Will NSW Premier O'Farrell protect local government investment in NSW North Coast sustainable urban water infrastructure?

 

From A Clarence Valley Protest on 18 July 2011:

There are ninety kilometres (90 km) of underground pipelines linking the Nymboida River with the Shannon Creek Dam in the Clarence Valley, the Rushforth Road Reservoir at South Grafton and the Karangi Dam near Coffs Harbour.  The combined value of this infrastructure to Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour local government has been estimated at $200 million.

On 18 July 2011 The Coffs Coast Advocate reported Coffs Harbour City Cr. Mark Graham as stating:

…he had inspected a site on Wild Cattle Creek where Anchor Resources was exploring for antimony and there were already large plumes of antimony which could leach into Wild Cattle Creek and into the Nymboida River.

“There is a massive plume washing from the exploration site into the headwaters of our drinking water catchment,… There is a great need to protect the catchment of the regional water supply and our collective investment of about $200 million"

If these plumes are as reported, then the China Shandong Jinshunda Group Co Ltd through its Australian mining exploration arm, Anchor Resources Ltd, is placing local government investment, an urban water supply (which supports an estimated 3 million residents and visitors/tourists each quarter across Clarence Valley-Coffs Harbour regions) and, a high-value natural environment, at risk even before antimony mining and processing has begun.

According to a report commissioned by Clarence Valley Council in 2008; On average, domestic overnight visitors spent $118 per night, International overnight visitors spent $76 per night and domestic day trippers spent $80 per trip.

Will NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher ignore potential risks to the interests of Northern Rivers and Mid-North Coast communities in order to facilitate the interests of this international mining corporation?

Buckingham speaks out in defence of NSW North Coast communities. Where is Cansdell?

Looking towards upper reaches of the Nymboida River

The Greens Jeremy Buckingham MLC speaks out for the Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour and Belligen local government areas, as well as the Clarence River catchment in this foreshadowed motion NSW Parliament Legislative Council.

Legislative Council Notice Paper No. 24

147. Mr Buckingham to move

1. That this House notes that:

(a) Anchor Resources Ltd have conducted scoping studies that indicate a resource of 17,500 tons of antimony have been found at both Wild Cattle Creek, near Nymboida and the Blicks River to the northwest of Dorrigo on the mid north coast of New South Wales,

(b) Anchor Resources Ltd has recently been subject to a majority takeover by the Chinese minerals company China Shandong Jinshunda Ltd which now owns over 90 per cent of the company,

(c) antimony is a mineral resource used for a range of “high-tech” products such as polymers, fire retardants and electronics,

(d) antimony and many of its compounds are toxic and the World Health Organisation has stated that oral consumption can result in "a strong irritating effect on the gastrointestinal mucosa and trigger sustained vomiting ... abdominal cramps, diarrhoea and cardiac toxicity",

(e) the majority of the municipal water supply for more than 100,000 residents in Coffs Harbour is provided by Shannon Creek Dam which is fed by pipes directly from the Nymboida River,

(f) this project is located within the headwaters of the Nymboida River, which is the highest rainfall catchment in New South Wales,

(g) the high rainfall of the catchment, which sometimes exceeds three metres, means that there is a significant risk that antimony mined in the area could be released and contaminate the water,

(h) a previous antimony ore processing plant at Urunga Lagoon has been described in the Bellingen Council 2009-10 State of the Environment Report as seriously contaminated and unable to be rehabilitated, and

(i) a 2002 report by the University of New England has shown that antimony from the Hillgrove and Bakers Creek mines which are located in the catchment of the Macleay River to the east of Armidale, have seriously contaminated over twenty kilometres of the headwaters of this river system and this has proved impossible to remediate.

2. That this House recognises that:

(a) the government has a responsibility to protect the community from current and future health risks associated with extractive industries, and

(b) proponent driven applications to determine the exploitation of our mineral resources are not in the best interests of the wider New South Wales community.

3. That this House calls on the Government to:

(a) prohibit mining activities within the critical catchments which supply water to our communities because of the unacceptable risks this poses to human and ecosystem health, the quality of our water supply and our state's agricultural capacity, and

(b) engage more extensively with the community in all assessments for extractive industries and take appropriate and precautionary actions, especially in regards to health risks.

(Notice given 23 June 2011—expires Notice Paper No. 43)

No problems with any new Wild Cattle Creek tailing dams, according to the China Shandong Jinshunda Group

From A Clarence Valley Protest on 30 June 2011:

No problems with any new Wild Cattle Creek tailing dams for antimony mining by-products arsenic and mercury, according to the China Shandong Jinshunda Group

One has to admire the chutzpah of mining corporation China Shandong Jinshunda Group Co Ltd as reported in The Clarence Valley Review on 29 June 2011:

Anchor Resources managing director, Ian Price, said the Dorrigo mine would operate under vastly improved practices to those carried out in the past.

“One of the key aspects is containment of any of materials from the particular site so they don’t enter waterways, or don’t go off-site.

I think that’s the critical thing, and that’s proper containment of tailings in proper containment dams, and diversion of water around sites so they don’t enter the site … lots of old mining sites going back 50 or 100 years were not built with good tailings dams, and standards have developed over the past decades where those standards are much better,” he said.

First its spokesperson attempts to distance the mine from those North Coast local government areas in which residents are expressing concern, about the potential for negative environmental and public health impacts from mining for antimony and gold in an environmentally sensitive area within the Clarence and Nymboida river catchments, by calling it the “Dorrigo” mine.

Then the same spokesperson talks up modern tailing dams despite problems with these dams being experienced both in Australia and overseas and, finally he neglects to point out that the NSW Government allows mine owners to self-assess risk in relation to the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of the same tailing dams.

The primary goal of the DSC, relevant to this Guidance Sheet, is that all prescribed NSW tailings dam owners apply appropriate dam safety management practices to their dams using a risk management approach in line with a whole of Government approach to public safety.

Another goal is that risks to community interests from the potential for dam failure are tolerable, the owner’s determination in this regard being satisfactory to the DSC.

This requires that the risks are detected, identified and assessed, that they are reduced, when necessary, as soon as reasonably practicable and in a way that best serves community interests, and that they are kept under review throughout the life cycle of the dams.

It is for each dam owner to determine how these goals, including DSC requirements, (see Section 2.2) will be achieved and to demonstrate that the goal has been achieved, or will be achieved following safety improvements. The following sections of this sheet aim to provide guidance to assist dam owners in the achievement of the DSC goals.

[NSW Dam Safety Committee, June 2010, “Tailing Dams”,pp2-3]