Environmental groups say newly released documents which raise concerns about judi online availability and groundwater pollution cast fresh doubt over a plan to turn Victoria’s three brown coal mines into lakes when they close.
A Victorian Government ecological effects statement has revealed using water from the Latrobe River system to fill the mines would exacerbate a decline in environmental values and loss of biodiversity in a future drying climate.
The Latrobe River runs through the Latrobe Valley and central Gippsland and is used for drinking water, irrigating farmland and flows into the Ramsar-listed Gippsland Lakes wetlands.
Ramsar wetlands are rare or unique and of international importance.
The ecological effects statement found decreasing water availability from filling the mines would have a range of impacts on the river, its estuary and the Gippsland Lakes.
These include the loss of vegetation and a decrease in the numbers and breeding of native fish, waterbirds, frogs and turtles.
