Environment Victoria is urging Latrobe Valley and Gippsland residents to make a submission on ENGIE’s plan to turn the Hazelwood coal mine into a lake, before public comment on the Environment Effects Statement (EES) closes at 11:59pm on Monday 2 November.
Flooding the pit would demand a 637 billion litre lake, filled mostly with river water: 20 to 30 billion litres a year for a decade, then topped-up forever – from an already strained river system that feeds the internationally renowned Gippsland Lakes. The EES is the community’s best opportunity to ensure ENGIE protects local water and land for present and future generations, said Environment Victoria – rather than leaving a permanently contaminated lake.
The EES will be assessed by an independent Inquiry and Advisory Committee, with hearings to begin in February 2027. Environment Victoria is hosting an online community briefing on Wednesday 21 October to explain what the EES says and how to make a submission.
Hayley Sestokas, Environment Victoria’s Gippsland based Community Organising Co-manager expressed her concern that ENGIE plans to hand back the site just 5–10 years after filling the lake, relying on 100-year water modelling that falls far short of leading practices requiring models to run until equilibrium.
“Furthermore, long-term maintenance costs remain uncosted beyond ten years, and no entity has been held responsible for the safe management of the proposed Morwell River connection.”
“The environmental risks are severe. Stagnant, nutrient-rich lakes frequently trigger toxic blue-green algal blooms that threaten people, pets, and livestock. As water evaporates, dangerous levels of salt and metals accumulate. Toxins like mercury and selenium can biomagnify through the food chain, poisoning local fish and waterbirds. The EES’s own modelling predicts multiple metals will breach water safety guidelines over time – with aluminium and copper breaching limits from the first year.”
“This lake will be here long after ENGIE leaves. The people who live here deserve to know that it will be safe in 50, 100, and 200 years. A lake requiring active gate management, constant monitoring, and an annual top-up of 2.7 to 8.2 billion litres (peaking at 12.9 billion litres in a single year) pumping is anything but ‘passive’—it is a multi-decade management liability.”
Friends of the Gippsland Lakes warns the damage won’t stop at the mine fence. “The Latrobe supplies more than half the fresh water reaching Lake Wellington, and more in dry years,” said David Nicastro, Secretary of Friends of the Gippsland Lakes.
“ENGIE’s own modelling shows this project makes the lake saltier, and the effect is biggest in drought: exactly when the Lakes are already struggling, and exactly when they matter most as a refuge for the 20,000-plus waterbirds that make them internationally important.”
“ENGIE’s report claims the project would speed up the Lakes’ rising saltiness by less than six months. Our analysis of EPA’s own water records puts it at six to twelve years.”
“Hazelwood is the only Latrobe Valley mine that would take river water with no cap, no drought rules and no end date. We’re asking for the same rules the Government already applies to Yallourn and Loy Yang: cap the take at what the power station used to draw, and stop taking water in droughts,” Mr Nicastro said.
Have your say: Submissions close 11:59pm Monday 2 November via Engage Victoria (engage.vic.gov.au/Hazelwood-Rehabilitation-Project-IAC). Environment Victoria is running an online community briefing tonight covering key concerns and how to make a submission: https://environmentvictoria.org.au/2026/09/10/have-your-say-hazelwood-mine-remediation-webinar/