wilpinjong coal project wilpinjong coal project - Department of ...

No. Issue Response
10 (Continued) The land the subject of the proposed mine comprises largely cleared privately owned pastoral land and
hence it is not envisaged that the use of this land for mining will directly affect tourism. Any impact on
tourism would be indirect and be associated with visual impacts from adjoining areas of interest to tourism.
Visual impacts of the Project are assessed in Appendix N, Volume 5 of the EIS. The economic analysis,
presented in Appendix I of the EIS, identified that visual intrusion can potentially impact visitors to
surrounding areas.
These unquantified, but likely minimal impacts, are compared in Appendix I, Volume 5 of the EIS to the
estimated net production benefits of the Project (i.e. $1,454M) via the threshold approach. This figure
represents the opportunity cost to society of not proceeding with the proposal. Interpreted another way,
any environmental impacts from the proposal (including potential tourism impacts), after mitigation by
WCPL, would need to be valued at greater than $1,454M to make the Project questionable from an
economic efficiency perspective (Section I4 of Appendix I, Volume 5 of the EIS).
The contribution of the mining sector to the regional economy is discussed in Section 3.13, Volume 1 of the
EIS:
"Comparison with the state economy reveals that the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, the
mining sector and manufacturing sector are of greater relative importance to the regional
economy. The coal mining sector is also the major sector responsible for exports from the region,
followed by the manufacturing sectors of wine and spirits, meat and meat products and concrete
(Appendix I). Imports are more evenly spread across sectors. The coal mining sector is the most
productive sector of the economy (as measured through GRP [gross regional product] per
employee) and has the highest average wage of all the economy sectors (ibid.)."
With regard to the potential impact of the loss of flora and fauna on tourism, as stated in Section I2.3.2 of
Appendix I, Volume 5 of the EIS:
"Any impacts on flora and fauna species would likely affect the non use economic values
(consumers’ surplus) of individuals and could potentially be interpreted in an economic context via
surveys to elicit the community’s willingness to pay to avoid any potential impacts ie. the
contingent valuation method or choice modelling.
To some extent any impacts on flora and fauna species have been internalised by WCPL’s
proposed mitigation measures which include the progressive rehabilitation of the open cut area to
a combination of native woodland and grazing areas and commitment to three large ECAs
[Enhancement and Conservation Areas] adjoining the Project disturbance area for conservation of
flora/fauna and Aboriginal heritage."
It should also be noted that the coal reserve to be mined by the Project is a State-owned resource with a
majority of the product coal to be used for domestic power generation.
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