Paradise and, Waratah Rivulet and Peabody

A week ago, I went to the Joadja Vineyard for a musical performance, which had a few surprises for me. The group called "The Songcatchers" performed a mix of country and Bluegrass music. I know Bob McInnes, a Robertson "local", and I have seen John Hall performing at various Folk Music events around Robertson before.

I was blown away by this particular song:

Paradise

by John Prine

When I was a child, my family would travel
To western Kentucky, where my parents were born
And there's a backward old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn

CHORUS:

• And daddy won't you take me back to Mulenberg county
• Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay
• Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'
• Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
  

Well sometimes we'd float right down the Green River
To an abandoned old prison down by Atry Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill

CHORUS

Then the coal company came, with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

CHORUS

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am

CHORUS

And here is the first reason why I was so moved by this song.

I grew up in Victoria, and I remember visiting the town of Yallourn. It was built by the State Electricity Commission (it was a "company town" quite literally). The town was built to service the local coal mine. Eventually the original mine ran out of supplies, and the SEC expanded the mine, literally "devouring" the town.

The people were moved to nearby towns of Moe, Traralgon and Morwell.

So this song had real resonance with me. I know a town where this actually happened.

And here is the second reason why I was so moved by this song.
This is the Waratah Rivulet, cracked and killed by the Metropolitan Mine (near Helensburgh on the Woronora Plateau, north from Wollongong.). The river was cracked by subsidence (technically they call this "upsidence"). It was caused by the river having been undermined by Longwall Mining. The Metropolitan mine is owned by Peabody. Yes, the very same company which started out in America, and which is immortalised in that song lyric.

Then the coal company came, with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

and this:

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in askin'
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Clearly Peabody Energy has not changed its ways since the bad old days, back in Kentucky, USA.

This damage is current.

Ironically, the NSW Minerals Council gave Peabody's an Environment Award late in 2008 - for their work on the Waratah Rivulet. "PEABODY’S Metropolitan Colliery has taken out first prize in the environment category at the 2008 Environment and Community Excellence Awards, held by the NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) on 18 November 2008." Can you believe their gall, their total cynicism, their hypocrisy?

No wonder I was nearly moved to tears by listening, unexpectedly, to that song lyric.

Footnote: Some artistic licence was involved in the song-writing - but not too much. It is close enough to the truth. Town gone, to facilitate coal mining.

Wikipedia says:

• Paradise was a small town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, United States. The town was located 10.5 miles east-north-east of Greenville and was formerly called Stum's Landing. It was once a trading post along the Green River, but it no longer exists. It was torn down in 1967 by the Tennessee Valley Authority to make room for a coal-burning electric plant.
• A song about Paradise, Kentucky, called "Paradise", was written and made famous by singer/songwriter John Prine. The lyrics attribute the destruction of Paradise to the Peabody company, and allude to the fact that the town was a site for strip mining. In reality, the town was flooded by the waters of the Green River in 1969, when a dam was erected to facilitate barge traffic to and from the coal fields.

Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise,_Kentucky

The future of Water is Black - Black as Coal

The future of water is black - Black as coal.

Longwall Mining under rivers and aquifers is totally unsustainable, and against the best interests of society as we know it.
Humans have not evolved to drink coal – we need water.

What is Longwall Mining?
Longwall Mining is an underground mining technique using a huge rotary cutter (“shearer”), on a rail system, which extracts coal from a seam in continuous “faces” up to 300 metres wide. Each “panel” of removed coal may be as long as 2 kilometres. The height of the “shearer” is adjusted to the coal seam being extracted, but in the Illawarra region it averages approximately 2-3 metres high.

Longwall Mining machine, with "shearer" and rails.

Photo: - Coal Leader

In effect it cuts out an underground “room” as wide as 3 football fields are long, and extending for 2 kilometres in length. That is for each single panel. Panels are normally laid out in series, separated by walls of coal, known as “chain pillars”, which vary in thickness from 20 to 50 metres wide.

As mining progresses, the roof of the excavated area is allowed to collapse into the void (known as a “goaf”) behind where the shearer has been working. A collapse zone is formed above the extracted area. Above the collapse zone is a fractured zone where the permeability is increased to a lesser extent than in the collapse zone. Above this level, the surface strata will crack as a result of bending strains, with the cracks varying in size according to the level of strain, thickness of the overlying rock stratum and frequency of natural joints or planes of weakness the strata (Holla and Barclay 2000). The principal surface impact of underground coal mining is subsidence (lowering of the surface above areas that are mined).

Diagram of Longwall Mining - BHP.

(Click to enlarge - there is a tiny figure of a miner there - for scale).

The following notes have been extracted from the NSW Scientific Committee’s declaration of Longwall Mining as a Key Threatening Process under Schedule 3 of the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

1. Longwall mining occurs in the Northern, Southern and Western Coalfields of NSW. The Northern Coalfields are centred on the Newcastle-Hunter region. The Southern Coalfield lies principally beneath the Woronora, Nepean and Georges River catchments approximately 80-120 km SSW of Sydney. Coalmines in the Western Coalfield occur along the western margin of the Sydney Basin. Virtually all coal mining in the Southern and Western Coalfields is underground mining.

