Mr Mike Campbell, former Secretary of Coastal Residents Investigating Power Stations (1985) and former President of Wyong Ratepayers Association, has given an overview of the history of power stations and public health on the Central Coast.
In 1984, the then Electricity Commission of NSW (Elcom) had secretly planned for a further two power station complexes in the Wyong area.
They were known as Mardi, which was to be placed next to the Mardi Dam at Wyong, and also Olney, to be placed near Dickson’s Rd at Jilliby.
Each would have five underground coal mines to feed them.
There had earlier been a proposed Chittaway station, which was pushed back by the Wyong community.
In the huge community backlash that followed in 1985, we were able to establish that the pollution levels of Vales Point and Munmorah stations were already of great concern.
“We had unearthed an academic model study that indicated Sulphur Dioxide levels as being critical around the Doyalson area.
The community were also able to obtain a report prepared by a group of Lake Munmorah doctors that said that levels of Asthma and Bronchitis were up to twice the national average in that area.”
A Commission of Inquiry into Electricity Planning, which was triggered by an Ourimbah landholder, was held.
When the local residents presented the pollution evidence, the Commission eventually found that no more stations should be built on the Central Coast.
The Lake Munmorah residents came forward with experiences they had to endure, particularly with asthma in young children.
The stories made headlines, not only in the local press, but were portrayed on the front page of every city daily newspaper throughout Australia in October, 1985.
The impact was widespread, and it had also confirmed outcries from the Hunter Valley area about pollution from power stations and mines.
“In Sydney, during the week of February 27, I gave all this evidence to the Federal Inquiry into the effects of coal-fired based pollution” Mr Campbell said..
This evidence of communities in NSW calling for genuine cumulative studies into public health and the power/coal industry over more than 30 years, was presented by myself to the Federal Inquiry on Retirement of Coal Fired Power Stations.
The Area Director of Public Health, in his 2010 submission to the NSW Department of Planning in regard to establishing Wallarah 2 coal mine, also suggested that it is dangerous to simply add another coal mine into the region which is already affected by pollution without studying the air quality that already exists.
Several pleas have been made since 1985 to successive governments to study the effects on the region of the power/coal industry on human health, but like in the Hunter, there has been nothing forthcoming.
I believe that the coal and power industry have had special protection from governments for too long, at the expense of human health.
Due to the lack of Australian studies, the Climate and Health Alliance in 2015 can only estimate that the annual cost to health from these industries in the Hunter and Central Coast to be around $600 million.
Research has to start somewhere and communities must be involved.
Article,
Mar 1, 2017
Mike Campbell, Australian Coal Alliance