Berrima Rail Upgrade Project

After reviewing the documentation on the DPE website I am of the considered opinion there is no reason why this project should not proceed. I support this project and the Hume Coal Project

I support the Berrima Rail Project and look forward to the following benefits this and the Hume Coal project will bring to myself and my community;

Getting full time, permanent, and well paying employment close to home, instead of having to "Fly In Fly Out" to/from Western Australia, will significantly improve my quality of life and greatly benefit my young family. Working close to home will also be a welcome support to my wife and my ageing parents.

I also welcome the employment benefits this project will offer the greater community, in particular the career paths which will be available for local school leavers and apprentices. Being able to secure local, meaningful, permanent, and well paying employment for young people will benefit many individuals and have significant positive flow-on effects to the entire Southern Highlands region.

From my professional experience, mining companies contribute significantly and directly to the greater community through positive engagement with community groups, not for profit and charity organisations, local sports clubs, conservation and heritage groups, and local schools and educational institutions.

I am satisfied and confident Hume Coal, industry and regulatory organisations, and the NSW and Federal legal and judicial systems, are competently able to safely manage new mining projects in the 21st century.

To Whom It May Concern,

I strongly object to the Berrima Rail Project (7171) on the following grounds:

1. Berrima Rail Project will have an adverse impact on limited and valuable clean water resources by assisting the development and operation of the Hume Coal Project (7172), thereby lowering the water table and potentially filling local water systems with contaminated runoff.

2. Berrima Rail Project will expose local residents to harmful coal dust from stockpiles and coal rail movements, along with increased noise and disruption to local traffic conditions (including congestion and potential for more accidents).

3. By degrading the environment Berrima Rail Project will threaten the survival of tourism and agriculture - the main employers in the region, and industries that could sustain the community for many generations to come.

The Southern Highlands of NSW is an area of highly-productive farmland, and should be conserved as a food bowl for future mega city Sydney, as well as an export-driven economy that boosts GDP via food, wine and in-bound tourism sales to the Asian market. The damage to the land, water, economy and community of Berrima Rail Project will be irreparable.

Do not allow this vandalism.

Jeremy Barnett

My concerns are consistent with those identified on the Battle For Berrima website, and repeated below.

This proposal has a very short lifespan in terms of both past and future human occupation in the southern highlands of NSW, and maximum effort should be taken to ensure that it does not proceed, especially because of the significant and disproportionate identified impacts during that short lifespan.

SUMMARY OF KEY ISSUES
THE BERRIMA RAIL PROJECT SSD7171
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The SCOPE of the EIS is inadequate as the Hume Coal Project significantly impacts the Berrima
branch line AND the Unanderra to Port Kembla Branch line. Now the Tahmoor mine will operate into
the future he extra traffic from Hume will double the amount of coal train traffic on the Unanderra line.
*
Whilst a GRADE SEPARATION is proposed for the Old Hume Highway, Suttor Road in Moss Vale,
Sheepwash Road and Illawarra Highway crossings are completely ignored. These last two crossings
experience high levels of traffic in morning, afternoons and weekends. Many of the road users are
tourists unfamiliar with the local area and rail level crossings. The Suttor Road crossing is used by both
Moss Vale local residents and industrial area traffic. With the increase in heavy rail traffic these
crossings pose an unacceptable risk to public safety and to rail staff.
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PEDESTRIAN traffic including school children are seriously at risk in Moss Vale and Robertson.
Robertson in particular has a number pedestrian crossings and road crossing that are inadequate and
poorly fenced.
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The rail line runs approx. 30 meters behind the 160 STUDENT Robertson Primary School. The children
play and spend time on the oval area that runs beside the rail line. Coal dust and noise pose an
unacceptable health risk to school children and School staff.
"There may be no safe threshold for fine
particulate matter and the effects are linearly related to concentration."
(World Health Organisation &
Australian National Pollution Inventory)
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The Rail crossings on Douglas Road and Collins Road in the Moss Vale Enterprise Corridor will also
be compromised by the increased traffic. The Collins road crossing is especially dangerous and the
approach angle to the rail crossing close to or below the ARTC current safety standards.
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The safety standards at the McCourt Road crossing also needs to be improved.
DELAYS AT RAIL CROSSINGS
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The EIS and DA lodged by Hume Coal in respect of the Berrima Rail Project shows that there will be
additional traffic delays at level crossings.
(ES3.3)
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The rail route of the 4 daily coal trains from the Hume Coal mine and 4 back to the mine will involve
17 level crossings in the Southern Highlands and down the escarpment on the route to Port Kembla.
*
The addition of the Hume Coal trains will add an extra 24 minutes of closures at rail level crossings
each and every day
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This will result in daily closures at rail crossings rising from 69 minutes every day to 93 minutes or
more than one and a half hours daily.
*
Major rail crossings to be impacted include those at Robertson and on Sheepwash Road
*
The nearly 30% increase in the total time rail crossings are closed each day as a result of the Hume
Coal proposal will present unacceptable impacts on emergency vehicles including fore brigades,
ambulances, police and other critical community services.
.

