Community and environment groups have welcomed the opportunity to have their say about an application to extend a pollution exemption at Vales Point power station.
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Delta Electricity is seeking approval from the NSW Environmental Protection Authority to exceed emission limits for nitrogen dioxide at the Mannering Park power station until 2027.
The NSW Protection of the Environment Operations (Clean Air) Regulation 2010 contains six groupings for industry. Vales Point Power Station belongs to Group 2 for the purposes of the emissions of oxides of nitrogen until 1 January 2022.
Delta recently submitted an application to extend the period of time the power station remains within Group 2.
An EPA spokeswoman said while community consultation was not required to assess the application under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act, it considered public feedback would be of benefit.
"The application will be carefully considered and assessed in accordance with the EPA's statutory obligations under section 45 of the POEO Act," she said.
The submission process is being finalised.
The Nature Conservation Council, which has led a concerted campaign to highlight the power station's environmental impacts, welcomed the opportunity to provide input.
"This is a great outcome for the Central Coast community, especially children with asthma who are at the front line in terms of health impacts," Nature Conservation Council chief executive Chris Gambian said.
"We are very keen to engage constructively and help residents participate in the consultation process so they get the results they deserve."
A spokesman for Future Sooner called on the EPA to reject the application.
"Research shows that 650 children on the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie have asthma because of toxic emissions from coal-fired power stations. We see no reason why they should be allowed to continue to pollute and make enormous profits at the expense of the health of the local community and the environment," he said.
Delta spokesman Steve Gurney said the company was in no way requesting to be made exempt from any emissions regulations.
"Delta's Environmental Protection Licence was renewed by the EPA in July 2020 after considerable input from the community and other groups," he said.
"Notably, limits for emissions such as of oxides of nitrogen have already been tightened as part of this renewal process.
"Delta continues to comply with these reduced limits and further work will be undertaken in upcoming maintenance outages to replace burners which will result in even greater reductions."
Vales Point received $8.7 million in last year's federal budget to upgrade its turbines as part of a project to reduce emissions, improve reliability and provide additional dispatchable power.
The upgrade was one of 12 projects identified under the government's Underwriting New Generation Investments program, will add an additional 30 megawatts of dispatchable energy to the wholesale market.
"Now that there are clean sources of electricity it makes no sense to drag out the transition process. The Hunter would have more and better jobs from supporting the renewable energy industries," Doctors for the Environment said.
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