Australian Coal Alliance

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The Australian Coal Alliance is an incorporated association and advocacy organisation formed to oppose the Wallarah 2 Coal Project, a proposed coal mining project near Wyong in the Central Coast region of New South Wales. The organisation shares its leadership with the Australian Gas Coalition, and is co-ordinated by their spokesperson Alan Hayes.

Australian Coal Alliance has represented members of the Wyong community opposed to the mining proposal, and its work has received support from local, State and Federal political representatives. The organisation is concerned that the Wallarah 2 Project will in particular pose a threat to water quality in the Wyong Shire water catchment area, while also impacting on other environmental quality concerns such as migratory wildlife and noise pollution.

The grounds of opposition were set out in a submission to the NSW government's strategic inquiry into coal mining development in sensitive areas of the Wyong catchment, the Chikarovski review. The technical competence of the Australian Coal Alliance's assessment of the issues was described by local MP Greg Piper as "second to none" and superior in many ways to the work of assessments including the Chikarovski inquiry report.

The company seeks to mine coal beneath the drinking water catchments valleys of Dooralong and Yarramalong, Wyong, and build the coal loader on land it owns in Tooheys Rd, for 40 years. Such a large scale mining proposal so close to urban growth areas in North Sydney/Central Coast areas and under the drinking water catchments is unprecedented. The Coal Alliance contends that longwall coal mining is the most destructive form of mining, leaving risks of land subsidence in the nearby areas and adverse environmental impacts.

The organisation continues to act as the voice of local concern about the mining proposal and its implications, including health risks, which are a contentious issue in the 2011 NSW State elections.

On 4th March, 2011 the NSW State Government finally capitulated to the Australian Coal Alliance campaign and announced the refusal of the Wallarah 2 Coal Mine proposal. This is the first time in Australia that an underground longwall coal mine has been refused.

During the five-year campaign by the Australian Coal Alliance they employed the best experts in their field in Australia - hydrologists, geologists, mining engineers, environmental scientists, town planners - to establish, without doubt, that the proposed mine would destroy 53% of the water catchment, which supplies drinking water to 300,000 people. The campaign was fought and won on three fronts: evidence, media exposure and political pressure.

Australian Coal Alliance is based in Tuggerah, New South Wales. Its Wallarah 2 Project Campaign Director is Alan Hayes, an environmentalist and author of 26 books on environmental and lifestyle issues. The scientific member responsible for producing the Chikarovski inquiry submission was Ron Sokolowski, a specialist in wildlife and vegetation research and management.

The mining proposal has drawn widespread community concerns. "We do have substantive and compelling evidence that the mine will impact on the integrity of the water catchment," said Alan Hayes, the campaign co-coordinator for Australian Coal Alliance. "Throughout Australia, longwall coal mining has had a destructive impact on water systems.The extensive damaged caused to riverine systems in NSW, such as the Waratah Rivulet and Cataract River (Southern Coalfields), Diega Creek, Bowmans Creek and Wambo Creek (Hunter Region), where the river beds were so severely damaged the water has completely disappeared, is well documented and the subject of Government Inquiry. In February 2008 longwall mining cracked 500 metres of the bed of the Nepean River." Such a large scale mining proposal so close to urban growth areas in North Sydney/Central Coast areas and under the drinking water catchments is unprecedented.

External links

• Australian Coal Alliance Web site
• Coal mining inquiry near Wyong [1]
• Residents fear coal dust [2]
• Voters' backlash looms against coal mine [3]
• Coal mining causes adverse environmental impacts. Coal mining
• Daniel Burns. The modern practice of coal mining (1907)
• Hughes. Herbert W, A Text-Book of Mining: For the Use of Colliery Managers and Others (London, many editions 1892-1917), the standard British textbook for its era.
• James Tonge. The principles and practice of coal mining (1906)
• Charles V. Nielsen and George F. Richardson. 1982 Keystone Coal Industry Manual (1982)
• Hayes, Geoffrey. Coal Mining (2004), 32 pp
• Chirons, Nicholas P. Coal Age Handbook of Coal Surface Mining (ISBN 0-07-011458-7)
• Wallarah 2 Coal Project [4]