Airly Mine Extension Project
The fourth community consultation session
for the Airly Mine Extension Project was held on Sunday
16 February
at Airly Mine. Approximately 30 people from the local community attended the session.
David King (Senior Mining Engineer, Airly Mine) presented
an overview of the Airly Mine Extension Project,
specialist consultant’s topics presented to date through
the community information sessions and how feedback has been considered and incorporated
into the EIS; James Marshall (James Marshall & Co) presented information relating to the Social and Economic Impact Assessments.
Key areas
of discussion included:
The potential
impact to land values following approval
of the project.
Has the impact of mining on local
creeks been fully
understood and considered?
More information on the Airly Mine Extension
Project can be obtained on Centennial’s website –
www.centennialcoal.com.au and
the briefing paper for the Extension Project can be found on the Department of Planning
and Infrastructure website – www.planning.nsw.gov.au
Questions and Answers relating
to the overview of the
Airly Mine Extension Project, Social and Economic presentations held at
Airly Mine 16 February 2014.
Question
|
Response
|
Does the Social Impact Assessment
consider land values as the community are really concerned about
a drop in land values?
|
As the impact assessments have determined that the
impacts of the Project do not go beyond the boundary of the Project
Application Area it was
concluded that therefore
there was not expected to be any impact on land
values.
|
How can the community be assured
that adequate assessments have been
completed for
the Project?
|
The Director General
Requirements prescribe what information must be
provided in the impact assessments.
|
How can the community be assured
that an adequate
assessment has been
conducted on Gap Creek because
the mine has not been operating for the
past 12 months?
|
The
Groundwater
Impact
Assessment
has
included
a
Hydrogeological
Model that has been developed
based on approximately 100 years of meteorological data. The assessment considers the permeability of the
strata and makes predictions on the draw down of aquifers. Centennial is proposing to have the Hydrogeological Model peer
reviewed.
|
Will the results
of future water
monitoring be available to the community?
|
In the future
the results of water
monitoring will be made available through
the Community Consultative Committee at Airly Mine.
|
Will there be any impacts to local creeks, how does Centennial
know what and
where impacts will
occur to Airly
Creek, Dog Trap Creek and Coco
Creek?
|
The Surface Water Impact
Assessment has identified that Airly
Creek is very salty and has a high concentration of metals.
Centennial is not
expecting to regularly discharge water from the mine.
If
the mine was to discharge
water Centennial would
expect the concentration of salts and metals
in the discharged water to be lower
than the natural background levels in Airly
Creek.
|
What are the
approximate dimensions
of the proposed underground
mining area?
|
The underground mine workings will be approximately 8.5 km long east to
west and approximately 2.5 km long north
to south.
|
Question
|
Response
|
When will Airly Mine return to coal production?
|
At the time of this session a decision
on Airly’s future was pending.
Since
this session a decision was made
to
reopen Airly immediately utilising personnel and equipment from Centennial’s Charbon Colliery.
|
Can Centennial include groundwater bores on surrounding properties in the
area in the groundwater monitoring program at Airly Mine?
|
Airly Mine has
undertaken
some groundwater monitoring
on a
neighbouring property however
Centennial is yet to decide on an
appropriate monitoring program for
the
future
Airly
Mine Extension Project.
|
Has Centennial assessed the potential
impacts from lighting on residents
along Camerons Road?
|
The
Visual
Impact
Assessment
discussed
mitigation measures such as
designing lighting requirements
to avoid the direct line of sight from neighbouring residences where
possible, lighting of large
areas
to only occur if required for emergency lighting or for maintenance
activities and lighting required for security will be designed to minimise the spill of light
into the surrounding area.
|
Will information from today’s presentation be available for review at a
later
date?
|
Yes, information will be placed on Centennial’s website. Specialist
reports,
maps and plans of the proposed mine and other technical data
are also available for
review at Airly
mine.
|
Is there any system that allows
compensation to the community if
predictions are incorrect such as a prediction
for the loss of water
flow in Gap Creek?
|
The government will monitor the performance of Airly Mine to ensure the mine operates within
defined limits
and regulation. Adaptive
management at Airly Mine using
mechanisms like Trigger Action
Response Plans will
allow the mine to
modify the mining activities to mitigate the
impact on the
environment.
|
Where will the groundwater come from that is proposed to be extracted
under the Centennial
Airly Water Access Licence?
|
The groundwater
will be extracted from
the strata in the underground mine workings.
|
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