Inquiry is examining how heavy metals and critical minerals mining is regulated and if the response to community concern is adequate
upper house inquiry has heard about the long lasting impact of mining for farming families, with concerns raised about regulatory processes and consultation for mines across the state’s central west.into the current and potential effects of gold, silver, lead and zinc mining on human and environmental health on Monday that they are “unable to farm” after agreeing to host a tailings dam on their property nearly two decades ago.
Sullivan told the inquiry that the tailing storage dam on her property was promised to be a “nil-exit site”, with no water leaving the dam. But with heavy rains, trickle pipes installed on neighbouring water holding sites to prevent a catastrophic tailings dam failure began to spill on the farm. “Craig was measuring what was coming out of there, it was a pH of 4.4,” Sullivan said. A pH of 4.4 is comparable to acid rain and slightly more acidic than black coffee.
Over the last two years of historically high rainfall, the current Broula mine has conducted three water releases to protect the tailings dam. Young said that these were in line with EPA licensing regulations and were only from surrounding water holding facilities. Sullivan and Day measured the trickle pipe flow themselves, but are limited in what action they can take with the NSW Environmental Protection Authority or the state’s Resources Regulator.
“We thought the numerous checks and balances will ensure that this project would exhaust the gold reserve and allow us to get on with farming.” Sullivan said. “Now we are unable to farm.”Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters“The groundwater seeped through our farmland, so we’re unable to sow crops in 2023. The current situation is that we can’t have any agistment of stock and no cropping.
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