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Law restricting NGOs in run up to polling day have pushed climate and pollution issues off the election agenda, say opposition parties and green groups

Debate on environmental issues has been stifled in the run-up the general election leaving voters in the dark , opposition parties have claimed, as a result of the Lobbying Act and government determination to avoid criticism over problems such as air pollution.

Green groups have privately raised concern, along with other charities, over the impact of the law, and now have the support of all major parties apart from the Conservatives.

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The Wollangambe River's canyons are loved by adventurers. Ben Green

The Wollangambe River in New South Wales is a unique gift of nature, flowing through the stunning Wollemi National Park, wilderness areas and the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains. It’s an adventure tourism hotspot, with thousands of people clambering through the river’s majestic canyons each year.

So it was with a sense of irony that bushwalkers noticed unnatural flow and discolouration in the river and suspected it was pollution. In 2012 they contacted Western Sydney University, which has since conducted ongoing investigations.

The pollution was traced back to the Clarence Colliery, owned by Centennial Coal. Our recent research confirms that this is one of the worst cases of coal mine pollution in Australia, and indeed the world.

For four years I and other researchers have been investigating the pollution and its impacts on the river. The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has verified our findings. In exciting news, the mine was in March issued a revised environmental licence, which we believe is the most stringent ever issued to an Australian coal mine.

This is appropriate given the conservation significance of the river and the current scale of the pollution. We are now hopeful that the pollution of the Wollangambe River may soon be stopped.

Water pollution damages the river and its ecology

The Clarence Colliery is an underground mine constructed in 1980. It is just a few kilometres from the boundary of the Blue Mountains National Park.

Clarence Colliery and Wollangambe River. Ian Wright

Our research revealed that waste discharges from the mine cause a plume of water pollution at least 22km long, deep within the conservation area. The mine constantly discharges groundwater, which accumulates in underground mines. The water is contaminated through the mining process. The mine wastes contributed more than 90% of the flow in the upper reaches of the river.

The EPA regulates all aspects of the mining operation relating to pollution. This includes permission to discharge waste water to the Wollangambe River, provided that it is of a specified water quality.

Our research found that the wastes totally modified the water chemistry of the river. Salinity increased by more than ten times below the mine. Nickel and zinc were detected at levels that are dangerous to aquatic species.

We surveyed aquatic invertebrates, mostly insects, along the river and confirmed that the mine waste was devastating the river’s ecology. The abundance of invertebrates dropped by 90% and the number of species was 65% lower below the mine waste outfall than upstream and in tributary streams. Major ecological impacts were still detected 22km downstream.

We shared our early research findings with the NSW EPA in 2014. The authority called for public submissions and launched an investigation using government scientists from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. Their study confirmed our findings.

Progress was interrupted when tonnes of sediment from the mine were dislodged in 2015 after heavy rainfall and the miner and the EPA focused on cleaning the sediment from the river. This incident has resulted in the EPA launching a prosecution in the NSW Land and Environment Court.

We recently compared the nature and scale of pollution from this mine with other coal mine pollution studies. The comparison confirms that this is one of the most damaging cases of coal mine water pollution in Australia, or internationally.

Even 22km below the waste outfall, the Wollangambe is still heavily polluted and its ecosystems are still degraded. One of the unique factors is that this mine is located in an otherwise near-pristine area of very high conservation value.

New licence to cut pollution

The new EPA licence was issued March 1, 2017. It imposes very tight limits on an extensive suite of pollutant concentrations that the mine is permitted to discharge to the Wollangambe River.

The licence covers two of the most dangerous pollutants in the river: nickel and zinc. Nickel was not included in the former licence.

The new licence now includes a sampling point on the river where it flows into the World Heritage area, about 1km downstream from the mine. The licence specifies vastly lower concentrations of pollutants at this new sampling point.

For example, the permitted concentration of zinc has been reduced from 1,500 micrograms per litre in the waste discharge, in the old licence, to 8 micrograms per litre.

It can be demoralising to witness growing pollution that is damaging the ecosystems with which we share our planet. This case study promises something different.

The actions of the EPA in issuing a new licence to the mine provide hope that the river might have a happy ending to this sad case study. The new licence comes into effect on June 5, 2017.

Our current data suggest that water quality in the river is already improving. We dream that improved water quality, following this licence, will trigger a profoundly important ecological recovery. Now we just have to wait and see whether the mine can improve its waste treatment to meet the new standards.

Ian Wright received funding from Western Sydney University, the Colong Foundation for Wilderness and the Blue Mountains Conservation Society..

SA seeks final proposals for battery storage tender from candidates short-listed from the 90+ expressions of interest received last month.

PARKER SOLAR PROBE: It's been on NASA's bucket list for 60 years, and now the ambitious mission to touch the Sun is in its final phase before launch. So just how do you send a spacecraft into the Sun without it burning up?

