Submission on PAC Airly Extension Project By the Colo Committee, Sept 2015

Colo Committee Involvement

• First visited area in 1980 • Wrote the original Gardens of Stone NP proposal • Attended 1993 Mining Wardens court and Commission

of Inquiry (Chair = Simpson) • Member co-discovered Pultenaea sp. Genowlan Point • Member later nominated this as critically endangered

and nominated Genowlan Pt heathland as an EEC • Member carried out original Gardens of Stone

vegetation survey for NPWS • Member wrote peer-reviewed paper on

geomorphology of pagodas • Member of Airly Community Consultative Committee • 35 years studying the biodiversity and geodiversity of

area

Biodiversity significance

The Critically Endangered Pultenaea sp. Genowlan Point under the EPBC Act

Genowlan Point heathland EEC

Vulnerable Prostanthera stricta – major popns

At least 9 rare or threatened plant species

Geodiversity significance

Excellent platy and smooth pagodas. Several slot canyons. Pagodas of international significance Slot canyons of national S.

The ‘jewel in the crown’ of the Capertee Valley • Genowlan and Airly mesas are the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the natural

heritage of the Capertee valley • They are a key area in the whole Gardens of Stone region of 60,000 ha • They have very significant biodiversity and geodiversity • They have superb scenic grandeur and tourist significance, and are

visible from the Castlereagh Highway • Hence why they are reserved in the Mugii Murum-ban SCA • Hence why the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory

Committee argues they should in future be added to the World Heritage Area – if mining does not damage them

• Hence special care should be taken to protect this unique area for itself and for future generations of Australians

• We do not believe the current proposal adequately protects this iconic area.

Past history • After 1993 Commission of Inquiry, original Novacoal proposal for total

extraction over most of the area (and 70% under cliffs) was abandoned. Centennial took over lease

• Discussion by Colo Committee and Colong Foundation for Wilderness with Centennial to support the creation of a State Conservation Area

• Centennial accepted this and assured both groups at meetings that only half the coal would be mined under the SCA. NGOs praised Centennial for this commitment

• Price of coal has now almost halved since that assurance • This proposal now seeks to mine 67% of coal under the SCA and to

mine 51% under the talus slopes supporting cliffs and 31% under the high cliffs themselves

• A letter to us from Centennial on 16/7/2014 states: ‘… we have no intention to initiate a massive subsidence event. Frankly that is in nobody’s interests’.

• However, the risk to heritage values is much increased by this proposal

Major issues – subsidence under most of mesas • Vast majority of mesas is in the ‘Panel and pillar area’ where 67%

of coal is planned to be mined, leaving 61 metre voids (three times the length of a cricket pitch)

• This covers areas such as slot canyons (Valley of the Kings and the Hidden Valley) and internal high cliff lines and highly significant pagoda clusters such as ‘City in the Sky’ (photo). The first two are likely to collapse and the second will crack and may collapse

• Assurances at to the ‘minor subsidence’ predicted in the EIS lack credibility (as Dr Pells notes)

• Major damage to significant geodiversity is likely

Collapses Left: Angus Place Right: Baal Bone

Threats to high cliffs • Plans to mine 51% of coal under talus

slopes (Partial pillar extraction zone) that act as flying buttresses to cliffs, some over 100 metres high. As Dr Pells (2015) notes: ‘It is well established that subsidence in the toe areas of cliff lines is far more likely to cause instability than mining beneath the escarpment side of the same cliffs’.

• Plans to mine 31% of coal under high cliffs such as Genowlan Point, Dr Pells (2014) notes the destabilising influence of flooded voids on pillar strength. He noted this was especially relevant to first workings under high cliff-lines.

• Risk to high cliffs thus much increased in this proposal

Threats to Pultenaea sp. Genowlan Pt and heathand EEC • There is a rock fault in the point just behind the tip of Genowlan Pt • 51% of coal is planned to be extracted under the talus slops and 31%

of coal under all the high cliffs of Genowlan Point • Predicted subsidence is higher here than in Clarence Colliery, with

greater tilt effects • The risk of the only known population (33 plants) of the critically

endangered Pultenaea going extinct if the tip of the point collapses is thus quite high.