I object to the Berrima Rail Project primarily because I object to the Hume Coal Project (see my already submitted objection to the same). In addition, I believe that the extra train movements will further disrupt an already busy rail network and will cause extra noise and coal dust pollution. I have never seen covers on the coal trucks on any line carrying coal (e.g. through the Blue Mountains, the Hunter etc) and think it unlikely that covers will succeed anyway, given my experience behind so-called covered semi-trailers on motorways, where I am often bombarded with debris, dust etc.

I support the Berrima Rail Project because it is a vital, and necessary link in the Hume Coal Project and its operations. A railway line had servicing the area for many decades and therefore the base infrastructure is there for further development and upgrading to meet the freight needs of the Hume Coal Project.
This Rail Project further adds to the economic development of the region and will have minimal impact on the social fabric of the Southern Highlands.

This project is critical to the development of Hume's coal project. It has low environmental impact and is also of economic benefit to the community.

This project must go ahead for the safe transportation of coal.

I object to the project for the following reasons -
The scope of the EIS is inadequate as the Hume Coal project significantly impacts the Berrima branch line and the Unanderra to Port Kembla line. Now the Tahmoor mine will operate into the future the extra traffic from Hume and will double the amount of coal train traffic on that line.
Whilst a grade separation is proposed for the old Hme Hwy, Suttor Rd in Moss Vale, Sheepwash Rd and Illawarra Hwy are completely ignored. These last two crossings in particular experience high volumes of traffic, whilst Suttor Road, is in the middle of a residential area full of young families. With the increase in heavy rail traffic these crossings will pose an unacceptable risk to public safety and rail staff.
Pedestrian traffic including school children and the elderly are seriously at risk in Moss Vale and Robertson as some pedestrian crossings and road crossings are in adequate or poorly fenced.
The rail line also runs approx 30 metres behind the 160 student Robertson primary school. As the children use the oval that is located beside the rail line. Coal dust and noise pose an unacceptable level of risk to the children and staff at the school.
I urge the Government to reject this proposal as it poses an unreasonable risk to public health and safety

Berrima Railway Project should proceed. Sadly, apart from in Sydney, our rail network is being allowed to decline due to lack of use. This decline due to lack of use, is a chicken and egg problem. Any proposition such as this, that would enhance the amount of use of our rail network receives enables the expansion and improvement of the network and removes trucks off the road. Making our roads both safer and more efficient.

Allan Jones said it all "Mining in Bowral (Southern Highlands) for (blasphemous statement) sake - why would you?!!"

It makes NO sense. The Southern Highlands is an area of natural beauty, within cooee of Sydney. A draw card for tourism and JOY! NOT MINING and its associated rail extension, for (blasphemous statement) sake.

You will be receiving copious reasons for NOT mining and extending the rail line in the area. I don't intend to repeat them. It just makes NO sense. Please help us stop this insanity.

We write this submission as very concerned residents of Berrima NSW..
My wife and I were attracted to Berrima as the Southern Highlands is an idyllic and historical region of NSW. The area is a relatively quiet and is far removed from the hectic pace of commerce and industrial activity. In short Berrima is an ideal town to enjoy our retirement years.
The Hume Coal proposed extended railway and the associated mine will shatter the piece and tranquility of Berrima and other areas of the Southern Highlands.
We have read the EIS and believe that it lacks specificity and fails to exhaustively address the key concerns of the community,
Notwithstanding the EIS lodged by Hume Coal we believe the proposal will
1. Introduce health concerns due to the unavoidable coal dust from the train traffic,
2. Create havoc from the extensive train line and the very high number of train movements,
3. Create traffic delays from the high number of railway crossings and overall train length,
4. Adversely affect overall tourism in the Sth Highlands with the resultant negative impact on small business owners,
5. Negatively impact on the varied and multiple wild life of the district.
In the very strongest terms we totally oppose this proposal which is totally out of character with this historic Georgian village and we urge Planning NSW to reject the proposal.

No more trains & noise

I object to this development.

