Alcoa wants CCN meetings to eventually return

THE Community Consultation Network (CCN) meetings about the future of Anglesea’s former coal mine have not been held in more than a year, but Alcoa wants to bring them back once the COVID-19 restrictions have eased.

The meetings, scheduled every two months and typically held in the Anglesea Senior Citizens Centre, are an opportunity for attendees to discuss the site’s decommissioning and rehabilitation activities.

Alcoa established the CCN for Anglesea in 2001 and its membership includes Alcoa employees, local residents and landowners, Surf Coast Shire representatives, community groups and Victorian government departments and agencies such as the Department of Justice, Precincts and Regions’ Earth Resources Regulation, EPA Victoria and others.

Discussions about Alcoa’s strategy to fill the mine void with water have dominated proceedings at recent meetings, as has the Eden Project Anglesea proposal – Eden Project International chief executive officer David Harland has made seven appearances at the CCN, both in person and via video link.

The last in-person CCN meeting was held in February 2020, with meetings postponed since then due to the outbreak of coronavirus and the subsequent restrictions on social distancing and public gatherings of people.

“We are keen to recommence our face-to-face community engagement, however we will now defer until COVID restrictions allow,” an Alcoa spokesperson said last week.

“We will continue to regularly provide community updates about our activities to our email database (with more than 1,200 people registered), and in the Surf Coast Times and NewsAngle.”

Alcoa successfully submitted an application to Southern Rural Water last year to conduct a 12-month pumping test of the Upper Eastern View Aquifer – part of the plan to half-fill the void within five years – and will extract 1.5 gigalitres of water.

The Alcoa spokesperson said the groundwater pumping test started on May 13 and was progressing as planned.

“As outlined in our most recent Community Update, we are committed to keeping the community informed as the test progresses via monthly updates, with the first update available the last week of June,” the spokesperson said.

The mine void being at least half-full is a key enabler for not only Eden Project Anglesea – which has “water”, “earth”, “fire” and “air” concepts – but also Alcoa’s Anglesea Mine Rehabilitation and Closure Plan.

According to an Alcoa factsheet about the mine filling strategy and groundwater pumping test, using water from the Upper Eastern View aquifer will allow longer-term filling options to be investigated in the meantime.

“It is the only option that will meet the timeline outlined by Eden Project International for the water body to be filled to at least 50 per cent by about 2024 and will allow the project concept to progress with further design, planning and infrastructure studies,” the factsheet states.