27 November 2024

ALAN HAYES

 

CENTRAL Coast communities have been begging our governments for years to address the seriousness of adverse health outcomes suffered by residents living beneath the wind-shadows of coal-fired power stations and in proximity to their ash dams - but their concerns continue to be ignored.

 

The recent citizens inquiry, which was held by community group Future Sooner, was in response to government failure to protect the lives and health of their citizens, a failure that is often combined with corporate malfeasance. It was also in response to the serious and negative impacts of power stations, which are universally known to be dangerous to human life and health, and to a safe and healthy environment.

 

There are two aging power stations located in the Central Coast’s top end: Eraring and Vales Point, which both contribute to the declining health of surrounding communities. Why? Because burning coal releases sulphur dioxide into the air, which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses. Nitrogen oxides are also released, which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses. The release of toxic mercury, which rains down into rivers and streams, is a poison that accumulates in the food chain, eventually making its way into our bodies when we eat contaminated fish. Mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous system. Combined with fine airborne particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, respiratory illnesses, and lung disease, you have a recipe for a continuing health disaster, including premature death.

 

So, why has successive governments failed to act? Why have they continued to adopt the Ostrich principle? Because the Central Coast community has benefited economically from the resource and power industry for over fifty years. But the price paid for this so-called economic benefit has been swept under the carpet by both the industry and consecutive governments for decades.

 

Coal and the environment

 

Coal is the black death; it’s nineteenth-century technology still being used in a twenty-first century world that affects all life on this planet when it is burned in power stations.

 

Apart from human health, the large quantities of pollutants emitted from burning coal adversely impact flora and fauna, too – because it chemically reacts with water and air. These chemical changes are perennial, so the use of coal as a generating source is a setback; it depletes the natural sources of human survival. Uncontrolled emission of gases and particles is unacceptable nowadays.

 

Likewise, when you burn charcoal in your barbecue at home, ash is leftover. The same is true for coal-fired power plants, which produce more than 100 million tons of coal ash every year. More than half of that waste ends up in ponds, lakes, landfills, and other sites where, over time, it can contaminate waterways and drinking water supplies. This problem has become overtly evident in the southern shores of Lake Macquarie, abutting the Central Coast.

 

Other water impacts include the energy-water collisions that occur when coal plants rely too heavily on local water supplies.

 

But alongside human health, it’s climate change that has become the most serious, long-term, global impact from burning coal – the creation of a carbon dioxide blanket, warming the earth above normal limits, resulting in drought, sea level rise, flooding, extreme weather, and species loss.

 

The human factor

 

Time after time governments have tried to dismiss the Central Coast community’s concerns about toxic pollution even though their own inquiries, data and reports simply support every aspect of the community’s anger. This dismissal has been in spite of the United Nations support for local community concerns.

 

Future Sooner spokesperson, Gary Blashke OAM said, “The Hon. Daniel Mookhey MP, Chairperson of a 2021 Upper House inquiry, now NSW Treasurer, has also recognised those same concerns of the United Nations.

 

“The Hon. Ryan Park MP, NSW Health Minister, acknowledges that air pollution, including that from coal fired power stations, is associated with an increase in hospital admissions and deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

 

“Most of the Coast’s Federal and State members of parliament have been briefed on their own governments and community findings, yet continue to have their head in the sand and are unwilling to not only recognise the enormity of the toxic problems. They seem to have no concern for the welfare of their constituents,” Blaschke said.

 

But why is there an apparent lack of concern? Why do our politicians continue to pontificate? The evidence is clear and undeniable - there is an immediate and significant impact right here, right now. The adverse impacts of coal-burning power stations on the health of people living on the Central Coast is undeniable.

 

The citizens inquiry

 

The recently released interim report of the Citizens Inquiry found that the scientific evidence presented to multiple arms of government validated the impact of burning coal has on human health and the environment – real problems facing Central Coast and Lake Macquarie residents. It also determined if there was a link to the coal-fired power stations and their coal ash dams as stated in a recent letter from Ryan Park, NSW Minister for Health: “NSW Health acknowledges that air pollution, including from coal fired power stations, is associated with an increase in hospital admissions and death from cardiovascular and respiratory disease.”

