When was your group formed and why? 

The Coal-ash Community Alliance Inc. was formed early in 2019, following a public meeting in Wangi Wangi, where the Hunter Community Environment Centre presented their research about poisonous elements leaching from the coal-ash dams of Eraring and Vales Point power stations into Lake Macquarie. 

Within weeks of that first meeting the State Government suddenly closed Myuna Bay Sports and Recreation Centre, apparently because of an engineering report that said the Eraring ash dam could not withstand a strong earthquake and would put the lives of children at the centre at risk. Locals then asked obvious questions about the protection of all the other people living around the lake, and the threat to Lake Macquarie itself. The ash dam had become an issue people started to talk about. 

A picnic at Myuna Bay in August 2019, with independent Member for Lake Macquarie 
Greg Piper and Greens Upper House Member Abigail Boyd

According to its constitution the Coal-ash Community Alliance’s Mission Statement is to protect the land, lakes, waterways and people of Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast from pollution caused by the Vales Point and Eraring coal-fired power stations and coal-ash waste. 

The Coal-ash Community Alliance’s Aims are: 

(a) to increase transparency and public knowledge of the risks of coal-ash storage practices, including community and environmental impacts 

(b) to improve the regulation of coal-ash to minimise pollution associated with discharge and leachate, and ultimately see the source of pollution eliminated 

(c) to enable and support others in communities around Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast to take constructive action on the issue of pollution from coal-ash waste and coal-fired power stations. 

How many members do you currently have? What are the key skillsets and areas of experience across your group? 

We are a committed core team of up to a dozen people, who run the association by consensus. We have a fluctuating wider membership of between 40 and 60, who join some of our activities to raise public awareness of the problems caused by the waste from coal-fired power stations: There are more than 200 million tonnes of coal-ash stored in unlined dams around NSW. This makes up more than 20% of all waste streams in the state. 

At the Coal Ash Public Meeting on 27 February 2021, the following declaration was made: 

”We call on NSW power station operators and the NSW Government to immediately enact plans and policies to enable the comprehensive remediation of ecosystems impacted by coal-ash waste pollution, including the removal and safe reuse of all waste in coal-ash dumps in Lake Macquarie, the Central Coast, Singleton, Muswellbrook and Lithgow.” 

Our members come from all walks of life, most of them live locally around Lake Macquarie, but some support us from all over NSW and from interstate. They bring a wide range of skills to our awareness raising and campaigning activities. 

You’ve been a member group of NCC since 2021 – what are some key collaborative actions you’ve taken with the NCC network, or any you'd like to take in the future? 

We held a very successful Picnic for Nature at Myuna Bay in October 2022, when we teamed up with a wide range of local groups, from the Toronto Croquet Club to the Hunter Loop of the Knitting Nannas, from Ocean & Coastal Care Initiatives to Sea Shepherd, from local Landcare to Sustainable Neighbourhood Groups and OzTukka. 

The picnic was a great opportunity to let people outside our circles know about some of the threats to our Lake that result from the more than 100 million tonnes of coal-ash stored in unlined dams right next to the water – and such a good time was had by all, that we’ll need to do it again! 

Seagrass walk and talk with Janet from Ocean & Coastal Care Initiative at the Myuna Bay Picnic for Nature. 

What projects are you focusing on currently? 

We have just started a collaboration with Wilco Envirotech and Chantelle Baistow, a design academic from UNSW. We organise a series of sets of two ‘Our Community Vision’ workshops supported by WWF Australia’s 2022 Innovate to Regenerate program, in which Wilco Envirotech took part. In the first workshop we use a 3D printer in small groups to create ceramics from clay mixed with coal-ash and learn what could be done now to start using large amounts of coal-ash from dams, but in environmentally sound and economically viable ways. 

Participants with coal-ash clay printer at the workshop July 2023 

We then fire and glaze the ceramics and invite the wider local community to a second workshop, where we exhibit the finished ceramics, screen the film Regenerating Australia, and have a wider discussion about the next steps in regenerating the ash dams and the communities around them. 

Creating our own ceramics is a fun and creative activity, which also opens peoples’ minds to envisage a regenerative future, a visionary future beyond what exists now, but one towards which we can start to take steps today. This process makes us hopeful and excited! 

What are the biggest challenges you face as a group in achieving your goals? 

Using the ash stored in the dams around current and former coal-fired power stations is a complex undertaking, that needs the collaboration of a range of local and multinational mainstream companies from many different industries in one joint large venture. This means that the barriers of entry are high and the whole process requires government support to facilitate the start. 

A section of Eraring ash dam, looking away from Lake Macquarie towards the Watagan Ranges in the background. 

Initial modelling shows that each environmentally safe, economically viable large-scale ash processing facility creates around three hundred skilled jobs for the workforce of the closing coal-fired power stations. In addition, the US American experience demonstrates that we have only little time left until the environmental problems caused by huge unlined ash dams reach tipping points and change from ‘potentially hazardous’ to outright poisonous. 

However, there needs to be a lot of community pressure and leadership to bring big businesses and governments together in the interest of local communities and their environments. This is where the public awareness campaigns of the Coal-ash Community Alliance can make an important contribution. 

But we need more shoulders to spread the weight: reading and researching, writing, speaking, lobbying, organising market stalls, public events, etc. etc. So we are embarking on a membership drive all over the State and include the opportunity for people to become ‘Friends of the CCA’ who support us with a larger one-off donation, and ‘Supporters of the CCA’ who contribute regularly via monthly or fortnightly direct debit payments. 

A section of Vales Point ash dam looking North towards Lake Macquarie 

Are there any opportunities for collaboration for the NCC network that you’d like to put forward? 

We would be very interested to take adapted versions of our creative workshops and film screenings to other groups, particularly those located in the upper Hunter Valley around Bayswater and Liddell, those on the Central Coast around Vales Point and Munmorah, and those in the Lithgow area around Mount Piper and Wallerawang.

A section of Liddell ash dam between Muswellbrook and Singleton. 

We would also love it if people could drop in at our stall at the upcoming Lake Macquarie Living Smart Festival at Speers Point, on 16 September from 9am to 2pm. 

You can find more information and join via our website and on our Facebook page – we look forward to working with and supporting other groups within the NCC network!