Investigating the effectiveness of environmental regulation to protect waterways receiving coal mine wastewater

  • Callum Fleming

Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis

Abstract

Environmental regulation and licencing of coal mine wastewater discharges are often ineffective at achieving the core objective of protecting environments from negative impacts such as water pollution. Coal mining and the discharge of mine wastewater to river systems is a widespread source of water pollution across the world, often introducing ecologically hazardous levels of salinity and contaminants such as the heavy metals nickel and zinc. Many discharges of mine wastewater to the environment are not appropriately regulated, often resulting in the degradation of water quality and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Conditions of environmental regulation that are conducive to protecting water quality and river ecology in streams receiving wastewater have not been fully explored. This thesis explores the role of different environmental regulation conditions on water quality and river health across the Bargo River, Nepean River, and Wollangambe River in NSW, Australia, and investigates which conditions lead to effective or ineffective environmental regulation. The results from this thesis can be applied to improve the effectiveness of environmental regulation and to reduce water pollution impacts in rivers receiving coal mine and other industrial wastewater discharges.
Date of Award2021
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • coal mine waste
  • mine water
  • waterways
  • pollution
  • law and legislation
  • environmental aspects
  • New South Wales

Cite this

'