An EPA board meeting was held last week, and yesterday the authority announced the assessment level would be Proponent Information Category B – similar to the “Proposal Unlikely to be Environmentally Acceptable” level of assessment which was superseded last year.
“In effect, this is an EPA ‘no’ to the proposal,” EPA chairman Paul Vogel said.
Contractor LD Operations submitted the initial documentation for the EPA to determine the level of assessment back in November, rather than a yes or no verdict.
While LDO will look forward to more detail supporting the EPA’s views, Vogel said the “no” was based on the contractor’s referral information and environmental advice it supplied.
“The board considered that there is likely to be significant impacts, or risks, from the proposal on the Leederville and Sues Aquifers, and on significant environmental values, including the social surrounds of the Margaret River region, which these aquifers support,” Vogel said.
“Even though some of the significant impacts, or risks, may be presented as being manageable because of their low probability of occurring, the environmental consequences of some low probability event may be so serious, widespread or irreversible that the proposal, taken as a whole, on balance, presents unacceptable risks to important environmental values, and thus makes the proposal environmentally unacceptable.
“Based on its experience and knowledge of the complexity of matters of this kind, the board also formed the view that more detailed and longer assessment would not alter the position.”
The EPA will recommend that Environment Minister Bill Marmion scrap the proposal and this assessment report will be publicly released and open for two weeks of public appeals.
LDO is considering whether it would make an appeal.
“We keenly await the reasons for the determination, as well as access to additional information sought by the EPA from other government agencies ahead of making its decision,” LDO managing director Peter Ross said.
“We have requested this of the EPA a number of times and look forward to the opportunity to review all information before deciding where we go from here.
“However, we remain strongly of the view that the comprehensive and rigorous Public Environmental Review process, supported by the extra consultation and peer review measures initiated by LDO, would have been a more appropriate process to understand and assess the technical elements, impacts and risks of the project before any decision on environmental acceptability was made.”
LDO, which owns the Chain Valley underground coal mine in New South Wales, is more accustomed to the New South Wales environmental approval process which is often considered more difficult than the regime in Queensland.
But the decision by the EPA could set a negative precedent for coal mining projects in WA, and follows an EPA recommendation against the development of the Coolimba coal mine in the Mid West last month.
Celebrity chef of Consuming Passions fame, Ian Parmenter, helmed the residents’ activist group against the project, NO COAL!tion Margaret River and previously said the proposed Vasse mine was less than 2 kilometres from the river.
English comedians Ben Elton and Michael Palin recently lifted the profile of the campaign against the project.
Up to 225 operational jobs and up to 800 indirect jobs are expected to be created if the project goes ahead.
The draft underground mining plan targeted a production rate of 1.2 million tonnes per annum for a mine life of 20 years.
The Vasse project is conservatively estimated to have resources of at least 116Mt, according to data provided by Intierra.
Private resource company AMCI owns about 70% of the project while other private company Core Resources owns about 30%.
