More scrutiny for Delta Coal’s Chain Valley mine

We have an encouraging update on Delta Coal’s proposal to expand the Chain Valley mine at Lake Macquarie.

Last year, we asked you to make a submission on Delta Coal’s proposal to expand its Lake Macquarie mine, keeping it open for another two years and extracting an additional 9.5 MILLION TONNES of coal – right next door to the community.

We had serious concerns Delta hadn’t thoroughly investigated potential impacts on the local environment, and called for much greater scrutiny of the project.

The NSW Department of Planning has just determined Delta Coal did not provide enough information about the potential environmental impacts of the proposal.

What does Delta have to do now?

The Department has asked for more information from Delta about the potential subsidence effects of the project – the risk of the ground sinking.

It wants a detailed assessment of the potential consequences of these effects on the natural and built environment, including impacts on Lake Macquarie, its lakebed, seagrass meadows and foreshores.

It’s so important the NSW government closely scrutinises Delta’s plans. Their proposal now can’t progress until Delta provides more information.

All of this was only possible by countless people from our community speaking up to demand thorough review of the proposal – to hold big polluters to account, and make sure the health of the Lake Macquarie community and environment comes first.

Delta Coal has until mid-June to provide the extra information to the Department. We’ll keep you in the loop on what happens next.