envirowire

My yarn on the 50-year extension of the Anglesea coal mine that didn’t make the paper this morning.

THE STATE Government has stitched up a deal with Alcoa to extend coal mining in the ecologically rich Anglesea heathland for the next 50 years.
The new deal limits the expansion of mining to a further three per cent of Alcoa’s current 7145 hectare lease, giving the company an extra 246 hectares of the Anglesea heath to expand into on top of the 419 hectares currently mined.
Alcoa will also be required to have a mine work plan approved by the State Government for the expansion and pay a $13.9 million bond for rehabilitation of the site.
The mine supplies the Anglesea brown coal power plant which generates about 40 per cent of the energy for Alcoa’s nearby Port Henry aluminium smelter.
State Energy and Resources Minister Michael O’Brien said “this revised agreement is a win-win which supports the local economy, strengthens environmental processes and conserves more of the Anglesea heath.”
But green groups were scathing of the decision with Victorian National Parks Association chief executive Matt Ruchel saying ‘‘this decision allows for a 59 per cent increase of the mine which we think is too much for such an incredibly botanically rich area.’’
Mr Ruchel said the heathland supported 700 different plants types, including a third of all Victoria’s orchids, with 21 species rare or threatened. He called for the heath to be immediately made part of the adjourning Otway National Park.
Currently the heathland under Alcoa’s mining lease is jointly managed by the company, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria.
Geelong Environment Council’s Joan Lindros said the deal had given Alcoa everything it had wanted, adding it was a ‘‘joke’’ an open cut mine existed right next to the iconic Great Ocean Road.
She said Alcoa should have been required or helped to find alternative energy sources for its smelter after 2015 rather than a continuing reliance on brown coal power.
Under the original 1961 agreement between Alcoa and the State Government the company was entitled to seek a further 50-year extension to its mining operations after the first 50-years of the deal was up. The company has been negotiating with state governments since 2008 to redefine the agreement before it was extended.
The company’s general manager of Victorian operations John Osborne said yesterday “our mine and power station at Anglesea remain the most secure and cost competitive power source available to Alcoa in Victoria at this time,”
The company says the smelter, mine and power station provides 1,100 jobs to the region. The mine and the power plant provide 85 of those jobs.
The Anglesea power plant emitted 1.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2009, a little over 1 per cent of the state’s emissions.

Here is the current thinking behind the groundwater numbers in the draft basin plan.

groundwaterSDLs

As reported this morning the Authoirty is planning to open up another 2,400 gigs of groundwater for extraction across the basin. That is more than double that can be taken now.

The number in this doc, from September, are a little out of date now. The Authoirty is talking about a groundwater diversion limit of 400 gigs less than what these number add up too. But the quantam is about right for each system.

This is also a massive increase of about 2200 gigs from the guide.

Why? Good question. The states are leaning hard on groundwater. The Authority says it got new infromation from the states that has lead to the massive change.

Of course groundwater once on the surface can be traded and will count about the surface water SDLs…

If you are really keen here are the briefings ten green groups got yesterday from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority before their (precalculated) dummy spit (see story here).

Key is what’s missing: the so called ‘‘super sheet’’ outlining the environmental watering outcomes for key indicator sites in the Basin from a 2,800 gig SDL. The groups are understood to have been told the super sheet is currently being updated and needs to go to the Basin Authoirty’s board before it is released.

The briefings they got are as follows:

* The management and planning of the Commonwealth environmental water holder. Key points: entitlements held by the environmental water holder are now over 1000 gigs as of August 31 (66 per cent in the southern basin and 34 per cent in the north). A consultation paper on trade options for the environmental water holder is also flagged to be released in the coming weeks.

Briefing is here: Cmth Enviro Water -presentation

— The Authority’s current thinking for the draft plan.
Key points: 2,800 gig SDL is again prominent. Confirms sensitivity modelling being done on 2,400 and 3,200 gigs.

Briefing is here: current thinking presentation

— Surface water environmental requirements.
Key points: Poor environmental watering results in the Lower Murray floodplain and red gum regions. Talk of capacity constraints in the system.

