Solid Energys green audit is a sham and a PR stunt
Press Release: Save Happy Valley Coalition
7th February 2006

The Save Happy Valley Coalition have questioned whether Solid Energy's environmental audit has any validity, after the company claimed that it almost had a net positive impact on the environment in the 2004-05 year.

"It's obscene for Solid Energy to claim it is within a whisker of having a positive net effect on the environment when it ignores the greenhouse gases that result from burning 4m tonnes of coal just in the last year," said Frances Mountier, Save Happy Valley Coalition spokesperson.

"On top of this, Solid Energy is opening new pits all the time but still has no effective water treatment at Stockton. The only thing that works is sediment dams which stop some coarse sands - all the fine sediments and coal fines flush down the creeks in heavy rain. They have no treatment whatsoever for the big water polluter - Acid Mine Drainage (AMD).

"Revegetation still covers a tiny area of rock dumps and will have to be stripped again if they ever get serious about sealing the dumps to stop AMD.

"The Upper Waimangaroa is polluted via Herbert Creek and Whirlwind Stream from leaky drains and a dam which Solid Energy hasn't bothered to fix. New mines threaten domestic water supplies in Granity and at Jones Creek settlement.

"It's wrong for the state owned enterprise to include in its audit the $20m plan to improve water quality in the Ngakawau River when none of this money has been spent.

"Yet Solid Energy still claims to be almost having a net positive effect on the envrionment. It is no wonder therefore that members of the public, and groups such as the Save Happy Valley Coalition, do not trust this company with the fate of absolutely protected Powelliphanta snail species, or pristine ecosystems such as Happy Valley," said Frances.

Photo (available upon request) shows polluted water in the Mt Frederick diversion drain which flows to the Ngakawau River. None of the $20m is earmarked to clean up polluted water in this section of the mine.

Media contact:
Frances Mountier, Save Happy Valley Coalition
021 175 7484
www.savehappyvalley.org.nz