The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) will work with licensees to strengthen environmental protections on coal mine licences, following extensive community consultation and our statutory five-yearly licence review.
NSW EPA CEO Tony Chappel said a range of licence variations will be considered in the short, medium and long term on 59 coal mine licences across the Hunter, Central West and Illawarra to ensure best practice operations and reduced environmental impacts.
“Coal mines operate in a number of different NSW communities and it’s important they do so responsibly to reduce their air, noise and water impact on neighbours and the environment,” Mr Chappel explained.
“Our five-yearly licence review is an important tool to continually review effective regulation of coal mining impacts. We also conducted valuable community consultation earlier this year with more than 420 submissions received.
“As a result of our review and the community feedback we will now work with coal mines to look at strengthening the regulation around dust monitoring, climate change actions, and improving public access to information.
“It won’t necessarily be a one-size fits all approach as each operation and licence is different, but we will work with individual licensees to ensure proposed changes are best suited to improve their operations and environmental outcomes.” Proposed changes include:
- improving standards for non-road diesel equipment
- reviewing and improving dust monitoring conditions
- improving public access to information and additional reporting on greenhouse gas emissions
- administrative changes to the licences to increase readability and achieve consistency across the sector where appropriate.
Mr Chappel said climate change is also an important consideration for the EPA and licences across NSW will be proactively updated to align with the EPA’s Climate Change Policy and Action Plan 2023-26.
“Changes such as these will go a long way in reducing emissions and paving the way to a cleaner, more sustainable environment,” Mr Chappel said.
“We remain committed to addressing community feedback and exploring new approaches to effectively regulate the impacts of coal mining in NSW.
“Variations will ensure that environment protection licences continue to operate as intended to protect the health of the community and environment.”
Engagement with coal mine licensees will start in early 2025, with all changes to Environment Protection Licences reflected on the EPA’s public register.
To read the full Consultation Summary, please visit the Have Your Say page.
Contact details:
EPA MEDIA | ANDY THOMAS | 0418 974 383
24-hour Media Line (02) 9995 6415 media@epa.nsw.gov.au
