Listen to ABC Illawarra’s Lindsay having a chat with POWA spokesperson Rada about the South32 Dendrobium Longwall 17 End of Panel report. Thanks ABC Illawarra for giving the grassroots some airtime against the multinationals ❤
Author: Protect Our Water Alliance
Illawarra Mercury Article – Longwall mining leaves cracked rocks, stained creeks in water catchment
Big ups to Connor Pearce at The Merc for another great article about mining in the water catchment.
Media Release: New report details damning environmental destruction by Dendrobium Mine
Wollongong, New South Wales — Confronting images of recent environmental destruction by South32’s Dendrobium Mine have come to light, showing cracked streams and rockfalls within the Special Areas of the Greater Sydney Water Catchment. The mining multinational published its Longwall 17 End of Panel Report (1) earlier this year, documenting the immediate environmental impacts of this particular area of mining in Area 3b.
Detailed in this report are impacts on streams, creeks, upland swamps, access roads, water losses, as well as documented Aboriginal heritage sites. The report documents 40 identified new surface impacts, 75% of which were on “natural features”.
South32 recently withdrew its application for a 20 year extension to the Dendrobium Mine, but will continue to conduct longwall mining within the water catchment for several more years.
Protect Our Water Alliance (POWA) spokesperson Dr Rada Germanos said “This report provides us with real-time evidence of the horrific damage that South32 is causing within our water catchment. It is incredible to read such a long document that lists cracked stream after cracked stream, dry swamp after dry swamp, and realise that all of this destruction has been approved by the Department of Planning.”
“Furthermore, only two of the five documented Aboriginal heritage sites were visited in the post-mining survey. First Nations people have said time and time again that longwall mining affects the cultural integrity of the landscape, and here we see an incredibly poor effort by South32 to even bother to acknowledge their destruction of these places.”
“While water drinkers in Sydney and the Illawarra are relieved that the expansion of the Dendrobium Mine will not go ahead, we remain deeply concerned that damage to our water catchment continues every day until the mining ceases.“
“This consent to destroy has been provided by successive NSW Governments. It is simply not good enough to allow multinational companies to trash these ecosystems, and document their destruction in these dry, detached reports. As the 2023 State Election draws closer, we ask, do the Labor or Liberal parties care enough about clean drinking water for the 5 million people of Greater Sydney to overhaul our planning laws, and stop this destruction by stopping mining in our water catchment?”
Dendrobium Damage Update #4 – more cracked rocks
South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.
All images are taken from the Longwall 17 End of Panel Report
If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.
Dendrobium Damage #3 – this is what a cracked stream looks like
South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.
Images taken straight from the Longwall 17 End of Panel Report
Stay tuned for update #4!
If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.
Dendrobium Damage Update #2
South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.
Update #2
The average daily inflow to Area 3b during Longwall 17 extraction was 5.2 megalitres per day (ML/day) – this represents 64% of total mine inflow for the period.
Compared with the previous longwall, the total mine inflow increased by 23% and the inflow in Area 3B increased by 36%.
Seepage losses from Avon Dam have been estimated by regional and local scale numerical models to be in the range 0.09 to 0.69 ML/day as at the end of Longwall 17.
Longwall 17 passed beneath, or within 400m of, Swamps 14, 23, 149 and 35a.
- A Level 3 TARP for shallow groundwater remains in place at Swamp 14 from previous Longwalls.
- Shallow groundwater at Swamp 23 has been increased to a Level 3 TARP.
- Soil Moisture at Swamp 14 has been increased to a Level 3 TARP.
Reduction in aquatic habitat for over 2 years at Donalds Castle Creek and WC21 constitutes a Level 3 TARP trigger.
In summary — we are losing loads of water into the mine due to subsidence effects. Endangered Upland Swamps are being drained dry by this mining, reducing their ability to act as filters and holders of water in the ecosystem. Lastly, Donalds Castle Creek is being trashed and the aquatic life there is dying.
Stay tuned for update #3!
If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.
Dendrobium Damage Update #1
South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.
Update #1
The extracted longwall has a length of 1901 metres, a void width of 305m, and a maximum cutting height up to 3.9m.
During the extraction of Longwall 17, forty new surface impacts were identified.
- Thirty of these impacts were observed on natural features.
