Wallarah 2 project manager Kenny Barry has scoffed at suggestions the 226 conditions of consent attached to the controversial coal mine at Bushells Ridge will render the operation unworkable.
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Mr Barry said the number of imposed conditions was within the expected range for a modern coal mine, and "nothing new to us".
"Every mine in the modern era has a significant number of management plans and conditions [attached], so the reality is we don't have an issue with it because we're as concerned about the stewardship of the environment as anybody else is," Mr Barry said.
The Wallarah 2 project earned state government approval in January, 2018.
The company behind Wallarah 2, Wyong Coal, said 195 consent conditions had been imposed by the former NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC).
Last month, federal Environment Minister Melissa Price signed off on the project.
The federal approval included 31 conditions of consent.
Among the chief concerns of government are the potential risks posed by the underground mine to the security of the Central Coast's water supply. Ultimately, both levels of government concluded those risks, however, could be avoided or managed.
So among the conditions are the ability to shut down the mine if adverse impacts are beyond those anticipated. There is also a requirement that Wallarah 2 provide 300 megalitres a year of treated water to the Central Coast catchment to compensate for any potential loss caused by mining.
Opponents of the mine question how Wyong Coal could operate within the constraints of so many conditions.
Mr Barry said those who worked in the industry knew the drill.
"We realise that things have to be documented, and you have to be accountable for the things you do," he said. "The only way to do that is to have them [the conditions] in writing, have them approved, then follow the guidelines. Everyone knows where they stand when it's all in black and white."
He said the number of conditions was not exorbitant when compared to other mining projects.
"We're experts in this game, it's what we do for a living, so they don't faze us whatsoever."
Mining projects were routinely subjected to conditions which regulated their activities, their impacts on water, air, heritage and ecology, he said.
Mr Barry described earning Ms Price's approval as "the final brick we needed to put into the wall".
"It was a significant justification on top of the justification we already had from the NSW Government," he said.
Mr Barry said the scrutiny placed on the project at every level of the assessment process had been "exhaustive and detailed".
"So to have another government agency, completely separate to the ones in NSW, go through the same things again and come up with the same result was an exceptionally good outcome," he said.
"It demonstrates the robustness of the studies that we've done and what we've been saying all along - that the impacts associated with this project are manageable."
Mr Barry said the federal approval did not mean Wyong Coal would be digging dirt any time soon. The approval would instead allow the next phase of documentation to start, he said.
However, Wallarah 2 is the subject of a legal challenge lodged last year by the Environmental Defenders Office, on behalf of the Australian Coal Alliance, in the NSW Land and Environment Court. A determination on that challenge is not expected until mid-2019.
Australian Coal Alliance founder Alan Hayes said the group would also consider a court challenge to the federal decision.
Twists left in mine saga?
DESPITE its wins at state and federal government level, Wallarah 2 must feel it has few friends in high places locally.
Wallarah 2 has been opposed by the former Wyong Shire Council and now Central Coast Council; the state member for Wyong, David Harris (Labor); and the federal member for Dobell, Emma McBride (Labor).
If it wins the state election, Labor plans to pass a bill that it said would retrospectively cancel approvals granted to the Wallarah 2 project and "protect the Wyong water catchment" from mining.
Speaking a day after the federal government approved Wallarah 2, Mr Harris said:
“The NSW Liberals broke their commitment to protect the Central Coast water supply and, yesterday, the federal Liberals betrayed the Central Coast, too.
“The Liberal Party is putting the interests of multinational mining company profits ahead of the interests of local residents."
But the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), and its district president Peter Jordan, have a different view.
In an opinion piece for Coalface magazine, Mr Jordan wrote:
"The union is astonished that a potential NSW Labor government is willing to ignore the science which supports the Wallarah 2 existing approvals and the cold hard fact that the Central Coast is crying out for jobs and opportunity."
