Shenhua has hit back at claims that data in its environmental impact statement (EIS) is flawed, saying it was robust, reviewed by "the nation's best water experts" and approved under some of the "strictest conditions in Australian history".
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The Chinese mining company issued its statement after Caroona Coal Action Group (CCAG) released a report last week saying there were "highly significant inconsistencies" in the water modelling data.
But the Shenhua spokesperson said the report, prepared by the University of NSW, had taken into account only a specific type of water storage - confined aquifers - which would not affect agricultural, stock or domestic users.
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Among the CCAG and report criticisms of the Shenhua water modelling data are that it appeared to "under-predict" the effect of its Watermark project on groundwater; that there would, in fact, be less water for other users, over a bigger area of land, than expected.
However, the Shenhua spokesperson said: "It should be clearly noted that the report's determined theoretical specific storages values only apply in the case of confined aquifers."
"Confined aquifers, in the context of the Watermark Project, are the coal seams. Unconfined aquifers in the vicinity of the Watermark Project include alluvial aquifers. Water extracted from the ground for local agriculture, or for stock and domestic purposes, is drawn from alluvial aquifers. Water held within coal seams is not used for irrigation, stock or domestic uses," they said.
The spokesperson said neither CCAG nor UNSW had "sought comment from Shenhua or our water experts prior to CCAG's press conference on May 1, 2019".
These experts have all agreed that the modelling is robust and can be relied on to predict any impacts on water.
- Shenhua spokesperson
They said the water modelling in Shenhua's EIS had been reviewed by "the panel of the nation's best water experts (the IESC), as well as four other expert reviewers" and the proposed Watermark project had been approved "under national environmental law subject to eighteen of the strictest conditions in Australian history, which fully implement the advice of the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development (IESC)".
"These experts have all agreed that the modelling is robust and can be relied on to predict any impacts on water. They have said actual impacts on groundwater are likely to be smaller than what has been predicted," they said.
"The approval puts strict conditions in place to ensure that no unexpected impacts occur. These include monitoring to improve models and update predictions over the life of the project based on real experience."
