By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
ALCOA would be prohibited from operating its Anglesea power station in the United States because it would breach environmental standards, according to a submission to a senate inquiry.
Surf Coast Air Action (SCAA) said the 50-year-old power station’s 108-metre chimney stack was too low for modern environmental standards, resulting in a higher ground-level concentration of pollution, “and would not be built today”.
A senate committee is inquiring into the impacts of air quality on health in Australia.
The SCAA submission said Anglesea residents and visitors were at risk because the power station and its coal mine were close to homes, schools and businesses.
The submission criticised the independence of air-quality assessments prior to building a new Anglesea Primary School 1.2km from the power station because they were based only on Alcoa-supplied data.
“They do not provide evidence that there is not a health risk to a vulnerable population,” the submission said.
“Independent monitoring should have been conducted.”
The submission said the power station was less than one tenth the size and output of Hazelwood but emitted three times as much sulphur dioxide, which was associated with increases in mortality, hospital admissions, asthma and lung problems.
“Sulphur dioxide has also been linked with low birth weight.”
The submission said an air emission study and human health risk assessment revealed “multiple instances” when the station’s peak sulphur dioxide levels exceeded Environment Protection Authority standards.
“For the majority of monitoring stations sulphur dioxide concentrations peaked between 11am and 2pm, when Anglesea children are outside and playing. The obvious conclusion is that Anglesea residents have been regularly exposed to hazardous levels of sulphur dioxide not just for the three-year monitoring period but for decades.”
The SCAA submission said the assessment was “dangerous and irresponsible” because it was limited only to sulphur dioxide.
“This is a public health emergency that requires urgent and immediate attention and governmental intervention.”
Aloca had not responded to the Independent’s request for comment before the paper went to press.
