FORMER New England MP Tony Windsor hit out against Shenhua's plan to construct a coal mine near the black soil Liverpool Plains at a recent public hearing of the Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC).
Mr Windsor said the lack of understanding around connectivity between underground and surface water sources was the most important issue in approving Shenhua's open cut Watermark coal proposal.
"To put a mine of this magnitude in some of the most fertile country of the State is absurd," Mr Windsor said.
"The problem is we still look at each project as if it's within a boundary fence.
"How can you allow those activities when we still don't know the relationship between groundwater and surface water?
"If there are any adverse impacts in water resources it's not just going to affect the local area, but the whole Murray Darling Basin system."
NSW Irrigators' Council chief executive Mark McKenzie echoed Mr Windsor's message at the PAC - which is the NSW Government's independent assessment body.
The public meeting which is the final hurdle of the first stage of the approvals process for the Watermark Coal Project.
Mr McKenzie said nearby aquifers' ability to keep farms going in tough times made its protection even more important.
"There was a request from the PAC for additional hydrological and water impact research to be done and frankly it hasn't been done to anything like a reasonable adequacy," Mr McKenzie said.
"We are not anti mining. What we are about is minimising, to the absolute minimum, the risk factors involved in aquifer interference."
Mr Windsor reiterated the theme the project was the "wrong mine in the wrong place".
"I live next door to a mine," he said.
"Mining has been an integral part of our region for years, but it hasn't been in an area where it could impact water."
