open sore

The West Coast Regional Council has granted consent for Perth-based Bathurst Resources to mine 200 hectares in the Mt Rochfort Conservation Area on the Denniston Plateau, northeast of Westport via a open cast coal mine, that will be the 2nd biggest here. This decision is so shortsighted. Coal!?! Open cast mine!?! Conservation Area!?! - all for the fake short-term benefit of economic gain - what a crock. You are destroying this world and our children's future and you don't even care.

NZH

The three hearing commissioners granted the consent, "but not without some considerable reservations and anguish," they said. "The most and almost overwhelming factor that we had to consider is the enormous financial benefit that the mine will bring to the Buller district and the West Coast region."

Three fools - you have shown where you stand.

Fairdown/Whareatea Residents Association spokesman David Orchard said "The impact is absolutely appalling, the impact on health is bound to be considerable."

Coal Action Network said "Burning coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel activity on the planet and there are huge reserves of coal left worldwide. If we allow them to be burnt, we have no chance of avoiding a climate catastrophe," said spokeswoman Frances Mountier.

West Coast Environment Network said "The commissioners' decision had clearly been compromised by Department of Conservation (DOC) withholding detailed scientific evidence it had gathered on the impacts of the proposed mine", and "Any short-term economic benefit will be outweighed by the long-term impacts on communities and ecosystems of adapting to climatic change if large-scale coal mining continues."

A shocking decision that leads us down the road to ruin. And not the last shocking decsion that we will have to fight or accept as the gnats start selling everything off and digging everything up.