Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment - Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata

Solid Energy's environmental management systems and performance

Preface

Concerns over the impacts of mining, particularly on the West Coast, led to this scoping study of the environmental performance of Solid Energy's mining operations.

Solid Energy is New Zealand's largest mining company. It forecasts that it will produce approximately 100 million tons of coal over the next 25 years. Much of this will be extracted from terrain and in local climates that pose some major environmental challenges.

The company has acknowledged that some of its past mining activities have fallen well short of environmental best practice. It has made a public commitment to improve, and has introduced a range of environmental plans and procedures.

It is too early to assess how effective these are. The PCE has therefore decided to audit Solid Energy's environmental management performance at Stockton, its largest operation, in 2008.

Conclusions

Solid Energy has indicated that it will spend significant sums to fulfil its commitment to improve water quality at Stockton over the next two to three years. Our 2008 audit will focus on

• how well the company's environmental management plans are working
• water quality
• site rehabilitation
• compliance monitoring and enforcement
• Solid Energy's community consultation
• any other issues identified during the investigation.

See the full report (right) for the complete preface and conclusions.

()See also: Media release, 20 November 2006.