The Hunter has an air quality crisis. It’s time the government did something about it. 

A study into air quality just released by community groups shows unacceptably high levels of particulate pollution near coal lines and coal stockpiles in the Hunter region.

Key findings of the report, Coal dust in our suburbs: A community-led study of particle pollution in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter coal train corridor prepared by the Coal Terminal Action Group include:

• National Pollutant Inventory standards are being exceeded regularly, including all five out of five test days at the Carrington site, when normally only five exceedences per year are considered normal to account for bushfires, dust storms and so on.
• Suburbs closer to industrial infrastructure, including coal loaders and train lines, experience worse air quality (PM10 and PM2.5) compared with the existing EPA monitor in Cooks Hill.
• Average PM10 levels are generally two to four times higher in Mayfield, Mayfield East, Tighes Hill and Carrington than at Cooks Hill.

The study confirms that air quality in parts of the Hunter has reached crisis point. An urgent commitment by the O’Farrell government to bring air pollution in the Hunter under control is needed today. This study leaves no room for doubt that the government’s blind loyalty to the coal industry is negatively impacting on the Hunter community’s quality of life, particularly on people’s health.

People living near rail lines used by coal trains, coal trucks, coal stockpiles and loading areas are exposed to dangerous levels of coal dust pollution. Health impacts of the coal industry on residential areas include high rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, lung and kidney disease and increased asthma, wheezing and coughs in children.  Scientific tests link coal dust to cancer and inhalation can cause permanent scarring of lung tissues.

We need to stand together and demand action for coal-affected communities. We should no longer sit back and accept that making people sick and diseased is just part of the way the coal industry does business in NSW.

The Greens have a simple plan - Clear the Air in the Hunter that the government can commit to today.

Clear the Air in the Hunter Plan

1. A rigorous and independent health study, funded by industry, into the impacts of coal particle pollution on the community, particularly children, living within 1km of rail lines used by coal trains and the Newcastle Port.
2. An immediate suspension of the assessment for a fourth coal loader in Newcastle.
3. Covering up of all coal wagons across NSW by the end of June 2013.
4. Covering of all coal stockpiles at the Newcastle Port.
5. Commitment to a Clean Air Action Plan for the Hunter region. This plan would outline concrete steps the government and industry will take to bring air quality in the Hunter to within national standards by 2015.

 Please write to the Premier, Health Minister and Planning Minister below.

Dear Premier O'Farrell, Minister Skinner & Minister Hazzard

The Report Coal dust in our suburbs: A community-led study of particle pollution in Newcastle and the Lower Hunter coal train corridor prepared by the Coal Terminal Action Group, shows unacceptably high levels of particulate pollution near coal lines and coal stockpiles in the Hunter region.

The study confirms that air quality in parts of the Hunter has reached crisis point. Comprehensive studies from all over the world have consistently shown the clear links between coal dust pollution and serious health impacts. The impacts on children are particularly nasty.

I am calling on you to urgently enact the five point plan below:

1. A rigorous and independent health study, funded by industry, into the impacts of coal particle pollution on the community, particularly children, living within 1km of rail lines used by coal trains and the Newcastle Port.
2. An immediate suspension of the assessment of the fourth coal loader in Newcastle.
3. Covering up of all coal wagons across NSW by the end of June 2013.
4. Covering of all coal stockpiles at the Newcastle Port.
5. Commitment to a Clean Air Action Plan for the Hunter region. This plan would outline concrete steps the government and industry will take to bring air quality in the Hunter to within national standards by 2015.

Please commit to the first point of this plan as a priority. Evidence contained in this report justifies an urgent health assessment, especially for children in the area.

I look forward to your urgent and serious consideration of this issue.

Yours sincerely

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Choose a Subject Heading (required)

Postcode (required)

Personal message (optional)

Enter the above code (required)

Download a copy of the report here.

Greens MP and ports spokesperson Cate Faehrmann has presented a petition to NSW Parliament circulated by Newcastle Greens members, calling for a Commission of Inquiry into the management of the port of Newcastle.

The petition totals just over 1,000 signatures and argues that management has not adequately accounted for the existing and potential impacts of development on the Hunter environment and infrastructure.

“This is yet another example of the O’Farrell government running roughshod over a local community’s genuine concerns, putting the profits of big business – particularly the coal industry – ahead of the interests of everyday people,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“A thousand people signed this petition because they have so far been ignored by the state government. They are concerned about the impact that planning for port infrastructure will have on their lives and the lives of their families.