2. Longwall mining involves removing a panel of coal by working a face of up to 300 m in width and up to two km long. Longwall panels are laid side by side with coal pillars, referred to as "chain pillars" separating the adjacent panels. Chain pillars generally vary in width from 20-50 m wide (Holla and Barclay 2000). The roof of the working face is temporarily held up by supports that are repositioned as the mine face advances (Karaman et al. 2001). The roof immediately above the coal seam then collapses into the void (also known as the goaf) and a collapse zone is formed above the extracted area. This zone is highly fractured and permeable and normally extends above the seam to a height of five times the extracted seam thickness (typical extracted seam thickness is approximately 2-3.5 m) (ACARP 2002). Above the collapse zone is a fractured zone where the permeability is increased to a lesser extent than in the collapse zone. The fractured zone extends to a height above the seam of approximately 20 times the seam thickness, though in weaker strata this can be as high as 30 times the seam thickness (ACARP 2002). Above this level, the surface strata will crack as a result of bending strains, with the cracks varying in size according to the level of strain, thickness of the overlying rock stratum and frequency of natural joints or planes of weakness in the strata (Holla and Barclay 2000).

3. The principal surface impact of underground coal mining is subsidence (lowering of the surface above areas that are mined)

Damage to some creek systems in the Hunter Valley has been associated with subsidence due to longwall mining. Affected creeks include Eui Creek, Wambo Creek, Bowmans Creek, Fishery Creek and Black Creek. Damage has occurred as a result of loss of stability, with consequent release of sediment into the downstream environment, loss of stream flow, death of fringing vegetation, and release of iron rich and occasionally highly acidic leachate. In the Southern Coalfields substantial surface cracking has occurred in watercourses within the Upper Nepean, Avon, Cordeaux, Cataract, Bargo, Georges and Woronora catchments, including Flying Fox Creek, Wongawilli Creek, Native Dog Creek and Waratah Rivulet. The usual sequence of events has been subsidence-induced cracking within the streambed, followed by significant dewatering of permanent pools and in some cases complete absence of surface flow.

Subsidence associated with longwall mining has contributed to adverse effects (see below) on upland swamps. These effects have been examined in most detail on the Woronora Plateau (e.g. Young 1982, Gibbins 2003, Sydney Catchment Authority, in lit.), although functionally similar swamps exist in the Blue Mountains and on Newnes Plateau and are likely to be affected by the same processes. These swamps occur in the headwaters of the Woronora River and O'Hares Creek, both major tributaries of the Georges River, as well as major tributaries of the Nepean River, including the Cataract and Cordeaux Rivers. The swamps are exceptionally species rich with up to 70 plant species in 15 m2 (Keith and Myerscough 1993) and are habitats of particular conservation significance for their biota.

Flora and fauna may also be affected by activities associated with longwall mining in addition to the direct impacts of subsidence. These activities include clearing of native vegetation and removal of bush rock for surface facilities such as roads and coal wash emplacement and discharge of mine water into swamps and streams. Weed invasion, erosion and siltation may occur following vegetation clearing or enrichment by mine water.

Source: “Alteration of habitat following subsidence due to longwall mining as a KEY THREATENING PROCESS” NSW Scientific Committee
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/longwall_mining_ktp

*** *** *** *** ***

What has happened since this declaration was published in 2005? Business as usual, in the mining industry, that's what.

The Dept of Environment and Climate Change (formerly DEC) has done the right thing (in making this declaration), but it is an appalling indictment of the decision makers in the NSW Government, and particularly the Mining Department and the Department of Planning, that they have allowed, indeed promoted, the use of these disastrous mining techniques under the Rivers which are the catchment for Sydney's water supply.

When the estimated 91% of the Illawarra Catchment has been undermined (estimated at some 20 years), what will Sydney do for water, then?

This map shows coal leases under the Illawarra Catchment 5 dams and rivers (Source: NSW Dept of Planning)

The DECC as a "Toothless Tiger".

Don't get me wrong, I support what they have written. But have they really exercised their full powers under the Threatened Species Act to actually prevent damage being incurred? Or have they just issued a "determination" - and left it at that?

*****

These are just some of the powers available to be exercised by DECC:

Interim Protection Order: Minister for the Environment may make an interim protection order for a period of up to two years over an area of land that has natural, scientific or cultural significance. The Minister may also make an interim protection order on land where the DEC Director-General intends to exercise functions relating to threatened species, critical habitat, or declared critical habitat under the NP&W or TSC Acts.

Stop Work Order: The Director-General of DEC may make a stop work order for a period of 40 days if an action is being, or is about to be carried out that would harm a threatened species, population or ecological community or it’s habitat. These orders can be renewed for 40-day periods as required.

*****

I haven't heard of any such powers being used to stop Longwall Mining by BHP Billiton (or their subsidiaries) or their international mining conglomerate allies, such as Metropolitan (Peabody Pacific Pty Ltd) or Gujarat NRE.

Have you?