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With Rivers SOS taking the New South Wales Department of Planning to the state’s Land and Environment Court over granting project approval, the Metropolitan mine is again subject to negative attention.
A Peabody spokesperson told ILN there was some press saying there was little or no community engagement for the expansion.
But there was evident community support for Metropolitan against the Climate Camp 09 action at the mine last month, the spokesperson said.
88ֳ 500 protestors marched to the mine’s front gates as part of a protest against the expansion project, along with climate, water and jobs concerns.
Metropolitan’s Part 3A application under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act could well be the longest to gain approval in history.
Peabody commissioned four third-party reports into the environmental aspects of the project, and tight monitoring processes were included in the mine management plan to ensure the Worona Reservoir was not damaged.
The stakeholder review process included public hearings in Wollongong and the project was also the first to be scrutinised by the Planning Assessment Commission.
A Department of Planning spokesperson said the state government would strongly defend the approval of the mining project, which contained strict conditions to protect Sydney’s water supply.
The project will ramp up production from Metropolitan to 3 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal a year from the Bulli seam for 25 years.
An alliance of environmental and community groups, Rivers SOS is lobbying the NSW government to prevent all mining within a 1km zone of rivers and significant streams.