Coal Fired Power Stations

To examine environmental impacts from coal fired power stations and investigate what role the NSW public can play

Introducing: Tayla Hammerton

I am a year 11 student from The Big Picture School, Cooks Hill Campus. This term I have been interning at the HCEC as I am passionate about environmental justice. Being a student at a Big Picture School means I have to do project based learning, this includes creating a PIP (Personal Interest Project) around a topic I am passionate or interested about each term.

This term along with working with HCEC I created a research paper. The essential question being answered in this research paper is to ‘Examine environmental impacts from coal fired power stations. Investigate what the NSW public can do to reduce these impacts?

View Tayla's Thesis Project on power station impacts in Lake Macquarie

What are the main environmental impacts of power stations in NSW?

Air Pollution

Air pollution happens when coal is burned and it then releases airborne toxins and pollutants. Communities in NSW are experiencing air pollution from coal fired power stations located around them.

Water Pollution

Coal-fired power stations produce more than 12 million tons of coal ash each year in Australia and a lot of leachate from this waste ends up in water ways such as, lakes, ponds and rivers. This can contaminate the water and species, and risks affecting drinking and water catchments in places like Lithgow, at the top of Sydney’s water supply.

Coal ash dams store the coal ash produced by power stations. If there is heavy rainfall it can lead to these dams overflowing and contaminating the water they run into. A solution to this problem of leaving ash sitting in these dams or covering them with soil, is to turn them into concrete products that actually could cost a third of the price. A reason why concrete companies may not use fly ash is that it doesn’t make them as much money as cement-based products.

Climate Change

Climate change or global warming is one of the most long-term global impacts. Climate change is directly tied to the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere which is a greenhouse gas. Once greenhouse gasses are trapped in the atmosphere the planet warms up and this is what leads to climate change. Coal is chemically mostly carbon, when coal is burned in coal-fired power stations carbon reacts with oxygen in the air to produce carbon dioxide.

*Fly ash blowing off the Eraring ash dump, 2019*

Re-use of coal ash

Japan 97%
UK 70%
China 69%
Australia 20%

What is a coal fired power station? How does it operate?

A coal fired power station or power plant, is used to generate electricity. Down below is a brief step-by-step of how a coal fired power station operates. To read in full detail see link to report at the top (page 1).

Thermal coal is first milled down to a fine powder which will then allow it to burn quicker.

By burning coal it heats water in a boiler and produces steam.
Once the steam is produced under a lot of pressure and high temperatures, the steam flows into a turbine which spins to create electricity.
The steam is then cooled, condensed back into water and the whole process starts again.

*Residents gather outside the LMCC where a public hearing into coal-ash impacts was held in September 2020*

How do coal fired power stations affect the Lake Macquarie community?

The Lake Macquarie community are affected by the power station in the following ways. Due to the high levels of heavy metals contaminating the water in Lake Macquarie people have been warned by an NSW Office of environmental and heritage risk assessment not to eat the mud crab from the lake on a weekly basis. These crabs were found to have absorbed and unhealthy level of cadmium. Along with them being advised not to eat the mud crab people are warned that most of the seafood from Lake Macquarie should be restricted as it also has high levels of heavy metals. Humans are at risk to many health issues if they continue to eat the sea food from the salt water lake but in a report written by Paul Winn he said “people who eat fish and invertebrates from the lake are also at risk’ but he made it known that the aquatic animals and birds would be the ones who suffer the most from the impacts of the heavy metals.

History of Eraring Power Station

Eraring Power station first opened on the 29th of June 1984, by the NSW premier, Neville Wran. Lake Eraring is a nearby lake and that is where the name from this power station came from. The name Eraring was the given name for the area which is an Aboriginals term meaning “that which gleams or glitters.” The Eraring power station was in an ideal spot due to the large amounts of water for cooling, the proximity of coalfields and the large amount of land with the total project area being 936 hectares. Eraring was one of the first power station to be linked to the NSW electricity ‘super grid.’ In total this power station cost the NSW electricity commission $1.653 billion. Large components of the power stations were shipped through the Swansea channel, up through Lake Macquarie and to the Eraring site. The peak of employment involved having 2,300 workers, at the completing of the power station staff totalled close to 600. The coal for the power station was sourced from Lake Macquarie mines in Cooranbong and Myuna Collieries.

What can the NSW public do to reduce the impacts?

As an individual, big environment issues such as climate change and pollution can be quite daunting but there a few things you can do to make a difference to help you feel in control:

Doing some research and understanding topics that make you most passionate or interested in.
Learn and understand about campaigns and movements around an environmental issue.
Find an environmental community group or organisation and commit to volunteering your time covering a range of environmental issues.
Spread your own awareness on topics that concern you the most, using platforms such as social media make it a lot easier.

Reference List:

Union of Concerned Scientist. (Nov 2017). Coal Power Impacts. [online] Available at: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/coal-power-impacts

Dr Ewald, B. (2018). The health burden of fine particle pollution from electricity generation in NSW. [online] Available at: https://www.envirojustice.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ewald_B_2018_The_health_burden_of_fine_particle_pollution_from_electricity_generation_in_NSW.pdf

World Coal World Coal Association. [online] Available at: https://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-coal/coal-electricity

Tennessee Valley Authority. How a Coal Plant Works. [online] Available at: https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power-system/coal/how-a-coal-plant-works

Scutt.G. How a Coal Fired Power Stations Works. Visually.[online] Available at https://visual.ly/community/Infographics/technology/how-coal-fired-power-station-works

Newcastle Herald. (2019). An internal government agency report raises serious concerns about the health of Lake Macquarie. [online] Available at: https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/5946391/dont-eat-the-mud-crabs-report-warns-of-lake-macquarie-pollution/

ABC News. (2019). Crabs in Lake Macquarie contaminated with ‘unhealthy’ levels of cadmium. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-11/crabs-lake-macquarie-nsw-contaminated-with-cadmium/10887750?fbclid=IwAR3UOL-feBeLS3mDwvyf4xuFSLiCjI2d9t2Vg2CBQlgxgLAdTNSAIsbz-Zs

ABC News. Dangerous levels of cadmium in Lake Macquarie marine life. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/dangerous-levels-of-cadmium-in-lake-macquarie-marine-life/10888226

Environmental Justice Australia. (2017). Toxic and terminal: How the regulation of coal-fired power stations fails Australian communities. [online] Available at: https://www.envirojustice.org.au/powerstations/

Lake Mac Libraries. Eraring Power Station. [online] Available at: https://history.lakemac.com.au/page-local-history.aspx?pid=1085&vid=20&tmpt=narrative&narid=3572