Ms Mansfield's Reply to Mr Cochrane re Vile Water: A Response

On 18 November, Costerfield farmer Mr Gilbert Cochrane sent this letter to Ms Prue Mansfield, Director of Planning Development for City of Greater Bendigo Council.

On 27 November Ms Mansfield replied with this letter. Replies to two emails bundled together into three paragraphs. We shall deal with the issue of the road closure in another post, soon.

Of particular note here, though, is the following passage from Ms Mansfield's letter regarding the water being trucked to Lot 1 at Splitters Creek for dust suppression:

"This water is being placed into a holding dam within the confines of the site and is being drawn from this dam to water the site. Although it is brown in colour, that is not an indication that it is contaminated, rather the water taking on the colour of the clay of which the holding dam is constructed."

This is odd, as Mr Cochrane mentioned nothing about being concerned about the water's colour. (Having farmed the area all of his life and, as he informed Ms Mansfield, having actually built the dam in question, he probably knows what colour water turns when it comes into contact with Costerfield clays!). He did note its vile smell and the fact that a vapour was rising from the road after it was sprayed. Ms Mansfield neglects to address these two issues but offers her strange unsolicited observation about the water's colour in order to indicate its lack of contamination. It only takes on its colour when it hits Lot 1.

As we know, the water being trucked to Splitters Creek is sourced from the Brunswick Tailings Facility. Rainfall run-off and RO water? That's the Brunswick Dam on the lower right. It would be very unusual if the water being trucked from there was NOT brown. Here is an aerial photo of the contaminated water sitting in the disused tailings dam - which makes it an evaporation dam really... full of brown water. 

If the clays on Lot 1 can cause water that has only been in the "holding dam" for a day or so to take on a brown colour, what effect would the contaminated clays and tailings in that Dam have on water that has been stored there for ten years?

Certainly it would be brown, having taken on the colour of the clays from the tailings and clay at the minesite. And it is, just as Ms Mansfield says. But it would also be contaminated. As would any water either of the TSFs in this facility. The reason that the other body of "water" is that vivid colour is the heavy metals it contains.

And this water is being sprayed along the South Costerfield-Graytown Road. Says Ms Mansfield:

"The City agreed to the watering of the road to preserve its condition and to respond to neighbourhood complaints about dust."

So thank you very much CoGB for helping solve the dust problem by spraying poison about our "neighbourhood".

Ms Mansfield at no point addresses the quality of the clays on Lot 1, thus ignoring Mr Cochrane's tacit warning that there is the threat of contamination of the alluvial aquifer through leakage of the dam.

Mr Cochrane was a member of the ERC in Costerfield from 2004 to 2013 and has been vocal in his concerns over the under-regulation of the mine for a decade.

It really would be good if the people making the decisions kept up with the details and perhaps began listening to people with a bit of first-hand, life-long knowledge of the area.

And for goodness' sake, can we please see the Emerson Dispersive Test that Council is supposed to have before construction commences? 

What's the bet it hasn't even been done?