Wyong resident and Executive of the Australian Coal Alliance, Mr Mike Campbell, said communities surrounding power station complexes and mines in NSW have had to pay greatly with their long-term health and amenity.
Speaking on the occasion of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into the Remediation of Coal Fired Power Stations, Mr Campbell took aim at successive state governments.
“For decades, successive Governments have ignored the call for cumulative air pollution studies to research health effects, particularly in children and the elderly, from the power and coal industry,” Mr Campbell said.
“There is a price to pay for the generation of fossil fuel energy, and that price is being paid by unsuspecting families and communities,” he said.
“In any one year, a power station such as Eraring produces 1,700 tonnes of carbon monoxide; 1,000 tonnes of hydrochloric acid; 40,000 tonnes of oxides of nitrogen; 45,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide as well as over 80 tonnes of various metal compounds, according to the National Pollutant Inventory.”
“Add to this the well-known product of coal extraction and transport in the vast amounts of particulates PM2.5 and PM10.”
“This is emitted directly into the local area, and yet Governments in NSW have done nothing to link this constant large scale contamination with ensuing health problems.”
“They have had their heads in the sand and need to be held to account.”
Media release,
Feb 22, 2017
Mike Campbell, Australian Coal Alliance