April 6, 2011

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

It was on this very day 20 years ago that members of the Ilford/Running Stream community banded together to form the Running Stream Water Users Association. Motivated by the threat posed to their unique water resource through proposed coal mining in the area, the group began to share information and equip themselves for what would become a long and drawn out struggle.
 While that initial threat eventually disappeared, another well armed opponent recently raised its head to present the greatest challenge yet to the Association. Not content with its massive expansion at the nearby Charbon Colliery, Centennial Coal began making advances into the Ilford/Running Stream area. The Thai owned company proceeded to buy up properties and divide the community with deceitful promises of environmentally friendly coal mining.
There is no such thing. Coal mining poses one of the biggest threats to water resources on this, the driest inhabited continent, through the destruction of aquifers and water pollution. The demand for "clean coal" sees companies use of fresh water supplies to wash the mineral, contaminating the water resource in the process.
The environment is never the same thereafter despite outrageous claims to the contrary in costly propaganda such as the recent glossy supplement in the Mudgee Guardian. And the impact of this industry on the atmosphere is also unacceptable, given what we know about climate change and the role that coal fired power generation plays in it.
And so the struggle continues.

To celebrate 20 years of the RSWUA, one of our members has made a short film which has been accepted into the Environmental Crusader Competition run by the Environmental Justice Society which was recently launched in Australia by Erin Brockovich.
You can view it here:
http://www.environmentalcrusader.com.au/author/nell/

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