Toxic and Terminal: How the Regulation of Coal-Fired Power Stations Fails
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Toxic and terminal How the regulation of coal-fired power stations fails Australian communities Lead authors: Bronya Lipski, Nicola Rivers and James Whelan Contributors: Dr Brad Smith, Josh Meadows Many thanks to all those who have assisted us with this report, in particular the community members who shared their stories with us and the power station and air pollution experts who informed and advised us. About Environmental Justice Australia Environmental Justice Australia is a not-for-profit public interest legal practice. Funded by donations and independent of government and corporate funding, our legal team combines a passion for justice with technical expertise and a practical understanding of the legal system to protect the environment. We act as advisers and legal representatives to the environment movement, pursuing court cases to protect our shared environment. We work with community-based environment groups, regional and state environmental organisations, and larger environmental NGOs. We provide strategic and legal support to their campaigns to address climate change, protect nature and defend the rights of communities to a healthy environment. While we seek to give the community a powerful voice in court, we also recognise that court cases alone will not be enough. That’s why we campaign to improve our legal system. We defend existing, hard- won environmental protections from attack. We also pursue new and innovative solutions to fill the gaps and fix the failures in our legal system to clear a path for a more just and sustainable world. For further information on this report please contact: Nicola Rivers, Director of Advocacy and Research, Environmental Justice Australia Email: [email protected] Environmental Justice Australia Telephone: 03 8341 3100/1300 336 842 Facsimile: 03 8341 3111 Email: [email protected] Website: www.envirojustice.org.au Post: PO Box 12123, A’Beckett Street VIC 8006 Address: Level 3, the 60L Green Building, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton Community rights in relation to power station pollution are summarised in our factsheets Your rights and coal-fired power stations in Victoria1 and Your rights and Coal-fired power stations in NSW2. Produced & published by Environmental Justice Australia ABN 74 052 124 375 Publication date: 7 August 2017 Cover photo: Yallourn power station. Photo by Max Philips Environmental Justice Australia Contents 1 Executive summary and recommendations 2 7 Do power stations comply with the law? 37 7.1 Finding out about power station licence breaches 38 2 Introduction 6 7.2 Breaches of toxic pollution licence conditions 38 2.1 About this report 7 7.3 Are regulators doing their job? 39 3 Health impacts of coal-fired power stations 9 8 Decommissioning and rehabilitating 3.1 The impact on local and distant communities 10 power stations 42 3.2 Pollutants and their impacts on health 12 8.1 Poor management now and later? Land and water 3.3 The health benefits of reducing air pollution 12 contamination from ash ponds 43 4 Toxic emissions from Australian power stations 14 8.2 Bonds and financial assurances 46 8.2.1 Financial assurances in Victoria 48 4.1 Coarse particle pollution (PM10) 16 8.2.2 Financial assurances in Queensland 48 4.2 Fine particle pollution (PM2.5) 17 8.2.3 Financial assurances in NSW 48 4.3 Sulfur dioxide (SO2) 18 4.4 Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) 19 9 Conclusions 50 5 How are power stations regulated? 22 10 Power station profiles 53 5.1 National air pollution standards 23 Power station: Vales Point 54 5.2 State regulation of power stations 25 Power station: Eraring 56 5.2.1 Emission limits 25 Power station: Bayswater 58 5.2.2 Are the limits adequate? 25 Power station: Liddell 60 5.2.3 Problems with the lack of a national Power station: Mt Piper 62 approach 25 Power station: Gladstone 64 5.3 Is air pollution monitoring and reporting adequate? 27 Power station: Stanwell 66 5.3.1 Power station emissions monitoring 27 Power station: Loy Yang A 68 5.3.2 Public reporting of emissions data 27 Power station: Yallourn 70 5.3.3 National Pollutant Inventory Reporting 29 Power station: Loy Yang B 72 5.4 Health costs borne by the community not the polluter 32 12 Appendix 74 5.5 What does this all mean? 32 13 References 76 6 Controlling toxic emissions from coal-fired power stations 33 6.1 Pollution reduction technologies 34 6.2 Do new power stations reduce toxic emissions? 