PEABODY ENERGY, HELENSBURGH

Waterways affected: mining leases cover 80% of Woronora Special Area catchment, including Waratah Rivulet, the Eastern Tributary and Woronora Reservoir.

Peabody have commenced undermining Woronora Reservoir in October 2021.

Woronora Reservoir supplies water to the Sutherland Shire and northern parts of Wollongong. As a self-contained catchment Woronora is a crucial source of clean water to greater Sydney in times of crisis. Woronora water flows to all the way to Penshurst reservoir from where it can be further distributed.

Photographs of subsidence damage to the waterways have been widely published and clearly illustrate the buckling and cracking of stream beds, the staining of rocks, and orange bacterial slime.

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