This comment was receive by email from what turned out to be an experienced coal miner. Jim obviously, like me, had a bee in his bonnet about the issues. It is worth exploring all issues I feel, so I thought it worth publishing the dialog as an article in its own right.
The following are direct quotes:-
This comment from Jim Smith on 3 April 2009...
You can get what you ask for, be careful you don't all freeze in the dark, or cook in summer, have to read in the dark, electricity powers ALL of your protected pleasures in life.
My reply on the same date ...
Hi Jim
Yes Jim you are correct and absolutely right if you are assuming we (I) am against mining per se. Of course we all benefit from the resource that powers our power stations and we are in a society that demands the things that power gives us.
However, I am not against mining as such. I may not agree with the whole thing but it is part of where we live. My (our) beef is that mining can be done without "shitting in our own nest" - in the case of Duralie, it was a requirement of the licence and they have continued for years complying with those conditions more or less. What the problem in that case is that now they want to change the conditions of the licence and use a pristine river as a mine waste water dump. This river system runs into a protected marine park and also provides fresh water to various towns along the way. It makes a mockery of a "marine park" in that you cannot use the river and estuary but the mine can dump waste water into it.
In the Duralie case in particular, this is what we are on about. We can only give our opinion as to why they want to do this and of course the arguments will bounce back and forward. I suspect the bottom line. In the case of Duralie, I understand that it is export coal which has nothing to do with power supply. They also only employ about 60 locals so the "employment" argument does not wash.
There is a any amount of evidence of total river destruction throughout the world directly attributed to what they term Acid Mine Drainage from coal and other mines. In this area, we are simply attempting to head it off at the pass. There is no real argument that mine waste water is not harmful.
There is other comments on the blog that address other issues such as loss of land rights. It all fits into the one problem.
All we ask is that the miners accept the conditions imposed by our regulators - under which we all have to live. The regulators also ought to abide by their own rules and if they claim they are the guardians of the environment (also) then don't bullshit - do it - that is what they are there for. There is heaps of environmental legislation related to mining that may be not be perfect but we all have to bend a little. However, this is all being totally ignored in the name of the "economy" whatever that is (what they mean by "the economy" is another interesting discussion). The references to "part 3A" discuss these override of legislation issues.
We also should be careful that we don't all die of thirst while we sit in from of our electric heaters watching TV in our well lit house. There are dozens of rivers about the Sydney catchment area that have been totally destroyed as far as fresh water goes or have gone altogether down a mine hole - this is not fiction. Yet we now plan to build electric powered desalination plants to supply fresh water. This is a never ending spiral. Not to mention the loss of very valuable farm land from open cuts. We also have to eat and you cant eat coal.
I hear the argument "they have to mine where the coal is". This should be "they can only mine where the coal is" - if that is where other things are happening (farming, water catchment, oyster farming etc) then maybe the mining should take a back seat.
I do not get into the argument of global warming - I have personal thoughts about that but basically I think the jury is still out on all that.
Anyway, I thank you for your comments and hope you appreciate mine. You are fully entitled to your opinion.
If you wish me to to publish your comments, and I dont mind doing so, send me a quick yes or no by email and its done. What I will do of course is also publish this reply. If you wish, expand on your opinion and I will publish that.
And Jims response...
Thanks for the reply.
I guess you realise from my comment that I am a coal miner actually with 40 years experience, a 7th generation one, a Manager of Mechanical Engineering and I get very tired of people knocking the mining industry, especially when they sit at home in front of their television, heaters and air conditioners going flat out. Listen to the greenies and because it sounds good make a lot of noise, and expect every one to bow to their whims. Bet they never turn the electricity off
I believe if they were fair dinkum they would live in a tent, go to bed when the sun goes down and eat grass. Anyhow enough of that.
I do agree totally with you with regards to land useage, waste disposal, if the person owns land then the mining companies should either buy the land, or pay royalties for the use of and then rehabilitate the land back to it's pre mining condition and hand it back to the owner.
Mining companies are not allowed to dispose of mine or raw water into rivers and creeks. The better option for them is to build a storeage dam and recycle that water for dust control. If they don't control the dust they can also be prosecuted. Another use if they have excessive ground - raw water is to use it for irrigation on land reclamation.
Yes Paul I don't mind you publishing either letter.
I hope I have helped you
Thanks
Jim Smith