This project will generate $370 million in mining royalties for the state government.”
Following that presentation Jerrys Plains resident Grace Murphy spoke against the development and listed her family’s struggle to live next to the existing Wambo open cut.
She told PAC that there is always references to the benefits of mining to the community.
“That may well be for people who live up to 100kms away from the mine site. However, people like us who live at the foot of Wambo mine have no such luxury and are forced to live in an industrial environment 24/7,” she said.
“The result is that the people who are impacted the most, gain the least.”
Mrs Murphy said her family’s life on their property, which they have owned for 14 years, had become extremely difficult in the last 18 months as Wambo moved their operations to Montrose East.
“We find ourselves with front row seats to an industrial operations day and night. We are suffering loss of sleep, amenity and quality of life,” she told PAC.
Despite complaints and investigations Mrs Murphy said they were repeatedly told the mine was operating within it licence a response she described as well-rehearsed.
“At every turn we have been dismissed by Wambo and it has been insinuated we are looking for Wambo Coal to fund our move to the coast. We have livestock and have no interest in moving to the coast,” she said.
Even if they wanted to move their property is now unsaleable given the mine’s impacts, according to Mrs Murphy.
Similar sentiments were expressed by other local residents with Ron Fenwick saying that PAC had no idea what was happening to land and water once they approved these mining projects.
“And they don’t want to know. You’ll approve this mine with strict conditions but those conditions will never be met or policed correctly,” said Mr Fenwick who has spoken at many PACs.
“PAC must accept responsibility for the destruction this mine will cause.”
Doctors for the Environment NSW presentation was delivered by John Van Der Kallen who said the project should never be approved if the precautionary principle was followed correctly.
Speaking mainly on air quality Dr Van Der Kallen said there had been a record number of air quality alerts in Jerrys Plains last spring and that was before another open cut was added to the existing number of mines.
“As our weather becomes hot and dryer due to climate change these air quality alerts will increase,” he said.