Anglesea River group to oppose Alcoa water licence

ALCOA has applied for an extension its groundwater licence to fill the former Anglesea coal mine after recently acknowledging its unlikely to achieve the goal of having it half filled by 2024.

A prerequisite set by prospective future tenant the Eden Project for it to take over the site for an environmental park, the vast pit currently sits at 15 per cent volume, however both sides said they remain committed to the project.

Alcoa is currently permitted to extract 1.5 gigalitres of groundwater under a 12-month trial – originally intended for completion in May this year – that will assess the potential impacts on water tables and underground aquifers, however the mine has so far only used half of that allocation.

Approximately 17.2 gigalitres of water is needed to fill the mine void.

The company had indicated its working towards a permanent water licence from Southern Rural Water (SRW) and will use the trial results to bolster its application, however SRW recently issued public notices that Alcoa is seeking a six-month extension to its existing licence, now proposed to end March 31, 2023.

The Friends of Anglesea River community group have listed a series of concerns about the trial, with the river now devoid of fish for well over two years due to low pH, high acidity and trace metals.

It commissioned a study from The University of Melbourne hydrologist Professor Ralf Haese to support their belief that the river’s poor health is linked to Alcoa’s decades long extraction of groundwater nearby.

“The mining and power plant operation has lowered the groundwater level far beyond the mine … and has negatively impacted the water quality in the Anglesea River and its estuary,” Prof. Haese said in March.

“We want to receive an argued case from the regulator and the expert panel in response to our hypothesis and arguments.”

Prof. Haese and the Friends of Anglesea River say they’re yet to receive a response to the report’s central issues.

Instead, Alcoa, SRW, the Eden Project and now the Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville are all on the record as stating that “there is no evidence that Alcoa’s historic groundwater extraction has caused adverse environmental impacts in the Anglesea River and estuary”.

While noting that her Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is aware of the matters raised by Prof. Haese and the Friends of Anglesea River Group, Ms Neville said “previous studies have concluded that the Anglesea River acid levels are likely to be climate-driven and naturally occurring”.

Dick O’Hanlon from the Friends of Anglesea River said the group will formally oppose the licence extension and called for the “immediate cessation of pumping from the aquifer to fill the mine pit”.

“Rather than hiding behind the flimsy and unsustainable ‘no evidence’ argument, the Anglesea community and the Anglesea River deserve unequivocal, peer-reviewed proof that no harm is being done,” he said.

“Until then, we ask the Minister for Water to shut down the bore pump.”