From Sydney’s drinking water catchment to the unique woodlands of the Pilliga, mining and gas are threatening our water, our wildlife and our way of life.
Right now, the state government is opening up large swathes of our magnificent public lands to destructive mining and gas development.
The mining and coal seam gas industry is expanding at breakneck speed. Incredibly, despite the clear risks to our water, wildlife and wild places, there is still no legal barrier to mining and gas development in our drinking water catchments, state forests and state conservation areas.
This cannot continue
Please donate now to stop destructive mining and gas development threatening our water, wildlife and wild places.
Together, with your help, we’ll protect our natural life support systems from being destroyed.
Threat to our wildlife
Rapid expansion of the coal seam gas industry poses a real threat to our wild places and native wildlife: open cut mining leaves a lasting legacy of destruction, transforming precious forest and woodland habitats into a gaping hole in the ground.
Left unchecked, rapid expansion of this destructive, polluting industry will result in the degradation of vital wildlife habitat across the state.
The scale of the threat is enormous. Millions of hectares of our state have already been earmarked for coal and coal seam gas, with exploration licences extending over our state forests, state conservation areas and drinking water catchments.
More than two thirds of our state conservation areas are and nearly half of our state forests are covered by mining and gas titles.
Threat to our drinking water
Mining has already led to unacceptable cumulative impacts on natural landscapes and local communities across New South Wales.
In 2011, long wall coal mining directly under Sydney’s drinking water catchment fractured the bed of the Waratah Rivulet. Now several thousand litres of fresh drinking water is lost every day. So far, it’s irreparable. This is not an isolated incident: coal mining has had an enormous impact on rivers, stream and groundwater in locations right across our state.
The community’s right to clean, safe drinking water must come before the profits of powerful vested interests.
Please make an urgent donation today to support our work to stop this unacceptable expansion of mining and coal seam gas.
Your donation can make the difference
We’re already making progress – and with your support we’ve got a great chance of winning this fight.Across NSW, local communities are taking a stand, opposing destructive mining and coal seam gas development on their lands and in their drinking water catchments. And they are succeeding.
Only two months ago, the Illawarra community won the first round of their David and Goliath battle against coal seam gas drilling, stopping the immediate threat to Sydney’s Nepean and Woronora drinking water catchments. The success of this powerful campaign, which engaged thousands of people across the Illawarra, is an inspiring reminder of the enduring power of community action!
But the fight has only just begun. Right now, decisions are being made behind closed doors, with the mining and gas industry pushing for increased access to public lands and fighting attempts to strengthen regulation of their activities.
People like you are the only thing that stands in the way of this devastation.We can, and must, demand that the state government act for the people and deliver real change, to protect our communities, our most valuable natural assets and our water catchments.
Nature Conservation Council NSW as the state’s peak environment body is the group which, with your support, can bring this together. We have the track record, the profile and the political prowess necessary to transform inspiring local successes into government policy at the state level.
Your generous donation today will be crucial to helping strengthen protection for our state’s public lands and water catchments from mining and gas. You will be helping to amplify and support successful community action.
It’s a big battle. That’s why we need you on our team.
