Shenhua's green light for Liverpool Plains mine

On Thursday NSW’s independent approvals body, the Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC), granted final approval to the controversial Watermark coal project at Breeza, near the Liverpool Plains.

The mine was first proposed in 2010 and has since been scrutinised in numerous public hearings and by NSW and Federal Government departments.

Farmers have argued that agriculture on the fertile black soil plains adjacent to the mine area would suffer, with impacts to groundwater among the key concerns.

However, Shenhua maintained its mine was located in ridge country above the black soil plains, and impacts on the fertile farmland would be limited.

NSW President Fiona Simson (pictured) said the approval highlights a failure of agricultural policy.

“Mining has been approved in the heart of our best agricultural land.

“If it wasn’t so serious it would be laughable in terms of the repercussions.

“We were guaranteed by government that agricultural land and significant water resources would be protected and that is the biggest disappointment to me.

“The Strategic Regional Land Use Plan was designed to protect the best agricultural land in the State and it took significant money to do the mapping of the land.

“All coal resources in NSW are deemed State significant – but the fact that there is no state agricultural land is quite telling

“We are strongly opposed to the mine because our members believe the Liverpool Plains are unique.

“The agricultural values of soil and water are unique and should be protected.

“In this decision, the PAC stressed several times importance of the black soil plains, but it allowed the mine go within 150m and deemed that a suitable buffer

“The people writing the PAC report and their advisors obviously have very little understanding of agriculture.”

Shenhua Watermark project manager Paul Jackson said the mine’s impacts on agriculture would be limited.

“The project strikes the right balance to unlock the economic and social benefits of mining while ensuring the valuable agricultural production on the Liverpool Plains continues uninterrupted.

“Both PACs have undertaken rigorous examinations of key aspects of the project to confirm there will be no impacts on the wider agricultural production of the adjacent Liverpool Plains.

“We have been subjected to detailed investigations at every step of the journey and the community can have confidence our assessments have been tested and confirmed by an independent panel of experts who have scrutinised every aspect of the project.

“We will not mine on the Liverpool Plains and the PAC has once again confirmed the irrefutable evidence showing the project will not harm the valuable irrigation groundwater accessed by those who farm on the plains.”

NSW Irrigators chief executive Mark Mackenzie said the approvals bodes ill for agriculture in other areas.

“If we can’t get this mine knocked back then heaven help anyone in an agricultural area with lesser soil and water resources.

“This area is the jewel of irrigated agriculture in NSW.

“We are disappointed because the PAC did not adopt the precautionary principle."

Mr Mackenzie said he and other farmer groups got the Water Research Laboratory at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW Australia to assess the mine’s revised water modelling.

"They said there was not adequate data provided to allow an assessment of their modelling of impacts to water.

“We recommended to the PAC the mine not be approved because in our view, and the water laboratory’s view, that the proponents had not done what the (a previous PAC hearing) had asked them to do.”

The PAC’s report said the proposed mine will be in the hills above the black soil plains and will not directly disturb those fertile soils.

The PAC acknowledges the mine will generate dust, noise and blasting impacts on land around the mine, but that this can be managed satisfactorily and would not preclude the continued productive use of the black soils for agricultural purposes.

Notwithstanding that the water impacts had been assessed by various experts including peer reviews, the Commission engaged an independent expert to review the groundwater modelling at both the review and determination stages.

the potential water impacts of the project have been comprehensively assessed

the project would have modest impacts on groundwater, particularly noting the site’s location in the hard rock aquifers, rather than the Upper Naomi alluvial aquifers relied on by the agricultural sector.

The Commission agrees with earlier findings that the NSW Government should do more work to prohibit mining on the highly valuable black soil plains.