 

A Panel of Experts heard testimony to the Inquiry from more than a dozen local residents concerned by the high rates of asthma, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and a range of other illnesses that were affecting them, family members, friends and even their pet dogs.

 

The Panel also received just on twenty Submissions from individuals and organizations concerned about the toxic emissions that are polluting the air, soil and water, including underground water.

 

The failure of governments to fulfil their duty to protect their citizens was a common theme of witness testimony and the Submissions received by the Inquiry. A view that was forcefully expressed in a bipartisan government report on coal ash dams headed by Daniel Mookhey MLC: “The committee agrees with the Inquiry participants that little research, if any, has been conducted on the impacts and long-term consequences in relation to the health of communities residing near coal ash dams.

 

“We were disappointed with the response by the NSW EPA and NSW Health to community concern about the potential link between the circulation of additional metals in the air and waterways and impacts on health outcomes for the community. This response, in conjunction with the lack of research conducted to date on this matter, demonstrates a complete disregard by the government towards the health of its citizen.”

 

Such disregard for the health of local communities is further demonstrated by the planned siting of a new suburb next door to Doyalson, which will lie between two coal ash dams full of materials injurious to life and the environment. This includes illegally dumped asbestos and other construction materials.

 

The presence of PFAS/PFOS (per-and-poly-fluoroalkyl substances) ‘forever chemicals’ from the historical use of firefighting foams at Munmorah, Colongra, Eraring and Vales Point power stations sites added yet another layer of health risks for the community.

 

Throughout the study of the material presented, the Panel found evidence of governmental disregard for the health of its citizens and a parallel disregard by the owners of the coal-fired power stations that their actions were making the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie a dangerous place to live, work and to raise children.

 

The Inquiry heard anecdotal evidence of the growing number of patients diagnosed with cancer at John Hunter Hospital and of patients being told that they would have to wait eight weeks to commence treatment.

 

At Wyong Hospital, the Cancer Clinic is currently quadrupling in size.

 

During the inquiry, of the many heart-wrenching stories told, the panel heard how a grandmother moved to the Central Coast and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. Her son moved in to nurse her and was diagnosed with the same rare cancer. The grandson then moved in with his father to nurse him and again was diagnosed with this rare type of cancer. Then the family dogs died from cancer. The only common factor was the location – Budgewoi, in close proximity to nearby Lake Munmorah coal-fired power station.

 

Budgewoi has the highest rate of head and neck cancers, well above the Australian average.

 

The future

 

One resident, whose husband had worked at a power station wrote a letter to the Citizens Inquiry and said: "I am writing this anonymously with the approval of my husband who would like to tell his story to the Inquiry, but we are both concerned about repercussions from the power stations as everyone had to sign a confidentially agreement. It seems everyone in our community feels the same."

 

There were several anonymous submissions from local residents who had been forced to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements with the coal-fired power stations.

 

It is to the shame of successive NSW Governments, NSW Health and Planning departments, the EPA and local State and Federal MPs, who have for decades ignored the warnings by doctors about the health issues, facing residents living on the Central Coast and lower Lake Macquarie, from coal fired power stations and their ash dams.

 

Even though Ryan Park, in his letter, acknowledged that pollution from coal-fired stations is associated with increased hospital admissions and even death, the NSW Government and the EPA continue to ignore their own data on the health risks from Vales Point and Eraring coal-fired power stations. They continue to ignore the ongoing ill health inflicted upon local communities.

 

The time is coming, when the community will have no other alternative than to take the matter further. Those politicians seeking re-election will need to make up their minds as to who’s side they are on. The coal and power industries, which are making millions, destroying our coastal environment and impacting upon people’s lives, or to support the communities suffering horrific health issues and sometimes death.

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