Sydney Morning Herald
18th June, 2009
HEAVY metals and poisons such as arsenic, copper and boron are leaching out of a coal-fired power station near Lithgow, wiping out marine life in a river that feeds Sydney’s drinking water supply.
The Department of Environment and Climate Change has known about the discharge from Wallerawang power station since last year, but has done nothing to stop it, although it said last night that it was reviewing the evidence.
Independent research exposes serious gaps in the environmental licensing system used by the NSW Government, with implications for other industrial sites around the state. The licence conditions of the power station’s operator, Delta Electricity, do not put specific limits on many kinds of heavy metal pollution.
High arsenic levels were found downstream of the plant.
“[The department] is satisfied that current licence conditions at Delta are appropriate but acknowledges there may be room for improvement,” a spokeswoman said. The department said it maintains “strong regulatory control” over Delta’s operations.
But it took tests from a University of Western Sydney researcher to show that water flowing into the Coxs River was laced with high levels of copper, boron (a naturally occurring chemical), and other metals at many times the levels found upstream of the power station, exceeding recommended guidelines many times over.
High arsenic levels were found downstream from the plant “indicating the large and unnatural increase above natural background arsenic levels in the upper Coxs River catchment”, according to a report by the researcher, Ian Wright. The arsenic is diluted downstream and is not thought to pose a human health risk.
Copper was measured close to the power station at between 30 and 50 times natural levels, and boron levels were 25 times higher than upstream, while fluoride levels meant water in the Coxs River on public land did not meet drinking water guidelines. The water was 17 to 50 times as salty downstream from the power station, at levels “likely to be toxic to aquatic ecosystems”, according to Dr Wright.
His research will be used for a case to be put before the NSW Land and Environment Court, which will argue that Delta Electricity is polluting the Coxs River and should be made to stop.
The Blue Mountains Conservation Society, with the backing of the Environmental Defender’s Office of NSW, is hoping for a limit to be put on potential costs before it can seek a court hearing.
The group also intends to challenge the statewide system of environmental licences.
“These licences are just licences to pollute,” the society’s president, Tara Cameron, said. “They are just allowing the status quo and making people feel good without actually protecting the environment.”
The Department of Environment and Climate Change said it had been watching Delta Electricity closely. “In February 2009 the [department] prosecuted Delta in the Land and Environment Court for a breach of its licence for Wallerawang power station. The court fined Delta $45,000 for not controlling dust on its ash disposal area,” the spokeswoman said.
A review of heavy metal concentrations in the Upper Coxs River catchment area was under way, she said.
Under the terms of its licence, Delta Electricity is required to test water up- and downstream of the power station for selenium, boron, manganese, iron fluoride and sulphate, as well as turbidity and a measure of water-borne particles described as “total suspended solids”.
The results of the company’s own measurements were lodged with the Department of Water and Energy annually, a spokeswoman for Delta Electricity said.
“The water quality in this area of the river is affected by a number of factors outside power station operation, including urbanisation, mining (current and historic) and very old former mine site rehabilitation activities,” the spokeswoman said. However, Dr Wright’s report and tests by volunteers strongly suggest the elevated levels of heavy metals in the river come from the power station.
