It is reported that the Caroona Coal Action Group is to ask the New South Wales Government to put agreements in place with BHP Billiton to secure compensation for the region's farmers if their properties lose value because of mining.
The group's chairman Mr Justin Grant said that 65 farming families are worried the mining will damage groundwater aquifers on their properties. He said "If farms don't have water they can't survive. The villages of our areas depend on this water, if the income producing capacity of the farms have changed because of changes to the water, or soils people need to be compensated, if people don't have any other options but to move away from the area and mining reduces the agricultural importance of this area, that should be compensated for as well."
BHP Billiton has been granted a five year exploration license of the region if it finds commercial quantities of the resource although mining will not begin until 2012.
