Gaby and I found the annual environmental reports for Solid Energy http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/1,292,831,0,html/Environmental-Report-2008
Stockton is the largest opencast coal mine in New Zealand, operated by solid energy. This mine has been in operation for over 100 years, but they have only had water treatment for 18 months and they have been putting out these environmental reports for 6 years. Their overall objective is to “have a net positive effect on the environment of New Zealand”. This seems a bit strange to us because the coal industry is a business, and the environment usually doesn’t come before profit. These annual reports make some reference to the amount of revenue put forth into rehabilitation and reforestation of the New Zealand bush. Yet on our tour, the driver, Mickey, mentioned some obscene amount of fuel being burned per hour for the super dozers. It was around 200 liters of petrol an hour. They operate at the mine around the clock. That was only two of the machines we saw. They probably have a very large number of other fuel guzzlers that are very expensive to run and not especially environmentally friendly. We understand that they are essential for the profitable operation of the coal mine but this is still an area for improvement.
Environment is one of their five sustainability areas. In the reports there is a point system used to measure the environmental effects. They are measured by a points system where points are assigned to 16 factors at each site that solid energy operates. This way the net positive and negative effects can be measured and compared. On average, over the past 6 years, they have improved their net environmental effect by 3% annually. One way they increase their positive effect using this point system is by planting native trees and shrubs, over 320,000 native trees and shrubs at 10 sites. To date, they have rehabilitated 160 hectares of land but this did not meet their target goal of over 195 hectares. Another way they improve their environmental effect is by utilizing direct transfer techniques on native vegetation. Direct transfer encourages faster regeneration and helps maintain biodiversity. For 2009, solid energy is working on improvements for their biomass and biodiesel sites.
Stockton coal mine seems to be a very unique site. They have a lot of site a lot of site-specific solutions to environmental problems and are moving in the right direction as far as environmental impact goes. We think it would be interesting to compare their progress to their other 7 mine sites, because Stockton got so much publicity and government pressure surrounding the snail discovery. Our tour was actually free of charge since we are a school group. This shows that they want to get their story out there and Phil, a speaker, let us know that they are interested in our input as students. Because of their attempts to improve their environmental impact, they have been receiving interest from other mines across the world wanting input on how to improve their mining site situations.
Post by Gaby and Lacey : )
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