The Land and Environment court heard from seven people in the Mid-Western Regional Council chambers as part of a current class one action against the Minister for Planning and Ulan Coal mine.

The Hunter Environment Lobby is currently working with the Environmental Defenders Office to challenge the Minister and Ulan Coal over the expansion of mining operations.

The Lobby is arguing numerous aspects to the approval process were not given enough consideration and neither the consequences.

For the first time since 1994 greenhouse gas emissions will be considered in a class one action.

Justice Nicola Pain and Commissioner Linda Pearson first heard president of the Hunter Environment Lobby, Jan Davis, who spoke about group’s purpose and cumulative effects of mining expansion.

Ms Davis said the group had negotiated with mines and mining companies in the past to come to agreements on environmental sustainability and currently oversees rehabilitation work on at least one of the Hunter mines.

But she said the latest approval did not adequately take into account the pollution of the Goulburn River or the cumulative effects of other mining expansions.

Ms Davis said a total of 210 hectares of endangered ecological communities and habitat for several fauna species would be cleared by the Wilpinjong, Ulan, and Moolarben mines as well as for electrical infrastructure. Ms Davis said it did not take into account the thousands of hectares to be cleared for vegetation across the mine sites for expansion.

She also said waterways, in particular ground water, would take 200 years to recover from mining impacts.

The Lobby president called for the roll out of extra NSW Department of Planning staff to the region to cope with monitoring increasing developments.

“The closest Department offices are in Bathurst or Singleton and they can hardly monitor the unprecedented costs to our environment when they are at least two hours drive from the mines,” she said.

The 15-day hearing began on June 6 in Sydney and the Land and Environment Court came to Mudgee on Friday to hear local concerns to be tendered in court.