“It goes without saying that a development of this magnitude would have a catastrophic impact on the local environment. But, beyond even that, it’s another clear sign that the O’Farrell government is committed to bending over backwards to appease the big miners at the expense of people in the Hunter,” said Ms Faehrmann.

Newcastle Greens Councillor Michael Osborne said:  “Newcastle residents have been let down by Sydney-centric state governments who have failed to properly assess the cumulative health and environmental impacts of approving ad-hoc developments in the Port.

“Local residents who live near the Port or along the coal lines are continually showered in coal dust. This is totally unacceptable.  We are promised world’s best practice but all the state government agencies deliver is 19th century measures.

“We were promised a proper plan for the future development of the Port and all we get from the Port Corporation is a glossy brochure with more of the same,” Councillor Michael Osborne said.

“The NSW Government should initiate a full Commission of Inquiry and ensure that current and future industries are implementing world’s best practice impact mitigation measures,” Councillor Michael Osborne said.

A copy of the petition is available on request.

Greens MP and environment spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann says Environment Minister Robyn Parker needs to take control of coal dust pollution in Newcastle.

“Covering the railway wagons that carry coal from the Hunter Valley to the Port of Newcastle is a simple, obvious measure to protect people’s health. I am writing to the Minister to ask her to move on this issue without delay,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“The EPA has been dragging the chain on this for too long. It is unacceptable that the authority has been sitting back and waiting for industry to develop a work plan for coal dust while its clear people’s health is suffering. The EPA needs to issue a simple directive for coal wagons to be covered and that should happen immediately” said Cate Faehrmann.

“The Minister claims she is undertaking an investigation into this. What investigation is needed to know that coal train movements are increasing, that they generate an enormous amount of coal dust and that the fine particles in coal dust have been shown to cause serious health impacts?

“It’s time the Minister stood up for her community’s interests here and not those of the coal industry.

“Claims by some that a move to force coal companies to cover wagons would impact on their profitability smacks of disregard for the thousands of people whose health is being put at risk.

“The potential for a doubling of the coal freight task travelling through the Hunter Valley spells disaster for the health of residents. This issue has been going on for more than 20 years and it is time the Minister took control of the situation,” said Ms Faehrmann.

See Cate’s letter to the Minister here: PARKER 120726 cover coal wagons

Join the Big Cover Up:

Write to:

The Hon Robyn Parker MP
Minister for Environment and Heritage
Level 32 Governor Macquarie Tower
1 Farrer Place
SYDNEY NSW 2000

Ask her to ensure coal trucks are covered to prevent dust pollution. Prolonged exposure to coal dust can cause respiratory diseases and it should not be too much to ask for the rail trucks that transport coal to cover their loads to protect the health of nearby residents. There are already requirements for coal transported by road to be covered so why not rail? Send us copies of any replies.

Read about the Newcastle Herald Great Cover Up campaign here

Coal trucks passing Hunter Wetlands National Park

There is an additional coal export terminal planned for Newcastle Port - the Terminal 4 Project (T4).  T4 is currently on exhibition and public submissions to counter its devastating ecological impacts are needed by 7 May 2012. Information and submission guides are available here.

The NSW Greens oppose the T4 Project on the grounds that it has the potential for devastating ecological impacts and because it is intrinsically linked to the expansion of coal mining in the Hunter Valley. Without this expansion there would be no need for T4.

Swan Pond at risk from T4, Kooragang Island

The T4 Project includes

• new rail infrastructure
• coal stockyard
• conveyors and ancillary facilities (‘land based facilities’) on Kooragang Island, adjacent
• to the existing Kooragang Coal Terminal (KCT)
• wharves, berths, ship loaders and ancillary facilities (‘marine facilities’) along the north and south banks of the Hunter River South Arm, to the south of the land-based facilities.
• also dredging in the Hunter River South Arm to create shipping channels and berths required for the T4 Project.

Newcastle Greens, many Hunter community and environment groups and NGOs will be making submissions. The project application number is 10_0215. You should include this in any correspondence.