Australia’s first biofuels pilot plant was officially opened by the Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, in Gladstone today.

Carnegie Clean Energy adds 2.6MWh battery storage system to 1.6MW solar system at CSIRO's Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.

Pikestone Fell, Weardale An oystercatcher, a gaudy pied clown with crimson beak and eyes, flew straight towards us, piping hysterically

In winter this part of the Weardale Way can be a morass, but the rain-leached soil drains quickly in spring. After weeks of dry, windy, weather, the mud had turned to sand and our boots were soon covered in yellow dust. In some sheltered hollows heather, at last showing a green tint of new shoots, shimmered in a heat haze.

Our route followed the wall that divides upland pasture from heather moorland. Together they provide habitats for grouse and the wading birds that return here from the coast to breed, and late May is the peak time for egg hatching.

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Leading Australian home energy management start-up, Reposit Power, has issued a recall for all Reposit meter and box Kits installed since 2015, due to potential risk of electric shock.

Endeavour says network ownership could turn 360° and revert to local councils and communities, as it seeks tender for solar and storage micro-grid.

Nauiyu community set to be powered by a 1MW solar plant during the day, relegating its diesel generators for use only at night and as back-up.

Australian Institute of Marine Science says reef’s capacity to recover under threat from climate change and pollution

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef not regularly affected by problems such as cyclones have demonstrated the reef still has the ability to regenerate, with a survey showing sharp declines in coral cover in the north but increases elsewhere.

However, the latest results from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), collected by divers visiting 243 individual reefs, do not include the losses caused by bleaching this year, or the effects of cyclone Debbie, both of which killed coral in the central section.

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America’s time as leader of the free world is over. Now we’re the villain, thwarting the global effort to save humanity.

A testing laboratory built by Queensland utility Ergon Energy to host one of Australia’s biggest residential battery storage trials has been opened in Cairns.

A ‘JKT’ triad—Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—sets a 21st century course for clean energy.

Offshore wind farms have been blamed by conservative media in the UK for the deaths of three whales - despite not having a shred of evidence.

Deputy PM departs from official Coalition line, saying ‘to speculate on what Donald Trump might do is insanity’ and I’m going to ‘see what happens’

Barnaby Joyce has declined to say whether Australia should remain within the Paris climate accord if the United States pulls out, in a departure from the official government line that Australia will stay the course.

While Australia’s energy and employment ministers have said this week Australia will honour its Paris commitments regardless of what Donald Trump decides, the Nationals leader and deputy prime minister was more guarded on Thursday.

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Regulators issue grim warning about power of big fossil fuel generators to game energy markets, forcing up prices. They say the price surge to "unprecedented" highs in coal-dependent Queensland is being driven by market concentration and the lack of large-scale wind and solar.

Intensive farming cited as main reason for destroying natural barriers to deluge and making low lying areas more vulnerable to floods

Only a tenth of England’s extensive floodplains are now fit for purpose – 90% no longer function properly – with the shortfall putting an increasing number of homes and businesses at risk of flooding, according to a new report.

Floods are more likely due to climate change and will claim higher economic costs unless action is taken to halt the damage to floodplains and restore some of their functions, warned the authors of the 12-month study – the first to paint a comprehensive view of England’s floodplains and their capabilities.

“We have ignored our floodplains,” said George Heritage of Salford University, co-author of the study the Changing Face of Floodplains, published by Co-Op Insurance on Thursday. “The changes to them mean water [from heavy rainfall] can flow much faster downstream, and can flow at the same speed as the water in the rivers.”

This accelerated flow has led to sudden and unstoppable deluges in recent years. For instance, Storm Desmond in 2015 affected more than 6,000 homes as rivers and streams burst their banks and spread water over floodplains. As these natural floodplains had been altered by man-made features, they no longer had the ability to store water, leading to rapid flows into urban areas which led to the devastation.

Storm Desmond caused more than £500m in damages, and misery for families excluded from their homes sometimes for months. The UK’s flooding bills are on the rise, with scientists warning of rocketing numbers of cloudbursts and periods of sudden and intense rainfall as climate change takes effect.

Floodplains act as natural “sponges”, soaking up excess water in their vegetation, forming natural buffers that hold back or divert rushing water after rain, and providing areas where rivers can breach their banks and wetlands can be replenished.

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RepuTex says ceasing all land clearing would save between 300m and 650m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year

Ending land clearing in Australia by 2030 would cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by about as much as completely shifting the electricity sector to renewable energy, a new report has found.

Queensland has been clearing about 300,000ha of land a year since the Newman government weakened restrictions on land clearing there and the Palaszczuk government failed to tighten them.

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The statement backing the Paris climate agreement is seen a snub to Trump, who is mulling a pullout.