Environmental advocates have welcomed a commitment from the NSW Environment Protection Authority to investigate the potential environmental impacts of coal-ash waste dumps in Lake Macquarie.
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The EPA gave the undertaking as part of a recent Upper House Inquiry into the costs for remediation of sites containing coal ash repositories.
The site-specific environmental and operational circumstances of each power station will be considered as part of the review.
It follows a recentreview of air emissions monitoring data and licensing requirements for all coal fired power stations in NSW, tightening emission limits and strengthening monitoring and reporting requirements.
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Environmental Justice Australia lawyer Jocelyn McGarity welcomed the announcement.
"We welcome this response to the concerns raised by local community members and environment groups over water pollution. However, the investigation of the impacts of coal ash should extend to all coal ash repositories in NSW, not just those located near Lake Macquarie," she said.
"The results of the investigation must be transparent and publicly available. Currently, information about coal ash repositories, such as baseline studies undertaken by the government with respect to existing contamination at coal-fired power station ash dams, is not available. This lends itself to community distrust in the management of ash dams."
Environmental Justice Australia gave evidence to the inquiry in September.
Among other things, it submitted that the government needed to commission a comprehensive and independent assessment of the environmental impacts of coal ash pollution and make strong recommendations to protect human and environmental health.
"We hope that the EPA's investigation results in the development of best practice management of coal ash repositories, including comprehensive regulations driving ash dump rehabilitation and on-going post-closure management," Ms McGarity said.
A recent report from the Hunter Community Environment Centre, Out of the Ashes II estimates that 45 tonnes of harmful heavy metals leach into Lake Macquarie every year from the 100 million tonnes of ash waste dumped by the Vales Point and Eraring power stations.
Hunter Community Environment Centre spokesperson Jo Lynch said an estimated 100 tonnes of harmful metal pollutants from coal-ash leach into waterways in the Hunter Valley each year.
"We believe the EPA's investigation must expand to encompass all sites experiencing pollution."
An estimated 40 tonnes per year of leachate containing heavy metals enters waterways in the Hunter Valley from 84 million tonnes of coal-ash waste at AGL's Bayswater and Liddell power stations and a further 16 tonnes of leachate enters the Upper Cox's catchment from 28 million tonnes of ash at Energy Australia's decommissioned Wallerawang power station.
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