Maules Creek Community Council Inc v Environment Protection Authority

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

New South Wales Land and Environment Court

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

31/08/2023

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Mitigation

SUBJECT MATTER

Coal mine

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

Extract from EDO website: A local community group has begun legal action challenging the validity of the review of the Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) for Maules Creek Coal Mine by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in June this year. […] Maules Creek Community Council (MCCC) has launched legal proceedings in the NSW Land and Environment Court seeking to have the EPA’s review of the EPL ruled invalid. MCCC will argue through its lawyers, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), that the EPA failed to consider all of the pollution generated by the mine and its environmental and public health impacts before renewing the licence. The group will also argue the EPA was required to consider the litany of environmental breaches Maules Creek Coal Pty Ltd and associated entities have committed over the past eight years.

Applicant claimed that first respondent's review of licence failed to comply with requirements of (NSW) Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, thus, seeking declaration that first respondent review function breached s 45 and order that first respondent re-exercise that function. Finding that applicant had not established that first respondent failed to consider relevant matters of law of whether second respondent was fit and proper person, in exercising review function. Finding that applicant had not established that first respondent, in undertaking review, failed to consider relevant matters in ss 45(c) and 45(d). Application dismissed.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Maules Creek Community Council Inc v Environment Protection Authority
Maules Creek Community Council Inc v Environment Protection Authority [2024] NSWLEC 71