Are Water Souble Hydraulic/Lubricating Oils Getting into the Sydney Water Supply - via the Cox's River ??
Hi all
Does anyone know anything about the constituents in the water-soluble hydraulic oils (eg. Solsenic) used in vast quantities in long-wall mining machinery?
We have yet to read them mentioned in any SoEE for a long-wall mining proposal, or in any EPA reports or audits on the mining industry, and yet these oils are probably the single largest consumable after diesel used by long-wall mining companies.
The very fact these oils are water-soluble tends to suggest they can't be removed from water by normal oil/grease removal technology. Perhaps these oils and their detergents, surfactants, anti-corrosives, gelling agents and other additives can't be removed by normal water treatment plants either?
Bit of a worry given much of this minewater, certainly in the Lithgow area anyway, ends up in Lithgow and Sydney's drinking water supply!
The only local study we could find, and a very basic one at that, was by University of Western Sydney which quoted "volumes of 50 to 1200 litres per day" commonly used in long-wall mining equipment, and "Very high operating pressures mean that even a minor equipment leak can result in large oil spills".
We know that local Lithgow miners are very wary of this stuff. One miner offered the opinion, that given the choice between drinking Roundup or Solsenic, he would choose Roundup everytime !!.
Yet while regulations to register a herbicide are very stringent, water soluble oils and their additives do not appear to need to be registered in Australia, and manufacturers can refuse to put the constituents on the label or MSDS, claiming proprietary information.
Environmental groups in America claim these oils, their additives, surfactants, anti-corrosives, and gelling agents contain both toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylenes, napthalene, and MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether). They claim that only 28 tablespoons of MTBE could contaminate millions of litres of ground or surface water at concentrations that would render it unusable.
Centennial Coal are about to dump a lot more mine water into Lithgow (and Sydney's) drinking water supply than they already do, and we would like to know what the hell we will be drinking.
Any information gratefully appreciated.
Chris Jonkers <cjonkers@ozemail.com.au>
Lithgow Environment Group
p.s. We rang Centennial Clarence Colliery's Environmental Officer to ask whether they used water soluble hydraulic oils, and he said he did not know???