By NOEL MURPHY
SURF Coast Air Action is gearing up to fight any sale of Alcoa’s Anglesea coal mine and power station.
“Any potential buyer needs to know they’re buying a very old and very polluting power station,” the group’s Dr Jacinta Morahan told the Independent.
“It’s one-tenth the size of Hazelwood but produces three times the sulphur dioxide – a known respiratory irritant – as well as large quantities of particulate the World Health Organisation has classified as carcinogenic.”
Dr Morahan said any buyer faced a likely upgrading of emissions regulations and could face a bill of up to $70 million to provide pollution technology necessary to meet new standards.
“If someone wants to buy it they must know it’s a polluting power station that’s close to a township that doesn’t want it,” she said.
“It would also be trying to supply an over-supplied electricity market. We’re asking why should the government even allow this sale to take place.”
Dr Morahan said Anglesea residents had long faced a quandary over objecting to activities by a local employer.
“But the game’s changed now, given the power station’s no longer going to provide those jobs and Alcoa’s looking to sell,” she said.
“They’ve made an awful mess, that’s where a lot people in Anglesea are coming from.”
Alcoa has said no decision has been made to shut the power station if it cannot be sold.
But Australian Workers Union told the Independent last week that Alcoa had informed the plant’s 80 staff it would close if a buyer failed to emerge.
PETITION
Surf Coast Air Action is conducting a online petition at communityrun.org that it plans to present to Victorian Premier Denis Napthine. Its text is as follows:
“The Anglesea coal mine and power station was established by Alcoa in 1961 for the express purpose of supplying electricity to its Point Henry aluminium smelter. Alcoa has announced its intention to close its Point Henry smelter in Geelong in August 2014. In December 2013 Alcoa applied to the Essential Services Commission to supply electricity directly to the grid once Point Henry closes.
“It has since announced its intention to sell the coal mine and power station to an electricity generation and supply company. We call on the Victorian Government to deny Alcoa’s application for a licence to provide electricity to the grid and to close the Anglesea mine and power station.
“Why is this important?
“The Alcoa power station in Anglesea is one of the worst polluting power stations in Australia. It is less then one tenth the size and output of Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley, but it emits 3 times the total volume of sulphur dioxide. Alcoa has consistently refused to upgrade this old, highly polluting plant by installing sulphur dioxide scrubbing technology.
“There is a long history of Anglesea residents enduring high levels of particulate matter and pollutants in their air. The continued existence of this power station and coal pit surrounded by a national park, within 500 metres of homes, within 1km of a primary school and next to the iconic Great Ocean Road can no longer be justified by the production of a mere 150 megawatts.”