Swan Pond, Kooragang Island

The accredited assessment process for the proposed T4 development to be used for both NSW and Commonwealth decisions is:

Part 3A of the New South Wales Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979

Controlled Action under the EPBC Act – The Commonwealth Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Populations and Communities

The EPBC Act Part 3, Division 1 controlling provisions are sections

16 and 17B (Wetlands of international importance)
18 and 18A (Listed threatened species and communities), and
20 and 20A (Listed migratory species)

The EPBC Referral can be viewed here and there are some good maps at p68

Coal loader T3 Kooragang Island

 Further information on Newcastle Port and T4

It would be the fourth coal terminal at the Port and would be operated by Port Waratah Coal Services Limited (PWCS). The company already operates 2 coal terminals at Newcastle Port and T4 would increase the amount of coal “throughput” by a further 120 million tonnes per annum (120 Mtpa). Currently PWCS throughput is 133 Mtpa, so T4 would double the amount of coal it exports through Newcastle Port.

Further information on Port Waratah Coal Services here:

The third terminal is operated by Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) and is continuing its own expansion to 66 Mtpa by 2013.

Member companies of PWCS and NCIG are resource companies including: BHP Billiton, Centennial Coal, Donaldson Coal, Peabody Energy, Yancoal, Whitehaven Coal, Rio Tinto, Anglo Coal and Xstrata.

The recent forum Paddock to Port supplies some useful statistics on Australia’s coal exports, China and India’s plans for renewable and alternative energy and implications for Australian coal exports and economy.

You will find a map of Kooragang Island, Newcastle Port here

Bar-tailed Godwits, Kooragang Island

The coal chain is turning prime agricultural land, the biodiversity, and the communities of the Hunter Valley into stark, scarred landscapes of open cut mines, endless coal trains and ghost towns. That this ever expanding coal chain will dramatically increase Australia’s carbon emissions is obvious.

Here’s a list of mines in the Hunter Valley that are proposed, just approved or waiting for approval (as at March 2012):

• Mt Pleasant – waiting approval
• Warkworth expansion – just approved
• Carrington West – waiting approval
• Saddlers Creek – at assessment stage

Most other mines have had or awaiting some expansion or modification

And in other areas :

Mudgee area:

• Moolarben Stage 2 – not approved yet – 17mtpa
• Cobbora – at assessment stage (domestic and export) 20mtpa
• Ulan – expansion just approved 20mtpa
• Wilpinjong – next expansion in assessment stage 15mtpa

Gloucester:

• Duralie – expansion approved
• Gloucester Resources – at assessment stage

Gunnedah:

• Maules Creek – awaiting final approval
• Boggabri – expansion
• Werris Creek – expansion
• Caroona – at assessment stage
• Shenua – at assessment stage

Ms Faehrmann to move—

1. That this House notes that:

(a) Newcastle Port Corporation has submitted a concept plan to the Department of Planning to develop the Port Terminal Facilities at Mayfield,

(b) Newcastle Port Corporation has forecast the 2024 precinct trade at 600,000 Twenty foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers and 1,010 million litres of fuel and bulk liquid,

(c) Newcastle Port Corporation only aspires to a modal split of 20 per cent of the 600,000 TEU containers to be handled by rail, and all of the 1,010 millilitres of fuels and bulk

liquid are expected to be handled by road by 2024,

(d) 360,052 associated truck movements per year are predicted by 2024, resulting in 148 truck movements per daytime peak hour,

(e) Newcastle City Council passed a motion on the Newcastle Port Development, calling on the Government to publicly release its Master Port plan and to expedite an Integrated Port Planning Strategy for the port that would include proper consideration of the cumulative impacts of all the proposed port redevelopment on nearby residents, strategies to reduce this impact and proper consultation with residents, and

(f) Newcastle City Council has called on the Government to work with the Federal Government to build a Mayfield portside rail line from Sandgate junction to service the former BHP site before any proposed redevelopment occurs.

2. That this House calls on the Government to:

(a) release the Newcastle Master Port plan to the public before the Port Terminal Facilities Mayfield Concept Plan application is approved,

(b) ensure proper consideration of the cumulative impacts of all proposed port redevelopment on nearby residents,

(c) undertake a commitment to achieve at least 40 per cent modal share of all freight through Newcastle ports by rail by 2024, and

(d) install dust monitors and fine particulates (PM 2.5) in the areas that surround the port and along the truck routes associated with the port and make this monitoring data available to the public.

(Notice given 10 August 2011—expires Notice Paper No. 49)