Regulation of coal mines

Our consultation

Consultation on the regulation of coal mines in NSW occurred over six weeks, from 21 August to 2 October 2024.

Stakeholders were asked a series of questions to gather feedback on several areas related to the regulation of coal mining in NSW. These questions focused on what the EPA should consider in its review of monitoring and reporting conditions for environment protection licences, and how these processes can be improved to increase community confidence. We also invited feedback on community access to information regarding coal mining activities, including what types of information should be made available.

We also sought feedback on specific coal mines that individuals or groups wanted to address, as well as any considerations related to the EPA’s Climate Change Action Plan 2023–26. These questions gave stakeholders an opportunity to raise their views on how climate change initiatives can be integrated into the EPA’s ongoing regulation of coal mining in NSW.

Feedback and opportunities raised

All feedback was considered and the consultation helped us gain a deeper understanding of the community’s key concerns and priorities for our ongoing regulation of the industry.

Key sentiment and suggestions included the following:

• Dust and diesel emissions from coal mines, particularly those in the Hunter Valley, are a concern. Overarching sentiment included support to improve the regulation of dust from mines and impose conditions on licences to reduce emissions from non-road diesel engines.
• Coal mine licences should include strong mandatory and enforceable greenhouse gas conditions. Overarching sentiment included calls for licences to include emission limits and targets, and require monitoring for greenhouse gases, in particular methane.
• There was general support for a requirement for climate change mitigation and adaptation plans be added to the coal mining licences. This included support for plans to be made publicly available and actions to be further strengthened through monitoring, enforcement and reviews of climate change mitigation and adaptation plans.
• The feedback we received requested consistent concentration limits for discharges from mines to protect waterways, with a preference for no discharges, and a review of water management structures to assess their ability to withstand climate extremes.
• Concerns were raised regarding the funding and staging of rehabilitation at mines, and a lack of post-closure monitoring and reporting requirements. Concerns were also raised that waste management at coal mines should be improved.
• More access to pollution monitoring data presented in a meaningful way to satisfy the community’s right to know and improved transparency of monitoring and reporting information for the community. A key sentiment from individuals, community and environment groups was that they wanted easy access to more data and information, to improve understanding of an operator’s environmental performance.
• Polluter pays principle and environmental protection should be strengthened by rigorously enforcing pollution limits, with strict penalties applied for breaches.

Changes to coal mine licences

In response to our consultation, we will now engage with coal mine licensees across NSW on the proposed changes to strengthen operating requirements.

This includes:

• Reviewing and improving dust monitoring conditions.
• US EPA Tier 4 emissions standards for new non-road diesel vehicles.
• Varying Licences to delivering actions under the EPA’s Climate Change Action Plan 2023-26, over time, noting that initially this will include reporting on greenhouse gas emissions.
• Improving monitoring, reporting and public access to information.
• Administrative changes to the Licences to increase readability and achieve consistency across the sector where appropriate.

Next steps

The EPA will progressively engage with licensees from early 2025 and propose changes to the environment protection licences across the coal mining sector. We will continue engaging with individual NSW coal mine operators, examining feedback and pursuing opportunities raised as part of this review.  All changes to Environment Protection Licences will be reflected on the EPA’s public register.

We are committed to providing the community with up-to-date information about the regulation of coal mines. Coal mine licences and changes made to conditions of the Licences are publicly available on the EPA’s public register. We will publish regular updates about our regulation of coal mines on our website and engage further through ongoing community engagement activities, the Hunter Environment Advisory Group, and other relevant industry, advisory and public interest groups as we explore opportunities for the licences.