36 Community voices Dr Ben Ewald, Newcastle GP 13 Mike Campbell OAM, community leader, NSW central coast 21 Bev Smiles, Hunter Communities Network 26 Graeme Wilson, Latrobe Valley Resident 31 Charmian Eckersley, Eraring Resident 41 Gary Blaschke OAM, community disability advocate, NSW central coast 45 Irene Proebsting, Latrobe Valley resident 49 1 Environmental Justice Australia 1 Executive summary and recommendations 2 Environmental Justice Australia Australia has one of the oldest and least efficient fleets stating that it was emitting at levels that correspond of coal-fired power stations in the world.3 Australia’s with its licence limits. Reports to the National power stations release more than a million tonnes of Pollutant Inventory for some NSW power stations toxic pollution into the air each year, affecting not just appear to be wildly in error. communities that live near the power stations, but also those further away, such as Sydney. Toxic pollution can • No power station in Victoria, NSW or Queensland has travel great distances, so the pollution from Australia’s been prosecuted for any offence in the past ten years. power stations is breathed in by millions of Australians. • None of the ten power stations has rehabilitation However, the health impacts of this toxic pollution are bonds or financial assurances imposed on it to ensure unfairly imposed most heavily on communities closest decommissioning and rehabilitation will occur if the to power stations. operator does not adequately rehabilitate after closure. This report focuses primarily on the four pollutants We have found that state government regulators in that have been monitored most extensively and have each state have allowed power station operators to well-established regulations and standards: coarse continue to emit unacceptable levels of pollution. How particles (PM ), fine particles (PM ), sulfur dioxide 10 2.5 does this happen? Their emission limits have been (SO ) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). These pollutants are 2 lax when compared to international standards; the extremely harmful to health, causing and worsening a monitoring and reporting they require from power range of medical conditions such as asthma, respiratory stations is inadequate; they have not required power problems, stroke, angina, heart attack and cancer.4 They stations to implement pollution reduction technologies irritate and inflame the lungs, leading to chronic lung that many power stations overseas have installed; disease and restricted lung growth in children.5 Children and they do not strictly enforce the law. As a result, and elderly people are particularly affected. communities are exposed to excessive and preventable For this report we reviewed the emissions data, licences, levels of toxic pollution. community complaints, compliance records and Building new coal-fired power stations is not the rehabilitation plans of ten of Australia’s most toxic coal- answer. New coal-fired power stations, even those fired power stations in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. described as ‘ultra-super critical’ or ‘HELE’ (high The following are just some of our many significant efficiency, low emission) only marginally reduce toxic discoveries. emissions. Constructing new coal-fired power stations to replace Australia’s old, inefficient fleet would still • Coal-fired power stations emit more than 30 toxic result in millions of tonnes of toxic pollution being substances that have serious impacts on the communities released into our air, water and land. that live near them including heart attack, stroke, asthma, lung cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, Australia’s state and national governments are ill- irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, choking and prepared for power station closure, decommissioning coughing, headache, general discomfort and anxiety, and rehabilitation. This is illustrated by the absence of wheezing, colds, flu and bronchitis, coughing, rehabilitation bonds or financial assurances imposed on shortness of breath, tiredness and nausea. any of the power stations we reviewed. Failing to plan for closure maximises the social and economic harm in • Coal-fired power stations are the biggest source of the very communities that have lived for decades with PM2.5, SO2 and oxides of nitrogen in Australia. the pollution from these power stations. • In almost all cases the emissions limits applied to Figure 1 represents some of the key findings of our Australian power stations are significantly less research. stringent than the standards in the European Union, United States and China. For example the Victorian So what should be done? Strong regulation is critical to and Queensland power stations’ particle limits are less reduce the toxic burden power station pollution gives strict than all three international limits. Loy Yang A’s to people who live nearby. Communities, especially particle limit is eight times China’s limit. The mercury communities living in the shadow of power stations, limits for some NSW power stations are 666 times have little control over the air they breathe. They higher than the US limits. This is unacceptable.