Concerned community members rallied in Cooks Hill’s Centennial Park on Wednesday, urging the Environmental Protection Authority to make Vales Point Power Station clean up its act.
The coal-fired power station on the shores of Lake Macquarie produces about 4 per cent of the electricity supplied to consumers in the National Electricity Market and is owned and operated by Delta Electricity.
Commissioned in 1978, the old power station for the past 10 years has operated under a special exemption from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
According to the EPA, under their special exemption granted in January 2012, Vales Point Power Station emits nitrogen oxides (NOx) at almost twice the rate of other power stations in NSW.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are gases that form when fuel is burned at high temperatures, and long-term exposure has been linked to health effects including heart disease, stroke, asthma attacks, lung cancer and type 2 diabetes.
The exemption expires on January 1, 2022, but Delta Electricity has applied for an extension of this exemption for a further five years until January 1, 2027. The EPA has until December 31 to decide.
Wednesday’s rally featured an art installation of 100 cardboard cut-out children representing more than 650 kids on the Central Coast, Lake Macquarie, and Hunter areas who suffer from asthma.
Speeches were heard from Future Sooner representative Will Belford, Healthy Futures representative Jonathan Moylan, NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, Newcastle epidemiologist Dr Ben Ewald, and Emergency Medicine Registrar for HNE Health Dr Jasmine Daniels.
Protesters then marched to the EPA’s Newcastle offices on Bull Street and Arnott Street, where Charlestown general practitioner Dr Kathleen Wild spoke.
“There is no safe level of air pollution for human health,” Dr Wild said.
“We’re not meant to breathe fine particulate pollution. Our kids aren’t meant to breathe nitrogen oxides.
“No polluters should be getting a freebie on regulations that have real consequences for our health.”
Future Sooner representative Will Belford said they had been campaigning for over a year, raising awareness around air pollution and the health effects of coal-fired power stations.
“There are over 650 children in the area who have suffered from asthma, which can be attributed to nitrogen dioxide emissions. My eldest daughter had asthma as a child, and it’s a highly stressful condition for the person who is suffering as well as the parents, and she’s not alone,” Belford said.
“Since 2019, nearly 3000 people have presented to emergency departments in the Hunter and Central Coast, unable to breathe because of asthma. It’s clearly a problem in this area.
“Everyone has a right to breathe clean air; this is what this campaign is about.”
Belford said the Vales Point Power Station needed an exemption to continue operating because it couldn’t manage to generate electricity without over-polluting.
“It has this exemption that allows it to pollute up to nearly double the normal limits for 10 years,” Belford said.
“The original exemption was granted with the intention that the plant would use the time to upgrade its facilities and put in technology to help reduce the emissions. Unfortunately, in those 10 years, that hasn’t happened.
“Since then, Delta Electricity bought the plant from the Government for $1 million and have since made over $248 million in profits over five years.”
Belford said it would cost $80M to clean up the plant, installing technology to reduce emissions that align with government and EPA regulations.
“We are calling on the EPA to reject the application,” he said.
“The EPA is called the Environmental Protection Authority for a reason, and we believe it’s time for them to step up and start protecting the environment and the people who live in this region.”
Newcastle epidemiologist Dr Ben Ewald, who has completed extensive studies on the health effects of air pollution, said there was strong evidence that exposure to NOx and NO2 causes children to have asthma and trigger asthma attacks.
According to a paper published in 2018 by Dr Ewald, The health burden of fine particle pollution from electricity generation in NSW, “there are five coal-fired power stations in NSW – Bayswater and Liddell in the Upper Hunter Valley, Eraring and Vales Point on the Central Coast, and Mount Piper near Lithgow”.
“Air pollution from the five NSW power stations is estimated to lead to 279 deaths or 2,614 ‘Years of Life Lost’ every year for people aged 30 to 99. Each year, this pollution also causes 233 babies to be born weighing less than 2,500 g and causes 361 people who would not otherwise develop type 2 diabetes to develop this disease.”
Dr Ewald found that Vales Point and its close neighbour Eraring Power Station both made the largest contribution to the health burden from power generation.
He believes that by its planned closure year of 2030, Vales Point Power Station would have been responsible for 547 deaths, 475 low birth weight babies and 709 cases of new onset diabetes since 2018.
Delta Electricity has strongly rejected these poor air quality claims.
In a media release, company secretary Steve Gurney said that the Vales Point Power Station operated “in accordance with strict environmental licence conditions, with diligent oversight by the Environmental Protection Authority”.
“This is a collection of anti-coal activists with one objective, to shut down coal fired power stations,” he said.
“Independent EPA analysis consistently shows that air quality on the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie is very good and amongst the best in New South Wales.
“It also concludes that levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide easily meet National Standards.”
Gurney said the EPA renewed their Environmental Protection Licence in July 2020 after community input.
“Notably, limits for emissions such as oxides of nitrogen have already been tightened as part of this renewal process. Delta continues to comply with these reduced limits,” he said.
According to the EPA’s Delta Electricity exemption fact sheet, “the Vales Point Power Station has been classed in a group of power stations required to meet a NOx emission of 800 milligrams per cubic metre”.
“The licence currently exempts the power station from needing to meet the 800 milligrams per cubic metre limit and instead sets an alternative maximum limit of 1500 milligrams per cubic metre.”
In determining the application, the EPA must consider the impact on local and regional air quality, having regard to: any pollution reduction programs that have been established, or that the holder of the licence has agreed to establish; any control equipment that has been installed, or that the holder of the licence has agreed to install; any load reduction agreement that has been entered into between the EPA and the applicant under the Protection of the Environment Operations Regulation 2021.
Following community consultation in October and deliberation with NSW Health and the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, the EPA will now consider and assess the application.
The EPA will publish the outcome on their website by January 2022.
Hayley McMahon