'Concerning': Sydney's water catchment faces rising loss to mining, contaminants

Coal mining in Sydney's catchment is having a "cumulative and possibly accelerated" impact on water flows but its full effect is unknown because of a lack of monitoring.

Sydney's main reservoir, Warragamba Dam, was
among areas with the poorest results in the water audit

These are among the findings of the 2016 Audit of the Sydney Water Drinking Catchment, a study required by law every three years, that the Berejiklian government quietly tabled in parliament this month. Just a single copy of the report was available to borrow. 

The audit, which covers the 16,000-square-kilometre catchment that stretches from Lithgow in the Blue Mountains to near Cooma and stores as much as 2.6 million megalitres of water, found "reduced water availability" compared with the 2013 report.

It found mixed trends, with parts of the catchment improving but others worsening. Lake Burragorang – Sydney's main reservoir sitting behind Warragamba Dam – was among areas with the poorest results for surface flows.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “'Concerning': Sydney's water catchment faces rising loss to mining, contaminants.”

'Outrageous': Coal mine gets expansion nod despite secret, incomplete studies

Fitter David Crehan stands near a long
wall shearer at the Dendrobium mine 
 at Mount Kembla.

The Baird government has approved the expansion of the most aggressive coal mine in the Special Areas of Greater Sydney's catchment despite not knowing the compounding impact it will have on water supplies.

South32 won approval for two more 305 metre-wide longwalls at its Dendrobium mine, extracting coal from underneath the Metropolitan Special Area which was created to protect the waters of the Avon, Cataract, Cordeaux and Nepean reservoirs.

The company, which was spun out of BHP Billiton, hailed the go-ahead as securing as many as 400 jobs. The coking coal produced at the mine supplies a steel mill in nearby Wollongong and export markets.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “'Outrageous': Coal mine gets expansion nod despite secret, incomplete studies.”