Hunter Valley vignerons are furious at the new owner of two of the region's biggest mines after a botched blast on Friday again sent a cloud of pollution over local farmland.
At 11.53am on Friday, a blast at Yancoal’s Mount Thorley Warkworth mine sent a huge cloud of orange dust over nearby farmland. Photo of the incident attached.
On January 17 this year at Yancoal’s Hunter Valley Operations a mine blast plume left the site covering Jerrys Plains and surrounding districts. This blast was reported to the Environment Protection Authority.
Following Friday’s blast local landholders have written to the Department of Planning saying Yancoal should be investigated and its licence suspended until such time that they can demonstrate that they have the competence to conduct blasting operations without creating environmental harm.
“This is not an isolated incident,” Antony Bainton of Bainton Family Wines said.
“Yancoal has demonstrated a total lack of respect for the health and livelihoods of its neighbours.
“These mines are huge and they are causing pollution that is damaging people’s health.
“The least the government could do is ensure they are complying with their licences. We need better protection.”
Broke vigneron Stewart Ewan added: “The Broke Fordwich wine region hosts thriving wineries but we don’t have sufficient protection from the coal mines. We get blanketed by pollution at times, and the land mapped five years ago as a critical industry cluster for our industry is not protected from expanding coal mines.
“The physical and economic damage caused by open cut mining remains a serious blight on our environment. The air quality in the Hunter over the summer and autumn has been terrible. We’ve been getting frequent alerts that it breaches the standard, but what’s being done to change it?”
Georgina Woods, spokesperson for Lock the Gate Alliance said, “We think it’s time to choose action to safeguard the Hunter wine industry, and that means enforcing environmental conditions and ensuring our industry is safe from being gobbled up by expanding coal mines.”
Yancoal have released a statement saying the scheduled blast was initiated at 11:51am in the West Pit and did create some dust, which was expected given the type of material being blasted at the time (light sandy dispersive).
The subsequent plume was observed to cross the Putty Road, where it then dissipated over the Mt Thorley and Bulga Mine areas. The Bulga mine was notified prior to the blast and confirmed dissipation occurred over their land.
“We refute the accusations related to the blast, as well as the deliberately inflammatory remarks made against our people regarding their respect for surrounding industries,” the Yancoal spokesman said.
“We take our responsibility for managing blasting activities seriously and continuously monitor and manage any potential impacts.
“Yancoal has a proven history of responsible environmental management and continues to instil our commitment to quality mining practices into the newly acquired Mount Thorley Warkworth operation.”
