Wingecarribee Swamp Collapse

Expert Report - Peat Mining Cause of Disaster

Minister for Mining Castigated

The National Parks Association of NSW today released an expert report which clearly identifies peat mining operations as the likely cause of the environmental disaster which led to the collapse of the 20,000 years old swamp earlier this month.

The NPA has presented the report to the Premier together with 16 specific recommendations towards the restoration of the swamp and ways to ensure that such a disaster is not repeated in NSW.

NPA commissioned the report "Mass Movement in the Wingecarribee Swamp on 8-9 August 1998" by Dr Emmett O’Loughlin as a matter of urgency. Dr O’Loughlin is one of Australia’s foremost hydrologists and an expert on catchment behaviour. Dr O’Loughlin is recently retired as Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Water Resources.

Noel Plumb, Executive Officer of the NPA said "On reading the report it is clear that the peat mining caused the collapse. The massive dredge pond, expanded 5 fold in less than 8 years, acted as a hole in the heart of the swamp. The huge rainstorm of early August caused enormous ground water pressure which led to the progressive collapse of the Swamp from this hole. As the heart collapsed, the released water ripped the mining dredge from its moorings and swept it like a giant plough through the 1.5 kilometre buffer zone of swamp between the dredge pond and the Wingecarribee Reservoir".

"The cause is now clear. The issue of responsibility is also clear, a failure of governments over three decades to exercise the most basic precautionary principle to protect a complex and extraordinarily valuable ecosystem in the face of demands by a tinpot mining operation to rip the very heart out of the swamp. The people of NSW may have lost both an internationally important wetland and a critical part of Sydney’s natural clean water protection."

"However, the greatest failure clearly lies at the door of the current Minister for Mining, Bob Martin, who refused to act quickly to refuse renewal of the expired peat mining leases in 1995 and 1996 in the face of wide ranging opposition to the mining from at least 5 government authorities, including Sydney Water and the Environment Protection Authority.

"Bob Martin ignored a mountain of evidence that the peat mining was threatening both the swamp’s role in providing clean water to Wingecarribee Reservoir (serving 30, 000 people directly in the Southern Highlands and part of metropolitan Sydney’s water supply system) and the swamp’s complex hydrology which provides habitat for no less than 4 listed endangered species under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act."

"Bob Martin insisted on a Mining Warden’s Enquiry which took a year to complete and whose findings he has refused to release, although the peat miner has publicly claimed to know that the report recommended a continuation of mining."

"Dr O’Loughlin’s report makes it clear that the critical point for swamp collapse was probably passed in 1997, as the mining enquiry laboured on. In this time the peat miner expanded the dredge pond by 25% and nearly doubled the length of the pond, fatally weakening the Swamp’s integrity and resilience."

"The government as a whole and the Planning Minister Craig Knowles deserve credit for finally stepping in and bypassing Bob Martin through placing an Interim Conservation Order over the Swamp in March this year, an action which forced a suspension of the mining. Sadly, this was too late to prevent the damage which has now occurred."

"Endangered species such as the Giant Dragonfly may have lost their last viable habitat with the severe disturbance to the Swamp. Sydney and the Southern Highlands may have lost a natural water filtration system which cannot be replaced even by expensive technology costing millions of dollars. Immediate, expert advice is needed to manage the stabilisation and restoration of the Swamp for both its ecological and water supply values."

Among the specific recommendations to the Premier by NPA are

that an expert panel of peatland hydrologists and ecologists, including internationally known scientists, be appointed urgently to advise Sydney Water on the ecological restoration of the Swamp

that a committee of enquiry be set up to establish why the Department of Mineral Resources failed to exercise due caution in regulating peat mining in Wingecarribee Swamp

that no more peat mining be allowed in NSW

that changes be made to the planning and mining legislation to ensure that another such environmental catastrophe from ill advised mining operations won’t occur.

For comment please call Noel Plumb 9233 4660 or 018 975 075

Attached is the Summary Page from Dr O’Loughlin’s report.

Media Release

Embargo until 6.00am

1 September 1998