Undermining Sydney's Water Catchment

摘要

Well into the 3rd century of Anglo-Australian settlement in the Sydney Basin the laws regulating water security are not much better adapted to local geohydrological conditions than at colonisation. Knowledge, evaluations and decisions about water use, acceptable risks and protection continue to be made on a changing needs basis, as the incremental "approval creep" of longwall coal mining beneath it demonstrates. Lessons are being learned, but known as well as unknown risks continue to be taken. The regulatory approach to managing the effects of subsidence impacts demonstrates a high tolerance for risk and a degree of acceptance of damage to the Sydney catchment. It sits uncomfortably with the rationale of the category of Special Areas, which were conceptualised and declared to minimise risks to Sydney's water quality and maintain the ecological integrity of these landscapes. In isolation, each assessment and law may appear sound and fit for purpose, but in concert the laws seem less viable given the current and cumulative adverse effects of mining within the catchment that highlight their collective incongruity and abstractness.