Comment: Parents have every right to be concerned about silver mine

It's not only the children of Lue who will be poisoned by the Bowdens lead mine but also their families, their animals and their visitors. This open cut lead mine is only two kilometres from Lue School. Parents have every right to be concerned. Are there any lead or silver mines in the world that have no health impacts?

Lue and the Mudgee region are being sacrificed by Bowdens and the previous NSW Government to provide financial benefits to the CEO and shareholders. The NSW Government must make a fresh start and reassess this mine as it seems Bowdens will say anything to reassure the community and the Mid Western Regional Council to get this mine approved. With only 10 people speaking in favour of the project at the recent Independent Planning Commission three-day hearing in Mudgee in February they do not have community support.

The Bowdens own risk assessments and reports they prepared for the EIS said the health risks were low, not zero, and those assessments and reports were disputed by water and health experts engaged by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and by the Lue Action Group and as a result conditions were imposed on the mine to include lead blood testing for the community and the provision of water to landowners.

The fact is the NSW Environment Protection Agency did not assess the mine as having no health risks to residents but instead recommended that no water be released from the site due to the contamination risks posed by the mine. Bowdens agreed that no water would be released from the site. Bowdens also agreed to provide water to all landowners. NSW Health did not carry out an assessment of the mine or the lead and other health impacts to the community and provided advice that is disputed by the Mudgee Region Health Alliance and other health experts.

No social impact plan will reassure residents or anyone else about the benefits of this open cut lead mine because no compensation or measures to prevent damage to health or treatments for that damage are offered by Bowdens. The effects of lead poisoning are irreversible and once our water is poisoned there is no going back. All water downstream from the mine site will be contaminated with a predicted 1.6 megalitres (1.6 million litres) per day leaking from the massive 117 hectare single wall tailings dam just 100 metres from Lawsons Creek even though the EPA has recommended a no release site.

What will happen to our water supply, our clean air, our tourism operators, our winemakers, our farmers, our olive groves and the people who live here and those who come to Mudgee to enjoy our beautiful region. Bowdens is actively exploring for more minerals and controls exploration licences from Kandos to Gulgong. Some land is close to Rylstone and so precious that even coal exploration was refused. No land or resident is safe from Bowdens.

The NSW Government must put a stop to minerals exploration and lead and silver mining in our region.

- Bron Wannan, Lue

Is it illogical to compare Bowdens Mine to Cadia Gold Mine at Orange as Bowdens CEO Tony McClure suggests in his comment published in the latest Mudgee Guardian? In many ways, this mine will be even more dangerous for our region than Cadia is for theirs.

Cadia is an underground gold mine, Bowdens is an open cut lead, zinc and silver (less than 1%) mine.

Cadia has a double walled tailings dam, one wall of which failed in an earth tremor in 2018; Bowdens has a single walled tailings storage facility ( TSF ) 100 metres from Lawson Creek. This TSF is designed to leak 1.6 million litres of contaminated material into groundwater and Lawson Creek every single day.

Mudgee Region Action Group's water expert found that Bowdens does not have an adequate water supply to operate the mine and will be forced to shut down or reduce production during dry times. There will be no water to suppress the lead contaminated dust during these times. Mr McClure states that independent community surveys show overwhelming support for the mine.

Who did this survey and what type of survey was it? Newgate Research and it was a quantitative survey. I was surveyed and the surveyor read out a list of short positive statements about the mine (jobs, investment, sponsorship of local sporting clubs etc) and then asked if I felt very positive, neutral, or negative about the mine. Wording was framed to get a positive response. Participants were not given enough information to decide whether they should support this mine.

Mr McClure says there were 900 supportive submissions to the Independent Planning Commission, many of them from employees, other miners from all over Australia, shareholders and very few from local people who didn't work for or contract to the mine. An examination of the presentations to the IPC were overwhelmingly in opposition to the mine. The quality of the supportive submissions was low with many being one line or one word only indicating little understanding of the issues.

The IPC received 1320 thoughtful and considered submissions objecting to the mine, most of which came from this district. Bowdens mine is two kilometers from homes. Mr McClure implies that those who live near the mine would prefer that the mine does not go ahead. That is an understatement. This mine will be the death of Lue. If you live just 2.1 kms from the open cut pit you may not receive one cent in compensation, yet you will live with noise, lead dust in dry times, the risk of irreversible lead poisoning, stress and worry for you and your family, contamination of your water supply and the devaluation of what is most people's largest asset: their home.

If our government policy says we need more mining, then it has a duty to care for the people whose lives and businesses are all but destroyed. The current mining approval process is heavily weighted in favour of the miner and devastating for the local community.

History shows that the nearby residents become the monitors of mines. Farmers near Cadia have been forced to do their own testing for heavy metals of water tanks and blood levels and after all recent publicity, it is only now that the Cadia mine is being held publicly accountable.

Mr McClure says as part of the approval process, their own renowned experts have assessed risk and found there are no health risks to the local community. This is wrong; they say they are low, but they are not zero. If there were no risk, why has the DPE, IPC, EPA, MWRC recommended blood tests, water tests, noise and air monitoring, management plans and other conditions to protect us.

Heavy metal mining is dangerous: there's a high risk of acid mine drainage which will destroy our ground and surface water. What a terrifying prospect for all those living downstream of the mine. This includes all people living along the Lawson Creek and the Cudgegong River at Mudgee.

Bowdens Mine will certainly leave a legacy, and it won't be good; it will more likely be toxic.

- Sarah Inglis, Lawson Creek farmer

Bowden's Health report declares that the impacts of toxic lead dust including arsenic and cadmium will only be a nuisance effect to the community, with a larger dust particle size.

However, it is the larger dust particle size that also contributes to the toxic dust on our roofs and in our drinking water. The Department of Planning's (DPE) review consultant reported, the coarser dust particles will cause health effects from the most minor of eye irritations to respiratory and cardiovascular disease and chronic diseases from chronic lead exposure.

Chronic lead dust exposure is now 12 months. Bowden's health report acknowledges that the death of people in the community from their toxic dust contamination is a health impact on the community!

However, the DPE report stated it is not only deaths in the community that are the health impacts, it is that Bowden's have not assessed the suffering of the community in the prelude to their deaths.

The total toxic metal dust deposits that will be allowed to fall on our roofs and washed into our rainwater tanks, just like what is happening with the Cadia Mine, will cause eventual death but before death there will be cognitive impairment leading to premature dementia, Parkinson's disease, renal failure requiring dialysis and the noise, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and respiratory disease including asthma will be the diagnoses in the community.

- Jayne Bentivoglio