Alcoa’s groundwater extraction plan faces growing community pushback

THE Anglesea community’s more than five-year fight to end groundwater extraction from beneath the Anglesea River is intensifying, as Alcoa’s application to resume pumping opens for public consultation.

Alcoa is seeking to extract the equivalent of 600 Olympic-sized swimming pools each year for up to 10 years to accelerate the return of its decommissioned coal mine to the community.

But community group Friends of the Anglesea River (FOAR) say the extraction will provide no benefit to the community and rather poses “serious and unacceptable risks”, while the former mine pit, once filled, will amount to little more than an “acid lake” unsafe for recreational use.

“There’s not a great return in filling up the aquifer quickly, as far as we’re concerned, and Alcoa has never been able to explain to us clearly what the imperative is for that speedy fill,” FOAR founder Keith Shipton said.

“Just let the system go back to normal and there’s a chance that it will recover. We may still have occasional acid flows down from the river, but it won’t be a permanent state.

“With climate change increasing we need all the water we can get for this river. We shouldn’t be doing things to the ecosystem which is going to put it under further pressure.”

The group maintains Alcoa’s historical pumping of groundwater in the area has been a major contributor to ongoing concerns with the river’s health, including its struggle with acidification and the resulting loss of marine life – a claim Alcoa has long rejected.

 

 

Regina Gleeson, who manages outdoor education company Ecologic, said the health of the Anglesea River, which serves as a key location for its activities, had long posed a commercial problem for businesses operating in the area.

“For us, it’s really important that the river be healthy and strong and a great hub for the town as well as for communities further afield.

“Our feeling is Alcoa had its time here for 60 odd years. It has had a big impact on the river during that time and really, to now be asking to extract water to enable them to leave faster than 50 years is a huge impost.”

Greens Member for Western Victoria Sarah Mansfield has also joined calls for the application to be rejected.

Last week, while speaking in Parliament, she urged Water Minister Gayle Tierney to urgently assume decision-making power over the application.

“It is up to the minister to acknowledge her responsibility for our state’s vulnerable water sources and reject this application,” she said.

 

 

Southern Rural Water managing director Cameron FitzGerald said Alcoa’s groundwater application would be assessed under a rigorous and transparent process.

“We understand that this application is important – not just for community, but also in the broader context of mine rehabilitation.

“In parallel to a technical assessment and independent expert advice, Southern Rural Water is also required to consider and give weight to issues raised by local communities and other interested parties as they relate to section 40 matters within the Water Act 1989.”

This includes the projected availability of water, the need to protect the environment and the potential for adverse effects to the aquifer.

Public consultation on Alcoa’s application will remain open until July 11 at 5pm, with two drop-in sessions scheduled for Thursday, June 12 between 12 noon and 2.30pm, and 4.30pm and 6.30pm at the Anglesea Bowls Club.

Anyone who makes a submission will be invited to speak to their submission in front of an independent hearings panel in mid-August.