- The remaining ten impacts were observed on built features such as fire roads and other access tracks
Only two out of five Aboriginal cultural heritage sites located within the Subject Area were visited.
In summary — a bloody big longwall, and a suspiciously low number of identified impacts over such a large footprint.
Also, the surveyors identified ONLY FIVE cultural sites in the area – and only checked on 40% of them. We know first nations folks in the Illawarra refute this quantitative, piecemeal approach to evaluating the impact of mining on the cultural integrity of the landscape.
Stay tuned for update #2!
If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.
Peabody’s Metropolitan Mine pollutes Camp Gully Creek in the Royal National Park, the latest in a long string of coal pollution events in the Illawarra
You’ve all no doubt heard by now about Camp Gully Creek in the Royal National Park being choked with thick black coal sludge, released from the Metropolitan Mine near Helensburgh. Thankfully the NSW Environment Minister seems royally pissed off and says he will throw the book at the mine. Here’s hoping.
We’ve compiled a trip down memory lane of coal mine pollution events in the waterways of the Illawarra over the last 6 years or so:
August 2022 Camp Gully Creek — Peabody Metropolitan Mine
February 2022 Bellambi Creek — Wollongong Coal Russell Vale Colliery
2020 Brandy and Water Creek — South32 Dendrobium Mine
2016 Bellambi Creek — Wollongong Coal Russell Vale Colliery
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/3961101/black-creek-video-takes-off-stirs-epa/
https://www.facebook.com/IllawarraResidentsforResponsibleMining/videos/
https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/news/media-releases/2017/epamedia17090601
DENDROBIUM BITES THE DUST – South32 cancels expansion plan
In a surprise announcement this week, South32 have abandoned their plans to expand the Dendrobium Mine. Workers at the mine were apparently told this news via text message.
While South32 has admitted the expansion did not stack up economically — a something POWA has been questioning for some time — its also clear that the strength of opposition to this expansion over the last 3.5 years in the Illawarra has played no small part.
POWA held a celebratory demonstration outside the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment office in Wollongong today.
A HUGE thank-you to all of you who helped in this fight ❤
POWA one of 35 groups to endorse “Emergency Climate Action: No more coal and gas; 43% carbon emissions cut by 2030 is not enough” rally in Sydney today
From Green Left Weekly:
Climate activists from 35 grassroots groups came together for a march on August 7 to send a strong message to the Anthony Albanese Labor government that its recently legislated 43% cut to emissions by 2030 target is not enough to avert catastrophic climate change.
Climate scientists say Australia should set a target of 75% emissions cut by 2030.
The marchers demanded:
- No new fossil fuel projects, including Kurri Kurri, Narrabri, Beetaloo and Burrup Hub;
- Stop the power companies profiteering: 100% publicly owned renewable energy by 2030;
- Climate jobs and a just transition now;
- First Nations justice: Stop Santos’ attack on Gomeroi Native Title;
- Defend the right to Protest: stop police repression of climate protesters; and
- Protect ecosystems and stop logging native forests.
The march was endorsed by: Fireproof Australia; Knitting Nannas Sydney; NSW Nature Conservation Council; Protect Our Water Alliance; Amnesty International Australia; Stop Adani Sydney; Water for Rivers; Maritime Union Australia Sydney; Greens; Socialist Alliance; Extinction Rebellion Drummers; No Incinerator for Western Sydney; Wage Peace and Disrupt Wars; Sydney Extinction Rebellion; Stop Coal Seam Gas Sydney; Justice Action; Bob Brown Foundation; Sydney Industrial Workers of the World; Rank and File Action (Sydney University); Uni Students for Climate Justice; Kids Against Gas; Australian Mothers Against Gas; Western Sydney Direct Action; NSW GasBan; North West Protection Advocacy; Latin America Social Forum; No more incinerators Matraville; Workers for Climate Action; National Tertiary Education Union Sydney University branch; National Union Students; Black Flag Sydney; Lithgow Environment Group; Democratic Kurdish Community Centre of NSW; and Save the Bay.
Speakers included: Rilka from Blockade Australia, NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd; Veronica Koman, from Amnesty International Australia; Maritime Union Australia Sydney branch secretary Paul Keating; Dr Rada Germanos, from Protect Our Water Alliance (POWA); Dorothee Babeck, from the Bob Brown Foundation; and Paddy Gibson.
Protect Our Water Alliance 