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Letter:

SAVE THE MINNAMURRA RIVER

To the Honourable President and Members of the Legislative Council of New South Wales.

This petition of certain citizens of New South Wales states that:

On 16 November 2020, a two-member panel of the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) approved Boral Limited’s application to develop two new sand mining pits in the Minnamurra River catchment at Dunmore, NSW. The approval was subsequently endorsed by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) exercising its Ministerial delegation.

DPIE says that establishment of one of the two new sand mine pits and its industrial infrastructure, only 160 metres from the tidal waters of the Minnamurra River estuary, will necessitate the destruction of 4.5ha of rare, ancient and high-quality bird and animal habitat, Bangalay Sand Forest, comprising 100 to 400-year old trees.

This ancient Bangalay Sand Forest, protected as an Endangered Ecological Community (EEC) under NSW legislation, is to be cut and cleared to make way for the new sand mining pit which Boral says will have an operational life of only three to four years.

The largest and deepest mine pit, the 27-metre deep 5B, and its associated mining machinery and infrastructure, will not only impose a real threat to native wildlife but also to other State and federally-protected endangered ecological communities closely adjoining the site. These include:

• Critically Endangered SE Littoral Rainforest, protected under NSW legislation and listed under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act);
• Another Endangered Ecological Community (EEC), Coastal Saltmarsh, protected in NSW and listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act and for which the NSW government has developed a “Save Our Species” recovery program to try to reverse the continuing loss of this high value EEC, and
• Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest (EEC) protected in NSW and listed as Endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act).

Hundreds of native animals will be killed when their habitat trees are felled.

An FOMR analysis of the DPIE’s assessment of the sand mining extension has found that the environmental assessment in particular is highly deficient and misleading, containing inadequacies and inaccuracies and serious incompleteness by omission.

It is clear that DPIE did not provide all the data and assessment information essential for the IPC to make a fully informed decision on whether or not to approve the sand mines and that the IPC may not have approved the mines if it had received all relevant assessment data and information.

NSW Cabinet has never considered the issue. The Minister for Planning already has the regulatory power to stop the sand mine pits proceeding in the public interest and to order a full and proper assessment under new coastal protection legislation.

Your petitioners request the NSW Government to stop the newly-approved Boral sand mining in the public interest and assess any new Boral application under current State coastal zone protection legislation and using an independent Environment Impact Statement (EIS).