Tag: Dharawal

THE COAL STORY

NO IFS NO BUTS

Dharawal National Park was declared in March 2012 by the newly elected Liberal-National state government led by Barry O’Farrell who had campaigned on the promise of ending mining in the water catchment. “no ifs, no buts”. Today Dharwal remains a place of wild beauty with deep tree-filled valleys sloping down to glittering creeks and pools, all part of the intact geology remaining after millions of years of sedimentation and erosion. Inside the Dharawal story, is a new chapter, a small handkerchief dropped into the plot of deep time. On the map the park is uniformly green except for oddly shaped pale patches that remain under the care and control of other parties, at the bottom a coffin-shaped section denotes a firing range. Another conspicuous remnant sits in the very middle of the park with its own access road. On this land, behind a cyclone wire fence and signs warning of explosive gas is the entrance to the defunct North Cliff colliery, the rusting gantry tower looming over a large concrete slab that seals the mine like a tomb. From under the edge of the slab the unceasing hissing of sulphurous escaping methane gas can be heard.

SPECIAL AREAS

In the late nineteenth century large ‘Special Areas’ of bushland had been set aside to secure clean water for the growing cities of Sydney and Wollongong. Dharawal covers the O’Hares Creek and Stokes Creek catchments and sits between the Woronora Special Area and the larger Metropolitan Special Area. In 1927 this area was declared a water catchment, but by 1978 it was decided no more dams would be built and the protected catchment status was no longer needed, the land might be excised from the Special Areas and better used for mining and recreation. Underground coal mining was already underway in Dharawal but ongoing mining would now occur in an area known as State Conservation Area, while the area not yet mined was known as Nature Reserve. The juggling of permissible land use was glossing over the fact that mining inside the Special Area water catchments had always been illegal, Special Area status prohibits any activity that results in damage to the catchment. The change in planning priorities from protecting water to protecting mining is explained by the increasing wealth and influence of the coal lobby in politics.

MOUNTAINS OF COAL

In the 1970’s longwall coal mining technology allowed for a tripling of underground coal extraction over traditional tunneling methods. Up to 90 percent of an entire coal seam could be bought to the surface. One downside was a dramatic increase in subsidence damage above the enormous subterranean voids, up to 4km long and 300 m wide. These panels ranked side by side undermining the entire landscape. The new money to be made from mountains of coal called for new deals done between coal companies, planning regulators and politicians, but the scale of the surface damage would prove a challenge to gaining approval as community groups sprang up to oppose the scale of the destruction. Unpaid activists attempted to battle corporate interests with unlimited capital.

The lure of easy money quickly set up a rolling series of corruption scandals that engulfed successive Labor state governments and paved the way for the O’Farrell opposition. Once in power O’Farrell would need to differentiate his government from the outgoing Labor power-brokers heading into court and into gaol. Coal had become suspect political property. Dharawal was offered to the wider electorate as a token of good faith. Environmentalists had fought hard to protect the area and the promise to declare Dharawal had helped deliver local Liberal candidates record large swings in marginal seats. But after Dharawal was delivered, the promise of no further mining in the catchment (no if’s no buts) evaporated. A tacit arrangement emerged between Labor and Liberal-Nationals that meant no future coal project would achieve prominence by parliamentary debate. The production of coal accelerated, approvals ticked over.. In June of 2020 the Greens would be gagged from addressing a petition of 10600 signatures presented to parliament protesting mining under the Woronora reservoir. All speakers spoke in favour of mining including Lee Evans the local Liberal who had campaigned with O’Farrell on the issue. Also keen to allow mining under the reservoir was the water minister and her Labor shadow. By 2022 mining consent become the exclusive domain of the planning minister.

DEPARTMENTAL RESTRUCTURING

In the decade following the Dharawal declaration the Liberal-National government moved to restructure the planning process. The Independent Commision Against Corruption, the ICAC, that was largely responsible for uncovering coal corruption was set on a path of downsizing and underfunding. The Sydney Catchment Authority was disbanded with key proponents sidelined. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water was abolished. The Office of Environment and Heritage was disbanded. The Ministry of Environment was subsumed into an expanded Department of Planning Industry and Environment with ultimate control resting with the senior Planning minister. The Minister of the Environment no longer had a department to minister over. Environmental protections would be morphed into an offset methodology that put a price on everything and protected nothing. Dharawal was a turning point of sorts, but by no means a rejection of mining in the water catchment.

GAS OUTBURSTS

The history of mining in Dharawal illustrates an example of regulatory capture by mining interests; land set aside for water was reclaimed for mining, then used as a political offset to conceal other large mining operations in the Special Areas. The pivot over Dharawal may have also added to the bottom line of the miner. Mining leases are a gamble, not all operations are profitable. The profitability of the mining operation was in question while large compensation was demanded to relinquish the mining lease. The declaration of Dharawal National Park followed 30 years of stop-start longwall mining in the area that produced erratic volumes of coal under hazardous conditions, ongoing underground gas outbursts resulting in long recurring periods of evacuation of the mine while dangerous gases were ventilated. Making gassy mines safe requires expensive drilling to install gas ranges to tap off the gas. Dealing with that gas presents another problem, large vent towers with fans are needed. The gas itself represent a carbon emissions liability.

Mining disasters with large loss of life are not unprecedented, in 1979 14 miners were killed in a gas explosion in the nearby Appin mine owned by the same corporation. Another death in 1994 had occurred at NorthCliff illustrating the grim possibilities of continuing to work a gassy mine. The Dharawal coal reserves were problematic, gas outbursts threatened smooth production and hazards to life threatened regulatory oversight. When the Dharawal reserves were “sterilised” the coal companies had secured a route to planning approval to extend the operation of other less problematic mines inside the Special Areas. As well as an assured future in other parts of the Special Areas the relinquishment set out undisclosed compensation payments for unrealised economic potential and return on exploration costs and lease fees.

