Ainslie Drewitt-Smith
Updated Fri at 3:08pm
Wollongong Coal
Wollongong Coal's plans to expand its Russel Vale colliery have moved forward, with a new report finding the project poses minimal environmental threat.
The company is seeking approval to expand underground long wall mining into the catchment supplying drinking water to Sydney and the Illawarra.
In April the Planning Assessment Commission asked Wollongong Coal to seek independent advice on the impact its plans would have on the catchment and upland swamps.
The company's Operations Manager Rhys Brett said a panel of groundwater experts have now deemed the project would have a minimal impact on drinking water.
"The panel were looking specifically at the underground expansion project, any impacts on ground water or the surrounding areas of the project area," Mr Brett said.
"What the independent panel have found is that the potential impacts on ground water in surrounding areas are minimal and are within the regulatory guidelines."
The panel of experts was approved to carry out the independent review by the New South Wales government.
Mr Brett said the findings should alleviate any concerns about the project previously expressed by anti-mining groups and the local community.
"This independent and scientifically robust process should put to rest all residual concerns about the underground expansion project's potential impacts on Sydney's drinking water, and the cataract reservoir," Mr Brett said.
Kay Osborne from the group Illawarra Residents for Responsible Mining said she doesn't agree with the report, and still has her reservations about the project.
"I wish it were that simple, but the fact is that this is Sydney's water supply and 4.6 million people rely on the water supply," Ms Osborne said.
"Sydney is the only city in the World that allows long wall mining beneath a water catchment and it's really important that that is done responsibly or not at all," she said.
She said the recent findings contradict those published by a previous panel of experts called the Independent Expert Scientific Committee.
"Their report handed to the federal government last year raised really considerable concerns regarding the underground expansion project and its potential to damage the Sydney water catchment area," Ms Osborne said.
"So we have expert reports and expert reports and I guess we'll be particularly interested, in terms of those two expert panels, which ones are actually consultants to the mining industry and therefore depend for their income on project work and consultancy work by the mining industry, and which ones are actually truly financially independent."
Ms Brett said now the report is complete, Wollongong Coal's proposal will go back before the Department of Planning for consideration.
"This report is Wollongong Coal satisfying the final recommendation of that initial PAC review in April 2015," Mr Brett said.
"This now allows the department of planning to consider that information, finalise their report to the planning minister where hopefully the project will then be referred to a final determination PAC."
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