Backstow and reduce damage!

Longwall Mining links

Georges River Macarthur

General longwall mining

• longwall mining process - damage, cause and effects
• backstow - mining subsidence - backstow reduces surface damage, our politicians don't legislate for it
• Cataract river - Cataract river during the seventies
• Georges river dieing - Georges river greatly reduced water levels
• Iluka Creek - Iluka Swamp - Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Georges River catchment
• Macarthurs rivers - Bargo, Georges, Cataract rivers - Broughton Pass Dam, Marhnes Hole, Appin
• Mine subsidence - mine subsidence in the Upper Nepean river catchment
• Georges River photographs - photographs of 7 km downstream of Freres Crossing
• Stokes Creek Wedderburn - Stokes Creek, Wedderburn, Georges River, Campbelltown
• Wedderburn - Wedderburns rivers, creeks and properties
• Wedderburn gorge - Wedderburn gorge, Georges River catchment, environmental damage
• O'Hares - Iluka - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Dharawal State Recreation Area, Iluka Creek, Iluka Swamp, Maddens Creek.
• O'Hares - Wedderburn - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Campbelltown, Wedderburn.
• Dharawal State Recreation Area - Georges River, O'Hares Creek, Darkes Forest.

• gr_punchbowl_kentlyn - Punchbowl Creek at the Basin Georges River NSW
• broken promises - longwall mining - deceit, denial and broken promises
• Cost clean coal - Clean coal, is it too costly to consider
• Longwall Mining - Global Climate Change, letter to Kevin Rudd, Prime minister Australia
• The hidden costs of clean coal - The environmental and human disaster of longwall mining - Multimedia from The Center for Public Integrity Washington DC. Video filmed in the mine and the effects above ground.
• BHP Billiton environmental damage - BHP Billiton, Fly river, Ok Tedi river, copper mines, Irian Jaya, Barrow Island, deforestation Indonesia, environmental damage, longwall mining
• BHP Billiton misinformation - BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - Rio Tinto misinformation and the publics wrong impression of mining
• Politicians and approvals - These politicians approve longwall mining licences which pollutes our atmosphere, damages our rivers, water catchments and your homes
• Mine subsidence - longwall mining and its impact on water resources
• When longwall mining comes to your town - When longwall mining comes to your town, your home is in the hands of the mining company- from the US and applies here in Australia

Most of the subsidence could be avoided if companies "backstow" - MAGICalliance

OVER THE PAST DECADE the coal industry has generated copious ink by ripping the tops off American mountain ranges, in the process burying and polluting streams and converting some of the planet's most diverse temperate forests to desert. Meanwhile, beneath the surface, the industry is also ripping apart the earth and destroying streams with a less visible technique called "longwall mining" or "total extraction." Welsh coal miners introduced the practice to the US in 1875, but it didn't really catch on here until about 1980.

Traditional deep miners leave "pillars" of coal along the coal seam so that they and their equipment don't get buried. As a side benefit, the earth doesn't collapse under streams and man made structures--at least not right away. But with longwalling the entire coal seam, which runs for miles and may be seven feet high and 1,000 feet wide, is removed the way a dentist excavates a root canal.

Planned subsidence

These days a "shearer" moves back and forth on a track set across the face of the coal seam as if the whole deposit were a stick of salami being abbreviated by a whirling meat slicer. Hydraulic roof supports are inserted and removed as the shearer progresses along the seam. As this happens the earth collapses into the cavity, and fish, wildlife and humans above are treated to what the industry chastely calls "planned subsidence."

Buildings crack or fall apart. Wetlands, springs, ponds and streams vanish into the bowels of the earth. Even as they are dewatered, streams lose their riffles, transmogrifying into a series of stagnant pools sealed by dams that mark the edge of the collapsed mine. Sometimes the industry converts traditional deep mines to longwalls by going back in and removing the pillars. Leaving coal in the earth for any purpose is anathema.

To backstow - most of the subsidence could be avoided!

What's more, if coal companies would "backstow"--i.e., fill the cavities they create in the earth--most of the subsidence could be avoided. They could use their own longwall waste, dredge spoil, "overburden" from their strip mines which they currently dump onto headwater streams, and even the right kind of municipal trash. But backstowing costs money, and because it's not required in the US, longwallers don't do it here.

European countries are not so permissive. In Germany, backstowing is mandatory,
Consol and RAG--both German firms--have no trouble with it.

Sagging Streams by Ted Williams - Magicalliance

Backstow in Australian mines - No way!

Backstow is not required in Australia, it costs money
The mining companies choose to destroy everything in their path