Caroona coal mine

image of Caroona coal mine

BHP Billiton are proposing to excavate the largest underground coal mine in the world beneath the exceptionally fertile and productive Liverpool Plains in NSW.

Each year, the Plains produces enough grain for 365 million loaves of bread, 62.5 million packets of pasta, and 58 million boxes of cornflakes. It is feeding the nation.

Help us stop this coal mine from undermining our national food bowl.

BHP Billiton are proposing to excavate the largest underground coal mine in the world beneath the exceptionally fertile and productive Liverpool Plains in NSW.

Each year, the Plains produces enough grain for 365 million loaves of bread, 62.5 million packets of pasta, and 58 million boxes of cornflakes. It is feeding the nation.

Help us stop this coal mine from undermining our national food bowl.

Groundwater under threat

BHP are planning on digging the largest underground coal mine in the world under our very best farmlands, on the Liverpool Plains in north-west NSW. The Liverpool Plains is important and unique because it combines exceptionally fertile volcanic soils with high output aquifers and reliable summer and winter rainfall.

But it is under threat from this staggeringly large underground coal mine. A mine that will cut through aquifers and risk draining the precious groundwater.

Most extraordinary is the fact that BHP has decided that the mine will NOT have a significant impact on water resources and has told the Federal Government that it doesn't trigger the water clauses in the Federal environment laws.

We have a very short window of opportunity to tell them otherwise. Submissions are needed by 23rd April 2014.

Please take one minute to send an email to protect our national food-bowl, the Liverpool Plains, and the rich groundwater supplies it depends on. The email will be sent from you to Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, and the Federal Environment Department.

Please personalise your message so it has more impact - write your own subject line and amend the email text to add your own thoughts and concerns.

For more detailed information on the predicted impacts of the Caroona coal mine on water resources, visit our website.

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Subject:

Dear Minister/EPBC referral team,

I am writing to urge you to declare BHP Billiton's huge Caroona coal mine on the Liverpool Plains (EPBC referral 2014/7173) a controlled action for the significant impact that it will have on water resources and threatened species.

I do not agree with BHP’s assertion that the mine will not have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance, for the following reasons:

1. The Namoi Alluvial Aquifer is a high yielding and heavily-utilised aquifer and the project must be called in for its impact on this irreplaceable resource. Groundwater from the Gunnedah Formation of this aquifer is used extensively for irrigation, stock and domestic use and for town water supplies at Gunnedah, Breeza, Curlewis and Quirindi. Extensive study will be required to determine the extent of the impact this mine would have on that aquifer and the rural industries and communities that depend on it.

2. BHP assert that, "No drawdown impacts in excess of 2m are anticipated at any time within the Alluvial Aquifers.” This is a significant impact in itself. The drawdown of other local aquifers is expected to exceed 2 metres, and has been modelled to extend approximately 15-20 km from the project. The food-producing lands of the Liverpool Plains are a nationally significant asset, and the impact of this mine on the regional water resources that support the Plains must be thoroughly assessed, and the mine rejected if the proponent cannot guarantee that the groundwater of the region will not be compromised.

3. With regard to threatened species, subsidence from underground mines can cause substantial disturbance on the surface, and this will affect not just the threatened species on site, but water and soils as well. There are several threatened species and ecological communities in the area that will be undermined. The impact of this project on these species and communities must be assessed.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I will be following the assessment and decision making for this mine, and taking guidance from local farmers and regional community groups in my response to your decisions.

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