Longwall Mining - deceit, denial and broken promises

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
• Woolwash - The Woolwash junction with O'Hares creek Wedderburn - Minto
• 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

Sydneys catchments

Whilst you sleep or generally live your lives the mining industry is busy mining coal, making money and producing profit for its shareholders both here in Australia and overseas.

The old pick and shovel methods have gone and "longwall" machines are used which work 100's of metres underground. These machines are incredibly efficient at removing coal and anything else in their way see - The hidden costs of clean coal.

They create wide strips many hundereds of metres or even kilometres long and up to 400 metres wide see longwall mining process and maybe 4 metres in depth. As the machine moves along the rock above falls into the hole previously created behind it.

The roof collapsing causes considerable damage to the surface and damages any feature on it Features like rivers and dams spring to mind. As the beds of rivers and dams are cracked, water can disappear down the cracks theoretically to surface somewhere else.

Is this acceptable? - At a time when we are facing Global Warming and water is becoming precious this doesn't seem like a very good idea. The Georges River which we (Macarthur Bushwalkers) monitor over a distance of 25 kilometres in its upper catchment appears to have lost the bulk of its water - see Georges river - the dieing river. This is also happening to other rivers and possibly the dams too, Lake Woronora is such a dam with the the Waratah Rivulet which supplies it now running dry.

We have discovered that:

The mining industry - deceit, lies and tricks

The mining industry is completely aware of the damage they cause. This also applies to governments both here and overseas. The mining engineers and mining companies have many years of experience with the damage they cause above and below ground. The tell us that damage created by their processes is calculated and predictable, unfortunately they seem to mis-calculate often! Too often!

The industry constantly improves its mining techniques and equipment enabling a more efficient removal of coal thus reducing their overheads and creating greater profit. This in turn inflicts greater damage on the environment, communities, water sources, transportation systems and private properties because they get it wrong - often!

The remedy - It seems It is cheaper to cut coal than worry about by-passing homes, creeks, ponds, railways and community infrastructure. Mining companies simply buy your property or carry out makeshift repairs which may or not work.

The mining companies rely on the ignorance of individuals and local governments who offer little resistance in the early stages of the mining process. Thankfully we now have the the internet which is here to stay. More and more communities are becoming aware of the mining industries under hand activities.

Propoganda, misinformation and broken promises

Land owners, home owners and local communities are subjected to propoganda and misinformation from the mining companies. By the time the locals discover the truth it is generally too late to do anything about it.

Mr John Brannon - BHP Billitons Illawarra Coal is quite correct in their statement that "a balanced argument should be presented when analysing the effects of long-wall mining on local water catchment areas".

Mining industry - Broken Promises

The mining industry public relations people are expert in dealing with local communities, they:

• Initially make promises to the communities they are about to damage and destroy.
• Feed false information.
• Deny responsibility for the damage they are creating.
• Blame problems caused by mining on some natural phenomena like heavy rainfall.
• Hold community meetings to win over the people and improve the companies image.
• Supplying funding for small community projects i.e. playgrounds, community halls, sports groups etc
• Purchasing badly damaged property and give compensation with gag clauses.
• Walking away and leaving devastated communities.

The mining industry is a very powerful lobby group. They use politicians like Ian Macfarlane of NSW to steam roller over public resistance.

The callous way in which the mining companies treat local communities around the world is clearly seen by using the links found on -
BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - Misinformation and the wrong impression of mining
John Brannon - BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal - general manager of sustainable development and external affairs appeals for fair treatment - ABC Illawarra.

The mining industry doesn't want change, they prefer to maximise profit from minimum investment by digging holes

Australian Governments - Mining Damage Responsibility:

1. First and foremost is the mining industry, they have a moral obligation to protect the communities they are taking advantage of. Can you think of anything worse than depriving many thousands of people access to a water supply in a country like Australia?

2. Ultimately the buck must stop with both the Australian Federal Government and State Governments. These politicians were voted into power by the majority of the Australian poeple to manage Australia and its states for them. It is inconceivable that Australians on the whole would knowingly accept the damage caused to the environment, its rivers, catchments, flora and fauna and wholesale destruction of Australia and other countries given the facts.

How can Australian governments lobby foreign governments on environmental issues when they support such
environmentally destructive industries here and overseas?

When the coal has run out the mining companies will move on who will take responsibility for your damaged property then?

If you are lucky it will be the tax payer otherwise it will be your responsibility eg: BHP Billiton absolved itself of the damage created by their irresposible mining techniques at the Fly and Ok Tedi rivers in Papau New Guinea Fly and Ok Tedi rivers. It is estimated that the damage is so bad it may take 200 years or more to clean up. BHP Billiton simply walked away.

See: Loss of drinking water from Sydney catchments - David Burgess Natural Areas Campaigner for Total Environment Centre.
Tributaries flowing into all four dams in the Metropolitan catchment, as well as in the Woronora catchment, have now been cracked and drained by longwall mining. The NSW Government’s standard response to this damage is that no water is being lost. This is despite comments by bodies, such as the SCA and CSIRO, that state there is simply no baseline data available from which to draw this conclusion.

Royce Millar - The Age - Fairfax
Labor’s dirty coal dependency - Today the big bad news, again, is the failure of the Australian Government to do something decisive on climate change

Steve Shallhorn writes
“The recent essay by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in The Monthly gives a solid clue to the general problem: old school political economy. It focused on ideological division between his party and the Opposition, and spoke to the past, not the future. Symptomatic of the problem is the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson. In cabinet because of clan loyalties, he is as “carbon captured” as the Howard government’s resources minister, Ian Macfarlane.”

Steve then tells it as it is and ramps up the climate debate to a new level: “Rudd needs to compel Ferguson to work constructively to create a just transition from coal to renewable energy or ask for his resignation.”