Following the closure of the public consultation period for ENGIE Energy’s Hazelwood rehabilitation plan, Environment Victoria and Gippsland community members raised concerns over the potential impacts of coal ash contamination of Gippsland water tables.
They have also made a public appeal for ENGIE to commit to only using recycled water for mine rehabilitation rather than draining precious water supplies from the Gippsland Lakes and called for stronger oversight and enforceable conditions to ensure rehabilitation delivers lasting environmental and community benefits.
At present, the Hazelwood Ash Retention Area (HARA) remains an unmarked ash dump containing decades of coal ash, contaminated with heavy metals including arsenic, lead and mercury that have already caused groundwater contamination.
Environment Victoria is deeply concerned that ENGIE’s Declared Mine Rehabilitation Plan failed to reveal any changes to the companies plans for the contaminated ash dump, while listing the risk as ‘eliminated’.
The threats to Gippsland’s water have also been outlined in a paper by a geology and hydrology expert and raised by local community leaders who warn that flooding the mine pit without removing coal ash will expose the region to the potential for toxic metals leakage into local water supplies.
Joy Toose, Climate Campaign Manager at Environment Victoria, said:
“Hazelwood powered Victoria for decades, but it also left behind one of the state’s biggest environmental challenges.
“The rehabilitation of the Latrobe Valley’s three enormous coal mines is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set things right – to safeguard the local community and protect the Latrobe Valley River system and our precious Gippsland Lakes.
“It’s common wisdom that the safest approach to coal ash is to ensure it’s kept ‘high and dry,’ but ENGIE’s plans to keep the coal ash in Hazelwood mine, put a cap on it and then flood the mine.
“Experts have warned that capping the coal ash won’t stop heavy metals leaching into the water, for generations to come. If ENGIE believes the risk has been eliminated, the community deserves to see clear, independent evidence of that.”
Jane Sultana, a local educator and Secretary of the Latrobe Valley Sustainability Group, said:
“As a resident of the Latrobe Valley, I worry about the health impacts of heavy metal pollution on our water ways. The toxins in coal ash have been linked to many serious diseases including heart disease, cancer and respiratory illness.
“ENGIE does not plan on removing coal ash dumps from the mine pit before flooding it with water. If contaminated water is allowed to flow back into the Latrobe River system, it will change the water chemistry and have a devastating impact on biodiversity.
“ENGIE must not be permitted to save costs at the expense of human health and the environment. I urge ENGIE to behold the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In particular goal 3 as it relates to health & goal 6 as it relates to sustainable management of water.”
Environment Victoria is calling for: