7 February 2025
Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC), the state's leading environmental advocacy organisation, has today called for an independent inquiry into Centennial Coal's mining operations in the Blue Mountains. This comes after the company recently applied to dump polluted water into Sydney's drinking water catchment.
NCC can also reveal that Centennial Coal's current proposal to dump 42 ML of mine wastewater daily into Sydney's drinking catchment is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Centennial's application to discharge 42 million litres of polluted water per day is bad enough, but it is only the first of a series of plans to deal with its growing pollution problem," said Jacqui Mills, NCC Senior Climate Campaigner.
In a recent Non-Government Organisation quarterly update, Centennial outlined its plans to discharge up to 68.5 ML of water daily into the sensitive headwaters of Sydney's water catchment over two applications. This water would be a mix of treated and untreated water and is polluted with heavy metals and salt toxic to aquatic life.[1]
"Taken together, this would be a torrent of pollution, and a disaster for Sydney's pristine drinking water", Mills continued.
NCC and the Gardens of Stone Alliance have released a report, Centennial Coal: Environmental Scorecard in the Gardens of Stone, demonstrating the company's terrible track record through their history of operations around the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
"This is not a company that can be trusted to do the right thing."
"Over a 23-year period, Centennial has been found to have breached its environmental licence more than 1400 times across 7 coal mine sites in the Greater Blue Mountains region.
"Centennial's intensive underground mines have disrupted groundwater, resulting in massive water inflows and flooding of the mines. They currently have millions of litres of water sitting underground across their Angus Place mine, and their Springvale mine. To expand their mining operations, they need to get rid of this water.
"Not only will this polluted water damage sensitive ecologies and waterways, it will ultimately end up in the drinking water of Sydney's residents," she said.
A previous application to dump wastewater was withdrawn in 2024 (Centennial Coal plan to release more water into Sydney catchment will make pollution worse, expert says - ABC News), however the company has pivoted to a 'dilute and pollute' approach and now intends to apply to dump a much larger volume of wastewater.
Centennial mining operations are adjacent to the Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area, a place with more than 80 rare and threatened species and 16 threatened ecological communities. Intensive mining methods have intercepted groundwater and surface water, resulting in drying out of endangered upland peat swamps.
"Centennial needs to clean up its act.
"This is an alarming departure from the 'zero dirty water discharge' approach. If Centennial gets their way, Sydneysiders will cop millions of litres of polluted water on their doorstep.
"This is a desperate attempt to clear the way for Centennial's expansion of their Angus Place West coal mine. We strongly urge the NSW Government to reject this and future proposals.
"It would be unconscionable for Centennial Coal to release millions of litres of toxic wastewater every single day on our doorstep."
