I am still amazed by the Australian citizen resilience and your ability to stay on target with this health and safety issue. I believe the coal company is well aware that this underground fire has been and will continue to be a serious health and safety problem for the community and surrounding area, and it will only be getting worse as time goes on. They are probably also aware that sooner or later they will have to deal with it when it is no longer just under their controlled access property. That will be when “Old Faithful” shows up underneath Morwell. I promise this is not intended to scare anyone, but it is a well known fact that these underground fires move slowly, it can take months or even years to move a few feet. But it will move because it is embedded in pure flammable fuel and it breathes like a living creature. It draws air through old bore holes and natural cracks in the earth and produces heat that drives methane out of the coal seams. The methane burns until there is not enough oxygen to sustain the combustion so the smoldering coal begins to cool and contract, then the fire gases begin to shrink which causes an underground suction which draws in new oxygen and the fire grows and expands again and it exhausts the toxic products of combustion that contain the carcinogens that cause cancer in people and animals which can show up years from the exposure. It is common mining practice to keep a clay and dirt seal over the top of the underground fires but this does not stop the fires from breathing and consuming the coal. When the burned out coal seam caves in it is called subsidence and the smoke can be seen by day or blue flames can be seen at nigh time to give the mine company warning that it needs to be covered up again. This will continue until the toxic fumes spread through cracks in the coal seam and show up in someone’s home or office building. Then the lawyers and politicians will have something of value and damages they can see. But it will be too late for many of the citizens that will already have the cancer cell mutated and duplicating itself and no one will be able to prove when the cancer started or when the cell was exposed to a carcinogen. I believe it is extremely important that the citizens understand this and stay together to keep telling your public servants that you want THEM to understand this and do what is necessary to provide you with care and comfort for the life that the mine company is taking away from you with every breath you have left. If your government has the money to fight a religious war in another country and use high tech weapon systems that cost billions of dollars, then surely they can afford to spend a little to protect the citizens from an invisible enemy in your community that will kill many more Australians than the enemy overseas. The underground fire, “Old Faithful” as the company calls it, can be extinguished with high pressure foam injections. And the coal seams can even be turned into clean burning methane gas to produce clean power and valuable Liquid Natural Gas to sell or trade overseas. Turn this old way of doing dirty coal power into an energy research project and hire educated citizens to run it. The real power is the Australian Spirit. You have been showing that to many of us all around the world and we need to follow in your footsteps.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 11:29:26 +0000
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