Briefing is here: Enviro water requirements – surface water

My story on Lock the Gate Alliance’s Drew Hutton’s tour of Victoria took a big cut this morning in the paper, so here is what didn’t make it (in fact not much did expect Hutton).

Despite Hutton’s tour it is pretty clear coal-seam gas development is an unlikely prospect for Victoria, at least in the short—term.

First there are only seven current coal-seam gas exploration licences or applications for licences in the state. Here they are:

Tenement No  Owner  Application Date  Grant Date  Expiry Date  Status  Municipality  Status 
EL5274  ECI International  31/03/2010   Application  Sth Gippsland  Application 
EL5275  ECI International  31/03/2010   Application  Wellington Shire  Application 
EL5276  ECI International  31/03/2010 7/07/2010 6/07/2015 Current   Sth Gippsland Shire  Current 
EL5277  ECI International  31/03/2010 16/12/2010 15/12/2015 Current  Colac Otway Shire  Current 
EL5320  ECI International  5/11/2010 7/04/2011 6/04/2016 Current  Baw Baw Shire  Current 
EL5321  ECI International  5/11/2010 7/04/2011 6/04/2016 Current  Baw Baw Shire  Current 
EL5322  ECI International  5/11/2010   Application  Sth Gippsland Shire  Application 

These licences grant exploration for coal-seam gas only. When you count exploration licenses that include coal-seam gas among several commodities the number rises to around 30.

It is also important to note that the major gas players — Santos, Origin etc — are not in Victoria. That leaves what activity there is to minor players who are nowhere near big enough to develop projects on their own and are probably just speculators.

The coal-seam specific licenses are held by Exhaust Control Industries, a firm that to date specialises in air pollution control. ECI is working with a group called CFT Holdings, which works in gas liquefaction products. There seems to be some crossover between the two companies in terms of directors.

CFT co-director Robert Pertich sent this information sheet to me yesterday about the technology they say might be used, and the state of their Australian projects – 021011 – CBM in Victoria

Key is this line:
‘‘ECI/CFT are in the process of deciding if the Colac area is suitable in the first instance, but the project needs to be viable before  proceeding to exploration. The coals are generally very thin and not extensive, so considerable doubt exists at present.’’

Pertich later told me it was unlikely the group was unlikely to push on with its Colac license after a review of  publicly available data, but would make a final decision this week. They will now move on to assess their Gippsland licenses.

Beyond this Dr Gavin Mudd, a groundwater expert from Monash University who has been following coal-seam development issues, told me that generally brown coal — the significant majority of Victoria’s coal resources — doesn’t tend to hold much methane because it is too geological young, thus not suitable for coal-seam gas.

There are some black coal reserves around Wonthaggi but whether they are big enough to generate commercially viable amounts of methane remains to be seen.

Also this is from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries on the regulations that are in place to protect groundwater assets:

”It is important to remember that there is currently no production of coal seam methane in Victoria and nor are there any applications to begin production. In the case of the exploration licences that have been granted, no work plans have yet been submitted laying out proposed exploration programs.

Victoria has strict regulations that provide strong protection of groundwater from pollution. The State Environment Protection Policy (Groundwaters of Victoria), under the Environment Protection Act 1970, does not allow discharge that will pollute groundwater.  Impacts on ground water are also regulated by regional water corporations, under the Water Act 1989.

Under Victoria’s Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990 (MRSDA), a company would need to submit a work plan for approval by DPI before they could begin significant exploration works. That plan would need to identify any potential environmental risks and detail how they would be mitigated.  It is standard practice for DPI to refer such plans to other relevant agencies for their advice and input on technical matters on a case by case basis. The assessment of such proposals is then able to be informed by the best advice from expert agencies so that Victoria’s water resources are not put at risk.  

The standard conditions of all exploration licences include conditions specific to aquifer interception and protection. These issues are also dealt with in more detail in the code of practice for mineral exploration under the MRSDA.”