• The risk to the Genowlan Point heathland EEC is also high from both cliff collapse and the cracking of the ironstone aquaclude that creates the heathland.

• Neither significant risks have been recognised either in the Department’s Secretary’s report or in the draft Consent Conditions – they should be.

Threats to historic heritage • EIS plays down the historic

significance of Airly shale ruins • However Airly shale predates the

Newnes ruins and are certainly as significant

• 51% extraction under the historic ruins will likely cause damage

Failure of Secretary’s report and draft consent conditions • Neither the ‘Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Report’ nor

the ‘draft consent conditions’ acknowledge the extreme biodiversity and geodiversity value of the SCA

• The amount of damage they seek to allow to internationally significant pagodas, to high cliffs and slot canyons is unacceptable

• The serious risk to the critically endangered Pultenaea sp. Genowlan Point and the Genowlan Pt heathland EEC are not acknowledged. This proposal could lead the disappearance of both.

• Consent conditions do nothing to avoid this.

Right: Genowlan point top right, note how narrow the plateau is there.

Problems with EIS and consultant process • The Colo Committee has many scientists who are members • Dr Washington has been an envt. consultant for much of his life • As many consultants acknowledge, the system that produces and EIS

is flawed • Consultants should be paid by an independent authority • It is very hard to consultants not to have bias when paid by the

proponent • The result for the Western Coalfields has been EIS after EIS that

denies subsidence and major collapse will occur • The reality has been very different – massive collapse of cliffs and

cracking of pagodas, damage to the swamp EEC • The Secretary’s report by the Department and its consent conditions

however seems to accept such statements by the proponent • As an environmental scientist I thus do not accept such assurances,

and from his submissions, neither it seems does Dr Pells • History has shown them to be wrong again and again. • We do not believe this is acceptable.

Failure by Department to uphold the Precautionary Principle • The International Rio Declaration defined the Precautionary

Principle (principle 15) as: Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. • This is international ‘best practice’ and has entered into Australian

legislation and remains in the objects of the EP & A Act • This proposal is a threat of serious and irreversible damage to a high

conservation area that is a SCA • Hence we believe the Secretary’s report and the draft conditions breach the Precautionary Principle • We urge the PAC to correct this failure

Key Recommendations • Cliffs over 50 metres in height should have no coal extraction

under them, even ‘first workings’ that remove 31% of coal. This would protect the high cliffs of Genowlan Point, the critically endangered Pultenaea and the heathland EEC, plus protect the high cliffs of Point Hatteras and Mt Airly.

• Reduce coal extraction on the steep talus slopes to first workings only – 31% extraction, not the extraction of 51% proposed in the EIS (this would reduce risk of cliff collapse also)

• Reduce coal extraction from 67% planned to 50% in the pillar and panel zone so that voids are only 40 metres wide with 40 metre pillars to ensure long term protection of the surface of Mugii Murum-ban SCA (and its high conservation values).

• Reduce coal extraction to first workings (31%) in the New Harley mine zone to minimise further subsidence that could cause cliff collapses and damage the significant historic oil shale ruins.

Summary • The Colo Committee does not oppose all coal mining under Mugii

Murum-ban SCA • We (unlike Centennial) are happy to abide by the agreement that

a maximum of 50% of coal will be mined. We urge the PAC to return consent conditions to this figure.

• We urge the PAC to uphold the Precautionary Principle in the EP &A Act by putting in place the recs on the previous page

• If coal mining is to proceed under such an iconic area of high natural (biodiversity and geodiversity) and historic heritage then it must be done in a sustainable way.

• The current proposal is far too risky and risks damaging the heritage of the SCA

• We urge the PAC to alter the conditions to rectify this.