By Helensburgh’s James McCormack, editor of Wild Magazine

On March 21, the NSW Land and Environment Court released its long-awaited decision on the EPA vs Metropolitan Collieries Pty Ltd. The case stems back to September 2022, when I was travelling through a little-visited part of the Royal National Park and saw inky, black water flowing through what is usually a lovely rainforested section of Camp Gully creek.

Black filth had collected on its banks, smeared over rocks and coating small, dried-up pools. At the time, and to much media fanfare, a community of platypuses had just been relocated downstream.

I immediately contacted the EPA, with the eventual outcome of subsequent investigations being the recent decision. In the interim, however, more pollution events occurred. Initially, five charges were considered against the mine, each – as I understand it – with a possible penalty of $1 million; that was soon downgraded to three charges. Still, $3 million seemed stiff enough.

Unfortunately, that did not eventuate. In sum, the fines levied on the mine – and not just for this September incident but for a subsequent October one as well – total $196,500. This is manifestly inadequate. Peabody, the US-based multinational that owns Metropolitan Mine, had 2024 revenue of US$4.2 billion (A$6.36 billion); so this fine is like fining someone who makes $80,000 just $2.47.

In isolation, the ultimate fine for the September 2022 event was $78,000. There was another fine of $54,000 for the second pollution offence, plus $85,800 for a licence breach. Peabody was also ordered to pay the EPA’s court and investigation costs, bringing the total to just over $500,000.

The mine tried to explain away the pollution event by saying there had been heavy rain. But this claim does not stand up to scrutiny. August that year, in fact, had been particularly dry; the BOM station at nearby Darkes Forest registered just 21mm falling, less than a quarter of average.

While monitoring standards have, as a result of these breaches, supposedly become more robust, as have the mine’s wastewater treatment processes, the fines levied should be sufficient to act as a deterrent to ensure this never happens again. Yet the sums involved are too low to ensure that. The Royal NP is of national and international significance, and both it and the neighbouring Garawarra State Conservation Area (through which the filthy water first flowed) deserve better.

But there’s another aspect to all this: in the Woronora Dam catchment to the west of Helensburgh, there are reports of subsidence cracks causing upland wetlands and swamps to be drained, threatening these precious ecosystems.

But unlike in the Royal NP, which I could access freely and was thus able to discover this pollution, the areas of concern within Woronora’s catchment lie within Sydney Water’s exclusion zone; a $44,000 fine awaits any member of the public who wishes to venture in to inspect for damage. Holding Peabody to account in this area is incredibly difficult.

To be clear, I am not one of those calling for the mine to be closed immediately. We all need steel, and Metropolitan’s coking coal is a necessary part of that. I am, however, demanding that the mine act as a responsible member of the community. If it can’t do so, then I may reconsider my position.