Assessing environmental contamination from metal emission and relevant regulations in major areas of coal mining and electricity generation in Australia

Mercury atmospheric emission, deposition and isotopic fingerprinting from major coal-fired power plants in Australia: Insights from palaeo-environmental analysis from sediment cores

“…Thereafter, as for Hg, SCP concentration and flux fluctuate with changes in demand for electricity generation although the low concentrations and fluxes exaggerate these patterns (Figure 2A). This is in agreement with previous publications demonstrating correlations between SCP fluxes and other metals emitted by coal-fired power plants (Bindler et al, 2001;Rose et al, 2012;Schneider et al, 2020).…”

“…The concentrations of cobalt, copper, zinc, arsenic, selenium, lead, magnesium and aluminium from both sediment cores were published previously (Schneider et al, 2020). The sediment profiles of these elements indicated that no major erosion has occurred in either catchment.…”

“…Samples for lead-210 ( 210 Pb) dating were processed at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) by alpha particle spectrometry, following methods described by Harrison et al (2003). The age-depth models used in this study were obtained by the Plum model (Aquino-López et al, 2018) and have already been published elsewhere (Schneider et al, 2020). Influxes of Hg and SCPs (mass sedimentation rate × THg or SCPs) were calculated to account for the differences in sedimentation rate in each of the sediment cores.…”

“…In Australia, coal accounted for 62% of total electricity generated in 2016-2017(DEE, 2018, with the largest coal-fired power plants located in the Hunter Valley (NSW) and in the Latrobe Valley (VIC) (Schneider et al, 2020). The Upper Hunter Valley has two major power plants (Liddell and Bayswater) fed by bituminous coal (NSW Planning and Environment, 2019) generating 35% of the electricity needs of the state of New South Wales (NSW).…”

“…Little is known about Hg emissions and accumulation in different environmental compartments in Australia (Dutt et al, 2009;Howard et al, 2017;Nelson, 2007;Nelson et al, 2012;Schneider et al, 2020) and to the best of our knowledge, no Hg isotopic measurements have been published for the Australian environment. Quantitative assessment of Hg sources, deposition and emission from coal-fired plants in Australia is of substantial interest to both environmental scientists and decision-makers.…”