Dr Terry Annable is a research scientist who recently retired as a senior lecturer in the Science and Mathematics Department at Avondale College of Higher Education, in Cooranbong.

“I live six kilometres from Eraring power station yet my house, my car, and my garden are regularly blanketed in black ultra-fine particles which are invisible in the air,” Dr Annable said.

“Everyone in the region has to breathe this polluted air.”

Origin Energy plans to close down its Eraring power station by the early 2030s.

Furthermore, it is not investing in any future fossil fuel assets as part of a major commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

Eraring is Australia's largest power station with a generation capacity of 2880 megawatts. It had a 50-year-life and was due to shut in the 2030s regardless.

“Over the years Eraring has made great strides in reducing pollution but the cost of making Eraring pollution-free would be more than the cost of building a new pollution-free sustainable power station,” Dr Annable said.

A spokesperson for Origin said Eraring power station played a crucial role in maintaining a reliable supply of electricity to NSW. 

“Emissions from Eraring are monitored as part of the power station’s operating licence and approvals. Data is independently verified and reported, including via the National Pollutant Inventory and directly to the Environmental Protection Authority,” the spokesperson said.

“The power station operates below its strict licence limits and has never recorded an air emission licence exceedance.”

The power station has a fabric filter system installed on each of its generating units which Origin said removed 99.99 per cent of particulate.

Modified burners had been installed which helped to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 40 per cent, Origin said. But Dr Annabel said the ultra-fine particles were not picked up by current filtering technology.

He said locals had cause to be concerned about the particles now, and should not be forced to wait for the scheduled shut down.

“What effects is this having on people? Does it have long-term effects? We just don’t know enough about this material and research funding is very limited,” he said.

The time was right to embrace renewable energy sources, Dr Annable said.

“Eraring, like other coal-fired power stations (even after they filter out the visible soot) continue to pour out tens of thousands of tonnes of pollution every year while the global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to sky-rocket,” he said.

“As a result, rising sea levels continue to accelerate as billions of tonnes of polar ice melt every summer.

“Australians, in general, have responded magnificently by installing millions of photovoltaic and solar hot water systems.”

This had saved the federal government many millions of dollars by reducing the need for them to build extra power stations, he said.

“Governments are also saving millions by not providing an economic feed-in tariff. Yet politicians are painfully slow to respond.”

Origin has offered to conduct tests to determine the composition and likely source of the material collected by Dr Annable.