The New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Clarence Colliery AU$815,000 after it was found to have discharged untreated mine water into the Wollangambe River, near the Blue Mountains National Park.
The company, a subsidiary of Centennial Coal Company, was ordered to pay AU$543,500 in fines and to pay the EPA’s legal and investigation costs of around AU$185,000.
Clarence also has to contribute an additional AU$86,500 towards rehabilitation works for Long Swamp near Lithgow, overseen by Local Land Services.
Centennial Coal will be required to publish notices in nominated newspapers, on its website, and on its LinkedIn page.
The NSW EPA successfully prosecuted the company for all charges under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act), related to guilty pleas from pollution incidents from its coal mine.
NSW EPA CEO Tony Chappel said the outcome is one of the largest secured by the regulator.
“This is a substantial penalty, and it should serve as a warning that pollution comes at a cost – not only to the environment and communities, but to licence holders who break the law,” he said.
“Sediment and coal material entering waterways has the potential to cause serious environmental harm.
“This runoff contained elevated levels of nickel and zinc and should not have been released into the environment.
“All mine operators are responsible for ensuring robust systems are in place to prevent this from happening.
“In this case, the company not only allowed large volumes of turbid, contaminated water to overflow into the Wollangambe River, but it also failed to properly test its pollution incident response plan and comply with a prevention notice. That is simply not good enough.”
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW praised the decision and noted that it was not the first time Centennial Coal has polluted the Wollangambe River.
The company was previously fined AU$1.05 million and had to spend nearly AU$2 million in cleanup efforts after 200 tonnes of coal polluted the river in 2015.
“Centennial Coal needs to clean up its act. This is just the latest incident in years of reckless environmental destruction around the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area,” said Jacqui Mills, Senior Climate Campaigner at Nature Conservation Council NSW.
The NCC said Centennial Coal has shown a consistent disregard to strict rules meant to protect the environment and over a 23-year period the company has breached its environmental licence more than 1,400 times across seven coal mine sites in the Greater Blue Mountains region.
“We are calling on the NSW government to take control and more actively address the impacts of coal mining and coal-fired power stations in the Lithgow region,” said Mills.
“The government needs to ensure we are not left with a toxic legacy, and instead local streams and the community are left with a healthy and safe environment once coal mining ends.”