FIRST PRIZE FOR VANDALISM
Total Environment Media Release - 18th November 2008
NSW mining industry produces the wrong 'game plan'
The awarding of two major prizes to Peabody Energy at a mining industry awards function (sponsored by itself) is the ultimate sick joke, the Total Environment Centre said today.
Peabody won first prize in the Environment category and a highly commended in the Community category at the NSW Minerals Council's 'Game Plan 21 - Tactics for the Times' Excellence Awards on Monday.
Both awards are for "successful remediation" of one rock bar at the irreparably damaged Waratah Rivulet, which provides about one third of Sutherland Shire's water supply and was described by the Healthy Rivers Commission as being in "pristine" condition prior to mining. They come on the eve of a large community meeting in Sutherland to oppose Peabody's plans to massively expand mining under the Rivulet and Woronora Dam itself.
"People will be astounded to learn that Peabody has been rewarded as a result of mining wrecking a river," said TEC Natural Areas Campaigner David Burgess.
"Waratah Rivulet should never have been undermined to begin with. In 2004 the Sydney Catchment Authority asked that a precautionary approach be taken to mining and was overruled by the Department of Minerals. Peabody must not be allowed to mine further until they can prove that more subsidence damage to the Rivulet and its surrounding swamps will not occur, as per the recommendations of the Southern Coalfields Inquiry.
"These awards have nothing to do with the environmental wellbeing of the Waratah Rivulet and everything to do with putting pressure on the NSW Government to approve Peabody's expansion plans, which are currently before the Planning Minister," Mr Burgess said.
"They claim to have repaired one rock bar with polyurethane. How long that will hold a riverbed together is altogether untested and not enough time has passed to even remotely claim success.
"The draining of the Rivulet's main feeder swamp, the thousands of other cracks in the riverbed, the ongoing damage to the Rivulet's feeder streams and the death of aquatic ecosystems while the Rivulet sat dry for 2km of its length are impacts more worthy of condemnation than reward and will never be repaired.
"Recognition for mining excellence should go to companies who prevent damage to rivers and swamps in the first place. Not to companies who, when asked by the NSW Government to prove remediation success, set about doing it through in-house prizes. No one will be fooled by this," Mr Burgess concluded.
Contact: David Burgess or phone (02) 9261 3437