HIDDEN LIABILITIES

Coal leases grow over time as mines expand and permissions are negotiated. Adjoining leases can be consolidated and regularly change ownership. With each change in legal status can come rebranding and commercial arrangements that are held in-confidence for new and extended periods. Past liabilities for remediation or compensation can easily pass into the nether world of buried mining deals.

The economic gains from coal mining in the Illawarra are largely realised as corporate profits on export sales. 90% of the coal leaves on ships loaded from Port Kembla. Transportation costs mean that the closest coal to the port is also the most profitable. The cost of road infrastructure required to transport Dharawal coal was another problem for the miners to weigh up when deciding on whether to strike a deal and relinquish this lease area. Other leases owned by the same corporation would easily meet market needs.

The commercial value of the Dharawal lease was known only to the miner. Factors including the extent and quality of the coal that could be recovered, the cost of recovery and the cost of transportation of coal and disposal of waste, would all weight into the compensation cost incurred by the incoming Premier. Given that the miner was able to set the price, it would be reasonable to assume the compensation package was sufficient. The final cost of compensation remains hidden, but elements were laid out in publicly available documents. By responding to the premiers request to declare a national park the miner was able to produce a list of 9.5 million dollars worth of exploration costs, adjusted for inflation. Added to this are the refunded lease fees and loss of projected earnings.

SECRECY

Mining projects are subject to assessment by government through a “planning approval” process. To gain approval the miner is required to submit an Environmental Assessment Report which answers a set criteria laid out by the Departmental Secretary, who enacts the will of the Minister. So long as such questions are answered, approval might be expected. Answers might be modified if need be, but approval is the desired end point of the approval process. The negotiations take place between the miner and the department and out of the public eye.

TRANSPARENCY

One part of planning approval is designed to appear transparent; the process of public inquiry that is conducted to answer the suspicion of secret deals made against the public interest.

In order to gain planning permission to mine a larger parcel of land the miner was eventually subject to an inquiry in 2010 under a Planning Assessment Commission, or PAC, formed within the Department of Planning. The proposed project was known as the Bulli Seam Operation and would see the extraction of coal over 30 years from 136 longwall panels. As well as natural bushland areas, 222 swamps of natural significance, water catchment for Cataract dam, and large tracts of housing and public roads would be impacted. The PAC process would be a turning point for a range of reasons.

The BSO PAC inquiry was open to public submissions, but met in private with various interested government agencies. Also included in the process were a small number of unpaid community voices selected under the banner of a Community Consultative Committee, or CCC. This group would become specialised advocates to counter the almost inevitable planning approval. The public inquiry process devolved to a battle of expertise that soon became a game played behind closed doors. As it transpired the BSO was overturned, but whether this was a result of grassroots opposition or pressure from other quarters is unclear. Given the weight of submissions against the proposal and reading the political tea leaves the PAC ruled that the proponent’s evidence was misleading, unreliable, untrustworthy, and of insufficient rigor to grant approval. None were more surprised than members of the CCC who had assumed they had just been registering a protest to the inevitable progress of mining. The finding of the PAC gave Barry O’Farrell the trigger to declare Dharawal.

DIVESTMENT

In 2012 the Big Australian BHP/Billiton were the largest miner in the Southern coalfields, they had recently divested the steel mill in Port Kembla and BHP operating through its subsidiary Illawarra Coal chose this time to divest from coal assets. An increasing tide of investor concern about coal emissions and climate change had meant that coal assets were damaging the brand. BHP had to avoid the appearance of a major corporation denying climate change and holding onto the risk of stranded assets. A new specialised company South32 was created to take on the BHP coal assets and weather whatever public disapproval might arise. In this way the Big Australian was able to wash its hands of a problematic coal operation while at the same time reaping a corporate profit. South32 continue to mine inside the Special Areas and operate the Appin and Dendrobium mines. South32 are skilled in putting in aggressive plans for coal extraction that discounts all opposition.

REMEDIATION

When the Dharawal park was declared in 2012 it carried the promise that protection extended to the core of the earth, this concealed the fact that mining activity had already nibbled into the area. Longwalls have been carved out under a large northeast section of the park. Large driveways lead from the Northcliff mine to other parts. Despite the win in saving Dharawal the land bears the scars of extensive mining activity. Coal mining begins with exploration leases which permit the building of roads, drilling of holes and seismic blasting. Before coal can be removed infrastructure must be built. Large areas are cleared at the pithead for storing bulk coal and processing. Mine waste and coal wash might make up as much as 20% of the ‘run of mill’ material coming to the surface. All this material has to be stored or transported. Settling ponds and waste heaps further extend the land claimed by the mine. Some surface impacts are subject to remediation requirements enforced by the regulator to varying degrees of success. There are other impacts that can never be reversed, the cracks that can never be filled, the aquifers that will never recharge and the gas that will continue to hiss out of the fractured ground. By on-selling problematic assets corporations also pass on the liabilities to smaller aggressive operators who have no public image to protect. BHP gave birth to South32 who were able to connect with Bluescope, another BHP offshoot, to overthrow the Independent Planning Commission. By lining up all major party politicians the Dendrobium mine was declared State Significant Infrastructure, and all objections overlooked. Such is the legacy of BHP decarbonising; coal mines are now synonymous with infrastructure and miners take open control of planning approval. The bright green future beckons.