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This article has been the subject of a Press Council adjudication (1619), which can be read here. COAL MINING under part of Sydney's water catchment has resulted in an important feeder pool being completely drained and triggered iron contamination. Water specialists made the claim after visiting a river that flows into Woronora Reservoir. "Pool N", on the Waratah Rivulet, supplies about half of the reservoir, but was empty on a February 13 visit, with water running into big cracks in the pool's 150-metre-long floor. "To see all of that water was gone . . . was a big surprise," said Peter Turner, the National Parks Association-nominated member on Metropolitan Colliery's community consultative committee. He blamed longwall mining in the area for the subsidence and fractures of the pool's floor. During longwall mining, machines shear coal from the seam, which can cause the rock above to collapse as the machine moves forward. A Sydney Catchment Authority spokesman said it was aware of the changes to Pool N but there was "no evidence to date to suggest mining activity affected storage levels in Woronora Reservoir" substantially. A NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure spokesman said "strict conditions around water management were part of the consent conditions for this project" and Pool N was "upstream of where the specific environmental protections detailed in the consent begin". Dr Turner said the pool's location was overridden by requirements that the mine's longwall expansion had a "negligible reduction to the quality or quantity" of the water going to Woronora and there was concern authorities had not been able to identify where the water was going, nor if the result was negligible. Metropolitan's owner, Peabody Energy Australia, was contacted by Fairfax Media for a response. The water experts found iron contamination had spread to at least two kilometres of Waratah Rivulet and was affecting the ecosystem. The mine's 2012 annual report found iron concentrations in the rivulet had doubled since the mine expanded and levels exceeded Australian Drinking Water Guidelines by 30 per cent. EXPERT OPINION Georges River Alliance secretary Sharyn Cullis said ‘‘a genuinely independent review’’ was needed to establish that any further mining would satisfy the project approval standard of ‘‘negligible environmental consequences’’ and ensure there was no further significant damage to the catchment. Dr John Bradd, senior fellow in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Wollongong University, said the lack of readily accessible, good-quality data made it impossible to ascertain where the lost surface water was going once it was underground and to quantify the impact on the drinking water supply and river ecosystems. Dr Melissa Haswell, associate professor of Public Health at NSW University, said ‘‘the bottom line for health is, while 4.5million people in the Sydney area can be assured that what comes out of taps today is high quality, plentiful and low cost, this may not be the case in future years if there is continuing damage to our water catchment’’. Do you support a ''genuinely independent review'' or have concerns about future water quality?

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