Hunter coal-fired power stations licensed to emit 666 times more mercury than US power stations

Bayswater, Vales Point and Liddell power stations are licensed to release 1000 micrograms per cubic metre of mercury into the atmosphere each year, compared with 30 micrograms per cubic metre for Chinese power stations since 2012 after environmental legislation in response to dangerous air pollution.

American power stations are limited to releasing just 1.5 micrograms per cubic metre of mercury from black coal, while the Hunter’s Eraring power station is licensed to release 200 micrograms per cubic metre, and Victorian and Queensland power stations have no mercury limits.

Mercury is one of 30 toxic substances released from coal-fired power stations, along with heavy and fine particulate matter and sulfur dioxide, where Australia has a standard 10 times higher than the World Health Organisation recommended standard, said a year-long investigation by Environmental Justice Australia, Toxic and Terminal.

Not only are Australian emission limits significantly higher than international limits, but breaches are rarely penalised, emissions reporting relies on industry estimates, power station operators have taken few if any steps to implement pollution reduction technologies, and it is “almost impossible for the public to know whether power stations are complying with their pollution licences and pollution laws”, the EJA found.

The report was scathing of federal and state governments across Australia for failing to prioritise public health over decades, and failing to ensure the community will not be left with the rehabilitation bill for the country’s ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations by requiring adequate bonds or financial assurances.

It found none of the 10 power stations investigated for the report had rehabilitation bonds or financial assurances. In February Muswellbrook mayor Martin Rush told a Senate inquiry the NSW Government had “washed its hands” of the closure planning for Liddell power station when it sold to AGL Macquarie in 2014 for $1.5 billion and failed to respond to council warnings about the lack of a modern rehabilitation plan.

The Department of Planning confirmed it had “no role in regulating the current activities on site” including decommissioning in 2022, and referred Newcastle Herald questions to the council.

EJA researcher Dr James Whelan said the report was released on Tuesday at “a moment in history when we’re at the crossroads in terms of the country’s energy future”.

The report ruled out new generation high efficiency/low emissions (HELE) coal-fired power stations to replace existing stations, saying the level of emissions was not significantly lower.

It argued for governments to urgently apply international best practice emissions standards to all power stations; require mandatory, continuous and public reporting of stack emissions; develop a national load-based licensing scheme to place a cost on air pollution and require all power stations to reduce particulate, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

“Communities, especially communities living in the shadow of power stations, have little control over the air they breathe,” Dr Whelan said.

The report was backed by Doctors for the Environment Australia, which said if power station load-based licensing fees were calculated to properly reflect the health costs of emissions, they would have to be 50 times their current levels.

Doctors for the Environment Hunter spokesman Dr Ben Ewald said Beresfield was quite often over the 8 micrograms per cubic metre limit for PM2.5 fine particles, while Muswellbrook “has been over 8 micrograms per cubic metre ever since monitoring commenced”. 

Dr Whelan said the report, which relied on emissions estimates provided by power stations and other data obtained by the EJA under freedom of information, said power stations and coal mines were managed to optimise profitability, not public health.

“None of the power stations we looked at across Australia has an emission limit specifically for PM2.5, the power station pollutant that is generally considered the most damaging to human health,” Dr Whelan said.

“Power stations are not even required to monitor for PM2.5.”

Dr Whelan said there had been no national assessment whether power stations had limits to properly protect human health, which led to inadequate standards. These included the NSW emission limit standard requiring power stations to use “reasonably available technology taking the age of the plant into consideration”.

Some power stations, including Liddell, were built in the 1970s.

Lake Macquarie environmental activist Mike Campbell, who first raised the health impacts of Hunter power stations more than 30 years ago, described power station emissions as “this terrific torrent of materials that emanates from these power stations and which the community absorbs”.

Hunter environmental activist Bev Smiles said she had “no faith in the ability of the Environment Protection Authority to protect community health”.

“While I believe individual officers do have community health at heart, the combination of poor government policy and downsizing of the agency itself has hamstrung its effectiveness,” Ms Smiles said.

Power stations in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, including Hunter power stations, are being investigated after the EJA raised serious discrepancies about the reporting of emission levels over the past eight years.

The Environment Protection Authority said recent stack testing data, supplied by power station operators, showed emissions of mercury from all power stations were “significantly below 200 micrograms per cubic metre”, which was “well below environment protection licence limits”.