Colton coal mine will turn Aldershot into a mining town
Posted by Jim on May 18, 2010
It is bad enough when coal mining in Queensland and NSW is allowed by State and Governments to ruin prime agricultural land.
When coalmining threatens to destroy the lifestyle of the 500 residents of Aldershot, just north of Maryborough, it’s time to call a halt.
The escalation of open-cut coal mining is creating environmental and social problems as well as alienating agricultural land. The Colton mine has not yet started, but it will be to the detriment of Aldershot and its residents. The mine will be only 3 kilometres from the village. The Colton project will turn Aldershot and the north of Maryborough into a coalmining town.
This is an example of mining moving from remote regions of the state to more intensively settled areas like Maryborough and Hervey Bay.
Mining coal so close to established towns will also cause health problems. A 2008 study of the effect of coalmining in West Virginia in the USA found that the incidence of chronic illness in coalmining communities grows as coal production increases1.
Coalmining produces carbon dioxide, methane and sulphuric acid as well as dust and will interfere with the water table. The mine will put pressure on water resources in the region. There are wetlands, which the Colton mine will also affect, as well as the Susan River which flows into the Mary River estuary.
Initially the developer, Northern Energy Corporation, told the community in April this year that mining would last 8 to 10 years. That estimate did not add up. In February, the estimated reserve was reported as being 57.4 million tons. NEC says that it will be shipping out 500,000 tonnes of coal a year once the open-cut mine starts up. Do the maths: the mine is good for a century as it spreads to the northern suburbs of Maryborough.
Planning legislation must stop open cut coal mines devastating agricultural areas, near residential areas or near environmentally sensitive areas, especially given the industry’s appalling record on environmental management and site rehabilitation.
1. M Hendryx and M Ahern, “Relations between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia,” April 2008, The American Journal of Public Health.
Thanks for contribution to this post by Drew Hutton
We acknowledge and respect the traditional owners of this country and the land on which we stand
If the proposed mine at Tiaro goes ahead then we’ll have coal trains coming right through Aldershot. So the promise of no coal coming through Aldershot only works for Colton. The mine reps. have assured us that our home values will fall. We don’t want their toxic water going into our Saltwater Creek that runs to the ocean. When questioned about health risks their stock reply was ‘I don’t know anything about that’. While knowing exactly how they have to protect their own workers from dust and gases, they pretend they know nothing about the health effects of living near a mine. My suggestion was that when a big orange cloud of gas from an explosion was headed our way, there could be a siren so that people could evacuate the area. This was greeted with an alarming No!, as though no such gas clouds ever existed. We know the gases from explosives cause severe reactions of asthma, breathing difficulties, allergies and even cancers from cumulative effects. We also know that the monitoring devices will not detect small particles or gases that cause health problems. What we need is a set of laws to protect communities from being encroached by mining. Why isn’t there a declared ‘safe distance’ set in law? Stupid question really when we know that Government greed underlies the whole current raping of unrenewable resources at the expense of citizens health and well-being and the environment. I have never before in my life known of so many instances of communities having to battle to save their own health and lifestyle against a greedy dictatorship. Is this Australia, the ‘lucky’ country? I can say a hell of a lot of us are feeling very unlucky to have such devastation inflicted on us by our own Government. The more they hurt, the fewer votes! Probably more class action law suits too!