The toxic legacy of coal ash

As the phased closure of coal-fired power stations rolls out, communities across the country need to know how does federal and state government intend to manage the massive volumes of coal ash. The disposal of this silent carcinogenic killer should be of concern to everyone as its insidious DNA creeps into the lungs of unsuspecting people and poisons our aquatic food chain.

 

Shocking research has revealed that communities across the country are at serious risk from poorly managed coal ash waste – the toxic by-product of coal-fired power that accounts for nearly one-fifth of Australia’s industrial waste stream.

10 May 2023

ALAN HAYES

 

UNEARTHING Australia’s toxic coal ash legacy reveals shocking flaws in the management and regulation of coal ash dumps and that it is a ticking time bomb of water contamination and serious epidemiological health risk exposure to communities.

 

Although coal-fired power stations have long been associated with air pollution and climate change, most individuals are unaware of the insidious waste problem, hidden in plain sight.

 

When coal is burnt to make electricity, it produces tens of thousands of tonnes of toxic ash waste. This coal ash is mixed with saline wastewater and pumped into enormous dumps creating a lethal cocktail of toxic sludge, including heavy metals and dangerous pollutants like mercury, lead, arsenic, selenium and chromium.

 

Coal ash is one of Australia’s biggest toxic waste problems and accounts for nearly one-fifth of the entire nation’s waste stream.

 

What exacerbates the coal ash problem even further is that the toxic slurry from poorly managed ash dumps across the country is contaminating water and soil needed by farmers and ecosystems, and leaching into rivers and lakes where families fish and children swim.

 

The problem has become so bad that water samples taken close to the Vales Point Power Station were found to contain concentrations of aluminium, iron and manganese, which had levels above aquaculture guidelines and were likely to be harmful to edible fish, molluscs and crustaceans. Yet not surprisingly, the NSW State Government is aware of the adverse impact coal ash dumps are having on our local aquatic food chain and human health and is not satisfactorily addressing the problem.

 

Limits on the consumption of seafood from Lake Macquarie are already in place due to the bio-accumulation of selenium in fish, and a recent Government study found that cadmium in mud-crabs has also reached unsafe concentrations.

 

The most recent NSW Government study warned that for cadmium, in one week, adults and children should not consume any mud crabs, no more than 150 grams of Eastern King prawns, and that adults should consume no more than 750 grams of Eastern King prawns or 150 grams of Blue Swimmer crab caught from Lake Macquarie.

Construction of the coal ash dams at Eraring and Vales Point pre-dates NSW’s environmental pollution law, the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (POEO Act) and current regulation is failing to prevent the accumulation of harmful heavy metals.

 

A report by the Hunter Community Environment Centre (HCEC), Out of the Ashes II, identified key steps for State Government and regulators to take to reduce water pollution now and safeguard Lake Macquarie and coal ash-impacted waterways from contamination from leaching coal-ash dumps.

 

Key findings of the report were:

 

• An estimated 100 tonnes of harmful heavy metals leach into NSW waterways every year, from the 216 million tonnes of accumulated coal ash waste in Lake Macquarie (101Mt) the Central Hunter Valley (84Mt), Central Tablelands (28Mt) and Wollongong (3Mt).

 

• If no additional coal-ash reuse occurs in NSW, a further 45 million tonnes of waste will accumulate, from which 970 tonnes of harmful heavy metals are expected to leach into waterways

 

• The NSW Government is liable for the bulk of the pollution stemming from coal-ash waste.

 

• Contamination studies from 2014 commissioned by NSW Treasury to quantify pollution levels at coal-ash dumps before the privatisation of the NSW coal-fleet show extensive groundwater, surface water and sediment contamination with heavy metals at all NSW coal-ash waste sites. The HCEC analysis suggested that these studies underestimated the contamination levels due to poorly selected and limited background wells.

 

• Analysis of published water quality monitoring data shows increasing trends for many heavy metals being emitted and numerous exceedances of Australian Water Quality Guidelines for species protection, recreational use and livestock and irrigation purposes.

 

• Industry studies into coal-ash toxicity confirm that NSW ash poses environmental risks for selenium, molybdenum, boron, vanadium, nickel, zinc, and copper.

