Unfair shares: How coal mines bought the Hunter River
The expansion of coal mining in the Hunter Valley and the increase in the number, area and depth of surface mines has changed the landscape as well as the economic and social character of the region. Given the extent of new mining still proposed for the Valley, the impact of land loss and fragmentation will be exacerbated by the coal industry’s domination of the Hunter water market. Decades of aquifer interference by open-cut coal mining has led to the loss and increasing salinisation of ground and surface water in the region.