"We've had the HCEC report and been reviewing that and that would inform future work that we intend to undertake"

— David Fowler, Executive Director, NSW EPA during the Costs of remediation of sites containing coal-ash repositories public hearing in NSW Parliament

The NSW EPA is the state environmental regulator who enact compliance with NSW environmental legislation (including the POEO Act and the EPBC Act) through Environmental Protection Licences (EPLs)

You can access the EPLs for all NSW power stations through the EPA’s Public Register or our Water Quality Database.

Our campaign on coal-ash waste has seen HCEC engage with the Hunter and Bathurst region EPA branches.

In November 2020, the NSW EPA published a commitment to further investigate the impacts of coal-ash waste dumps in Lake Macquarie. Our response in the media can be found here.

While EPA spokespersons and public servants cite strict regulatory frameworks pertaining to water pollution in NSW, we believe there is more that could be done to reduce the impacts of -coal-ash leachate on aquatic environments and will continue working to ensure that the environmental licences for NSW power stations reflect the pollution they create and will see pollution reduction in the short and long-term.

Through GIPA applications to the NSW EPA we have accessed the following information on NSW power stations and ash waste dumps to be published here presently. Please get in touch with our Coordinator for access to any of these documents - coordinator@hcec.org.au