 

• Coal-fired power stations are under-reporting to the National Pollutant Inventory, and evading pollution fees. Under the Load-Based Licencing Scheme, NSW power stations currently pay a mere $150,000 a year in pollution fees for water pollution. In order to create an adequate incentive to address the problem the HCEC believe NSW power station operators should be paying a combined LBL fee of $150 million a year for the metals leached from coal-ash waste dumps.

 

The HCEC report also revealed that Lake Macquarie has the largest concentration of ash waste in NSW, and has 101 million tonnes stored on its shores. Forty-five tonnes of harmful heavy metals are predicted to leach into Lake Macquarie each year from Eraring and Vales Point, and will continue for decades to come. In addition to the annual estimate, 302 tonnes of metals will pollute between now and the retirement of the power stations.

 

And what about Vales Point Power Station?

 

Vales Point ash dump is the largest in the state, containing an estimated 60 million tonnes of ash waste and is estimated to have leached 720 tonnes of heavy metals into Lake Macquarie since it was commissioned. If nothing is done to increase ash reuse at Vales Point, between now and its retirement it will pollute Lake Macquarie with a further 96 tonnes of harmful heavy metals.

 

The contamination studies completed for NSW Treasury at Vales Point show exceedances of maximum background concentrations for zinc, selenium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese and nickel, and concluded that the ash dump is a primary source of arsenic and selenium in groundwater. The studies also concluded that Vales Point had a reuse rate of about 26% per year and used outdated methods of ash transport (wetter, rather than dryer), which exacerbates heavy metal leachate pollution.

 

HCEC’s water sampling of drainage from the Vales Point ash dump into Lake Macquarie (Mannering Bay) identified water quality exceedances of species protection and recreational use limits for aluminium, arsenic, cobalt, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc, and that groundwater monitoring shows consistent exceedances of Australian Water Quality Guidelines for arsenic, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, selenium, and zinc. Surface water discharge monitoring revealed occasional exceedances of cadmium, copper, and lead, and consistent exceedances of selenium. The trend for discharged selenium concentrations was increasing.

 

Since Vales Point was commissioned in the 1960s, heavy metals levels in the adjacent Mannering Bay have spiked with cadmium concentrations in sediment increasing by a factor of 15, copper x12, zinc x10, selenium x10 and lead x4.

 

Let’s not forget Eraring Power Station, which is run by Origin Energy.

 

Eraring has a reuse rate of 35 per cent, the highest reuse rate in NSW, and its ash dump is estimated to contain 40 million tonnes of ash waste .It has leached almost 685 tonnes of heavy metals into Lake Macquarie since its commissioning. Just under 205 tonnes of harmful heavy metals are predicted to leach from the Eraring dump between now and its planned retirement in 2025.

 

HCEC’s water sampling of drainage from the Eraring ash dump into Lake Macquarie (Myuna Bay) identified water quality exceedances of species protection and recreational use limits for aluminium, boron, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc. Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) water monitoring data for Eraring shows exceedances of species protection limits for cadmium, copper and zinc, and consistently iron concentrations five times the recreational use guideline.

 

Contamination studies completed for NSW Treasury at Eraring have also identified arsenic, copper, lead, nickel, selenium and zinc in groundwater samples at concentrations in excess of the adopted human health and/or ecological screening values.

 

The fact is that Eraring’s ash dump is reaching capacity and, in 2019, Origin applied for an ash dam expansion. This expansion can only accommodate additional ash until 2024.

 

The closure of the Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre in 2019 was triggered by the risk of catastrophic collapse of the Eraring ash dam wall in the event of an earthquake, yet State Government does little to address the problem.

 

Poor management and lax government regulation.

 

Toxic slurry from poorly managed ash dumps across the country is contaminating water and soil - those dumps left to dry out, are blowing ash dust onto nearby communities who breathe toxic particles deep into their lungs, which are resulting in increased morbidity and mortality in areas such as the northern suburbs of the Central Coast - cancer clusters are now increasing.

 

Lax government regulation is putting communities that live near coal-fired power stations at serious risk. Coal ash cannot be disposed of safely. Even with best practice methods, there remains a significant contamination risk to the environment and communities.

 

So, why isn’t government moving toward environmentally safe, non-polluting and non-contaminating power stations that produce inexpensive energy to future-proof our energy needs. Solar thermal energy (Grapevine, 3 May 2023 – Sleepwalking into an Energy Crisis) will guarantee renewable and sustainable electricity for the future – so why is it being ignored?

 

It’s time to put human health and the environment first!