THE NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has confirmed it is investigating a blast that occurred at Mount Pleasant last week during strong winds.
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Numerous residents contacted the Muswellbrook Chronicle about the incident, complaining about the potential impacts on their health.
“I’ve lived here all my life; and never had to worry about that kind of stuff on that side of town,” one local remarked.
“It was really bad.”
A NSW EPA spokesperson said the blast took place at the Muswellbrook site on Friday, July 20.
“Mines are required to modify their operations during adverse weather to prevent impacts on the community, it’s a condition of their licence of operation,” he explained.
“Licence breaches will not be tolerated and there are tough penalties if NSW EPA regulations are broken.
“We encourage community members to report suspected bad practice or pollution to our Environment Line on 131 555.”
The NSW EPA has asked MACH Energy for more information about the blast with the company given seven days to respond.
“The Mount Pleasant operation undertook a scheduled blast at 9.01am on Friday, July 20, in Pit D,” general manager operations Richard Bailey said.
“All required monitoring and reporting was undertaken.”
Ironically, critics of MACH Energy’s proposal to prolong the life of Mount Pleasant beyond 2020 were vocal at the recent Independent Planning Commission hearing at Muswellbrook, claiming the air quality would worsen if the extension was given the “green light”.
“A large new open cut mine is anything but ‘pleasant’,” Wendy Wales of the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group said at the time.
“Air quality is terrible in and around Muswellbrook and this mine upwind of the prevailing nor-west winds is going to make it a lot worse.
“Mount Pleasant is a significant change for us.
“We have not had any mines north-west of town until now and that is why we haven’t had the extremes and dust alerts that Camberwell and north-west Singleton have had.
“It doesn’t feel as if the NSW Government cares at all about air pollution and its effect on us, so we are appealing to the Independent Planning Commission to demonstrate its independence and refuse to approve this modification.”
