MOPG PR 72) DRAMATIC PICTURES SHOW THAT THE RISKS OF OPENCAST MINING CAN BE ONLY TOO REAL! (18/8/10)

Recently the Minorca Opencast Protest Group have been accused of ‘scaremongering’ and that raising questions about the possible risks to the River Mease SAC as a consequence of working the Minorca Surface Mine were “a red herring”. We disagree.

Recently a Google search into the history of another of UK Coal’s surface mine sites, Maiden’s Hall in Northumberland, turned up dramatic pictures of a Dumper Truck bursting into flames on this site as recently as 2009. The seven pictures, under a strap line “A Lucky Escape” show a sequence of events as the Dumper Truck was reduced by a “blazing inferno” which engulfed the truck reducing it to a chard wreck. (see1 for the link to the pictures)

The accompanying text to the pictures adds

“On Friday the 4th December 2009 a good friend of mine from Steadsburn Opencast had a very very lucky escape when his CAT 789 went on FIRE!!!!!!
Apparently it might have been a burst hoist pipe which sprayed oil onto the turbo, but the automatic fire extinguishers didn’t activate, so my friend had to manually activate the discharge, but it was to late, in fear of his life he had to jump out the truck as the flames engulfed everything”

The driver had had a lucky escape!!

That something like this happened is also mention on a You Tube site ”Big dumper Trucks from the early 90’s” where a blogger writes:

“7 months ago

one less 789 at Maidens Hall now, it burnt out a the end of last year. Thankfully the driver was OK. Banks machines are 222 and 225 from Stobswood, and their 3 785s are ex Short Bros machines. There were 3 789s up here in Scotland that worked with the first Demag H485”.

The Minorca Opencast Protest Group does not have the resources to verify whether this incident did occur on a site owned by UK Coal plc in 2009, only UK Coal plc can do that. All we can do is present this evidence to the public and to the decision makers that there are real, unpredictable risks attached to opencast mining.
The Minorca Opencast Protest Group does not engage in “scaremongering” nor did we think the risks to the River Mease SAC were a “red herring”, especially in light of this evidence if it turns out to be true. Who knows what damage could have been done to the River Mease SAC if such an accident had occurred near the Giliwiskaw Brook after planning permission had been granted?

This is the second accident involving UK Coal we are aware of in the area, as in July this year a JCB damaged a bridge on the C117 minor road which divides the Stobswood site causing the road to be closed.

Steve Leary for the Minorca Opencast Protest Group said

“We are only bringing possible evidence of the risks associated with opencast mining to the public’s attention. It will be up to UK Coal plc to say if these pictures are a case of scaremongering or, if indeed, they do represent the truth, that a potentially fatal accident occurred in 2009 on a site owned and operated by the Company in Northumberland.

With reference to the current application, because a Special Area of Conservation the River Mease SAC dissects the site, statutory bodies have to be convinced that according to European Law

“Competent national authorities must be “convinced” that there will not be an adverse effect and where doubt remains as to the absence of adverse effects, the plan or project must not be authorised” (3)

It is hard to see, if UK Coal confirm that the accident in the pictures did occur on one of their sites, that they can convince anyone that such an accident would not occur on the Minorca site, not only endangering life but also possibly irretrievable damaging the River Mease SAC “

References
1) A Lucky Escape @
 http://iansweet.co.uk/opencast/?tag=maidens-hall

2) Big dumper Trucks from the early 90’s @
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eVdR4ml3IM

3) Briefing Note A3) The Minorca Application and the River Mease SAC, MOPG, july 2010 p 2

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PRESS RELEASE CONTACT:
STEVE LEARY, SPOKESPERSON, MOPG

tel 05601 767981, email  steve46leary@googlemail.com

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 http://www.mopg.co.uk or
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