Coal Company Pays For Environmental Destruction

Press Release: Save Happy Valley Coalition

The Save Happy Valley Coalition is calling for Solid Energy to cut its losses and stop its destruction of the last remaining habitat the critically-endangered native land snail Powelliphanta augustus. The state-owned coal miner has spent millions to move the snails, but all the available science indicates this won't help.

"Solid Energy could have saved itself and the snails by leaving them alone and mining elsewhere. It is amazingly poor management to have destined a species to extinction while not even making a profit on it," said Frances Mountier, spokesperson for Save Happy Valley Coalition.

"If they had left that core habitat, or even a portion of that core habitat, they would have protected that species with some guarantee that it would survive," said Ms Mountier. "There's still no science that says that moving the snails is going to be successful. In fact it appears translocated snails have begun to die."

While Solid Energy has found more than 5000 snails, this does not do much to increase the chances of survival for the species.

"Without a place to live, a species is functionally extinct. Some snails have been released to a place at the Stockton mine against scientific advice. Only time will tell whether they can survive there. The search for more habitat for the snails is depressing – sub-Antarctic islands, Stewart Island – with no guarantee of success, while the only place where we know the snails can live is being destroyed," said Ms Mountier.

"This gives us insight into the future. One day Solid Energy will be required to internalise the costs of their impact on biodiversity - in this case, the extinction of an entire species. The coal industry should also internalise the costs of its impact on the environment. Once that occurs, coal will be seen as the outmoded, polluting, uneconomic fossil fuel that it is," said Ms Mountier.

ENDS

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