The rail project is designed to facilitate coal movement through a series of growing townships - New Berrima, Moss Vale and Robertson. The areas around and between these townships is also subject to closer settlement. After travelling across the windy tableland of the Wingecarribee Shire, through the water catchment and past the Wingecarribee Reservoir the freight will travel on down into the Illawarra and areas of suburban and urban density leading to Port Kembla.

Dust as such is an irritant but coal dust is pernicious. Health dangers are greatest for coal workers, children and the aged. The dangers are well known and inevitably associated with all coal mining. Covered wagons may or may not happen under 'adaptive management' if the project is approved. Dust and small particle debris control along the entire route will not happen. For its immediate health impacts the project should not proceed.

But there is also a larger health reason the project should not proceed. The coal mined will be both coking coal and thermal coal. Coking coal is not so rare that this project needs to be built. And thermal coal, particularly low grade, is the nicotine of power generation this century. The climate is changing in ways adverse to us - to humans - to many aspects of human comfort but also more importantly adversely impacting food production and human health. We have to stop using thermal coal - every decision around the mining of thermal coal is important. NSW needs to move away from thermal coal, not facilitate its use.

The Southern Highlands is now simply too precious to include the proposed mine and railway. The are boasts the cleanest water in NSW, heritage sites of national and State significance, a diverse inventory of flora and fauna and an unspoilt natural environment. It is just so very rare to have this so close to our capital city and the largest metropolitan city (Sydney). It would be a crime to allow this to go ahead. It will impact on health, the local economy (tourism, food clusters, vineyards and wineries and agriculture and much more).

This is a world class project that will benefit the local community as well as the whole state of NSW. The environmental processes being adopted for this project will ensure the environment is protected for both the short and long term. The project will generate real jobs both during construction and during operation. The taxes this project will generate will fund government infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and roads. Australia needs these type of projects and if we want to maintain our standard of living, then we should be wholeheartedly supporting this project.

Comments as per my submission for the Hume Coal Project (Jointly for both)

We would like to acknowledge and support the Beririma Rail Project application for community development. Our community will benefit in many ways with this application, ie growth in the area, employing locals

I am a registered mid wife at Bowral Public Hospital & I am opposed to the Rail Project proposed by Hume Coal. I am often on call to respond to emergencies in the maternity wing. These calls can & do come at any time of day or night. I have been called into the hospital at short notice on many occasions (babies can"t tell the time). The expansion of the rail service to cope with the transportation of coal will result in 8 more train services daily. I live in Burrawang & must negotiate the level crossing on Sheepwash Rd to travel to the hospital in Bowral at any time of the day. The additional train runs will have an impact on my ability to respond quickly to emergencies. I am not overstating the case when I say that many of these emergencies are life & death situations. In addition to this I am also concerned about the impact on traffic flows caused by increased use of the train line. Businesses in villages such as Robertson will be adversely impacted by consumers choosing to do their shopping elsewhere to avoid the holdups.

I have lived in the Southern highlands for nearly 20 years & have never come across a development as inappropriate as the Hume Coal Project . This project has many negative aspects a few of which I will list below;
The threat to the water aquifers that are essential to many agricultural pursuits in this area is formidable with Hume Coal listing in their EIS that over 90 water bores will be affected a number of which will run totally dry. Their answer to this is that they will make good without giving any details or even approaching landholders that will be affected to explain how this will be achieved. If they plan to bring water in by tanker this will mean many,many tankers on the local roads which are barely able to cope with the local traffic & many of which are in desperate need of repair. Their proposal that they are to pump a slurry of tailings with various contaminants of the mining process back into the mine workings is almost certain to contaminate the aquifer permanently - if it hasn't already been destroyed by the mining process.
The construction of the mine infrastructure & workings will totally destroy the beautiful area south of Berrima with both visual, dust, light & noise problems contaminating the area. This will affect not only the local residents , but also the many visitors that come to the Highlands to enjoy the many pleasures that are here.
This area relies greatly on the tourist industry supplying many jobs for locals in Cafes, guest houses, motels, & other areas associated with the tourist industry.This mine will have a negative effect on this industry, losing many jobs especially in the less skilled areas. A lot of people also maintain holiday homes in this area employing local tradesmen & others for repairs, maintenance & also bringing money into the area when staying down here. All of this will be greatly effected if the mine is approved. Who wants to holiday next to a mine?
Finally this mine will be a financial disaster with such a small amount of coal being extracted using such a costly mining method. If approval is given how long will it be before Hume Coal change the mine plan to get a greater return in the hope that they can make the mine more financially possible - threatening the loss of mining jobs unless they get their way?
.Let common sense prevail.
Thanks