National Parks Association of NSW - Macarthur Branch
West Cliff Colliery - Emplacement Area
The Emplacement Area at West Cliff Colliery is situated within the gorge of Brennans Creek and will eventually destroy the gorge and creek; the area will be up to 4km by 1.5km. Illawarra Coal are creating a trench around the area to collect water running off from nearby bush land. The first two stages of the emplacement area were built without any means of dissipating the water before it arrived in the dam, there is a likely-hood that when the dam overtops damage in the form of sedimentation and scoring of the river banks will occur. However Stage 3 will have water stops to brake the flow.
Reject coal is brought to the Emplacement Area from the huge Dendrobium Mine, Appin Mines and West Cliff Mine. The present area will only hold a fraction of the projected future reject, and an alternative area must be found to hold future reject away from the headwaters of the river.
A report by GHD LM Longmac—Andrew Leventha suggests further filling of Brennans Creek and its tributaries and other creeks in the local area, including Sawpit, Four Mile Creek and the use of Stokes Creek for the purpose of a dam..This would be unacceptable to the public, but we fear that government has no real commitment to protect this part of the river. We have received a verbal assurance that this Report will not be acted upon, but only time will tell.
Several suggestions have been put forward, such as putting the reject back underground, or filling up old open cut mines, but so far the government and Illawarra Coal has taken the cheaper and more convenient way, putting cost and royalties before environment and public amenity.