Coal mining, transport and burning brings pollution problem to Hunter Valley

The recent studies of air pollution in the Hunter finally show us the constituents of pollution and points to the likely sources. We agree with the editorial comment (Newcastle Herald, April 30) that it is extraordinary that the EPA seems to have leapt to the defence of the coal industry, because a close look at the results shows that coal mining, transport and burning is a major contributor to pollution.

Air pollution is a complex mixture of components. The largest fraction shown from the Particle Characterisation Study in Newcastle was sea salt which is probably innocuous, however this is true wherever air pollution has been studied. The large health studies from Europe and North America showing air pollution to cause lung cancer and heart disease also included a salt fraction, so this is not an argument to ignore the high levels of fine particle pollution recorded here.

Read the Newcastle Herald story - “We need a regional air quality plan for the Hunter.”

Communities take on coal seam gas companies

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any see coal seam gas as a “bridging’ energy source as we wean ourselves off coal and oil.

That view, however, is misguided and yet encouraged by the CSG enthusiasts, for gas sourced in that manner is equally damaging to our environment as any other fossil fuel.

Beyond that, and further worsening the process is the physical damage it does to in the areas of exploration, its excess use of water (an increasingly rare commodity in Australia), the disruption it causes in communities it visits and worst of all the escaping rogue gasses put it right up there with the worst of the fossil fuels.

Newcastle Herald writer, Julie Lyford, has written a piece about CSG - “OPINION: ​‘Chosen’ CSG communities will not sit still”.

Industry not concerned about coal dust in Newcastle

Coal dust is a clearly known particulate detrimental to human health.

Sadly the coal industry, at least that which uses Australia’s Newcastle port, is not prepared to spend less than one half of one per cent of the $13.6 billion worth of coal shipped through the port each year to eliminate dust from its rail stock.

The Newcastle Herald and community-based organisations across the state have been campaigning for the introduction of physically covered or chemically veneered coal wagons for the past two years.

Details of this development are explained in a Newcastle Herald story headed: “Chemical sealing train wagons put at 4¢ a tonne”.