WHETHER you are for or against the Springvale Colliery expansion anyone who bothered to remain at last Wednesday's PAC meeting would have heard well respected businessman and resident Dick Austen deliver a speech that many in the audience have relayed to the Mercury as The Speech that Stole the Show.
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With his extensive knowledge Dick delivered what many could only think.
When he finished addressing the commission he received the loudest round of applause from the audience because what he said made clear sense to all.
He said: “Commissioners, Ladies and Gentlemen Thank you for the opportunity to take part in these proceedings.
I am sure everyone present will agree that the case outlining the tremendous upheaval and hardship that would follow the closure of Springvale Mine has been thoroughly made here today.
The hardship and personal loss, the family break-ups, the inevitable loss in real estate and property values across the Local Government Area and the likely financial ruin of the many committed home buyers were well ventilated.
Although mentioned it occurred to me that the inevitable closure of Mt Piper Power Station in the face of the unavailability of Springvale coal needed special emphasis.
The days when State Governments owned the Power Stations and maintained a ‘within State’ operating ranking are long gone. Nowadays the Eastern Australia Power Grid operator evaluates price offers in respect to every turbine from Central Queensland to the Latrobe Valley.
Not only is the coal itself critical to the continued life of the Power Station and to local employment but the competitiveness of that coal’s delivered price is vitally important as well if Mt Piper is to play a worthwhile role in supplying power into the grid.
Fuel costs comprise more than sixty per cent of total generating costs in today’s power stations. Lithgow is already struggling to maintain its critical mass.
To maintain present standards of education, health services, transport and training facilities and security would prove to be difficult if not impossible if 500 core jobs 1200 support jobs disappeared.
The Town in anything like its present form would not be viable. But where is the real justification for this situation to be pushed so aggressively by the environmental movement as we saw yesterday.
A self-appointed group of dogmatic and arrogant elitists most of whom did not bother to remain at the meeting after eleven thirty.
Their presentation offered no balance and only selected facts.
They could be accused of distorting some information and withholding other material to suit their own objectives.
To claim salt in Springvale water entering Coxs River was poisoning Sydney’s water is just emotional claptrap and distortion of the facts.
It is unworthy of a supposed scientific presentation and creates a cloud over the accuracy and reliability of their whole contribution.
They do not choose to mention the dilution effect of the many unaffected creeks plus the two large bodies of water, Lake Wallace and its much larger brother Lake Lyell that make up the system Coxs River water meets all required standards long before its water spills into Warragamba Dam.
It is worth noting that the Coxs River has been carrying the districts mine water for 170 years and judging by today’s wide range of aquatic life present it is a wonderful example of high quality water and creature adaption.
I refer in particular to the plentiful supply of edible fish and eels present in its water.
The complainants choose to ignore that the dams on the Coxs River and Thompsons Creek are owned and managed by Energy Australia.
Are they seriously suggesting that organisation is asleep at the wheel? In respect to tabling all relevant material, it is very difficult to find description or mention of the important Geological member referred to as the Coal Measures.
It occurs immediately below the Triassic Sandstone (our beautiful cliffs) and contains, from the Triassic base down to the Lithgow seam horizon more than a hundred metres of shale, mudstone and sandstone bands as well as coal seams.
Why is this important?
It is important because when the coal is extracted (the bottom or Lithgow seam at Springvale) whether by long-wall or pillar extraction this material readily breaks up and forms a large thick mat beneath the Triassic cap.
This mat-like interval mitigates the cracking of the massive sandstone above and the free movement of water as well.
This situation does not occur in the same way in the Illawarra Coalfield because the principle seam of interest in that region is the Bulli (or No 1) seam which occurs close below the Sandstone.
The whole sequence is exposed for all to see on Brown’s Gap Road east of Lithgow. In summary, the submissions by the self-appointed experts appears to deliberately avoid mentioning at least one most important factor that if included would obviously weaken their argument related to the inevitability of all hanging swamps being drained.
As well, their wild and extravagant statements related to Coxs River water quality and the certainty of Sydney’s water being poisoned is plainly wrong and malicious.
I thank you again for a chance to contribute to this very important discussion.”