On Wednesday 21 October, FoGL spoke at Environment Victoria’s community webinar on the Hazelwood Mine Environment Effects Statement (EES). ENGIE plans to fill the former Hazelwood coal mine with water to create a permanent pit lake. Much of that water would come from the river system that feeds our Lakes, so the decisions made here matter all the way downstream.
You can download the slides, with sources, here: [link to presentation]
The key points
- The Lakes depend on the Latrobe. It supplies about half of Lake Wellington’s fresh water on average, and about three fifths in the driest years.
- The take is big and has no rules. The plan takes up to 30 gigalitres a year of river water for around ten years, longer in drought, then keeps topping up the lake forever. That’s about three times what the power station used, and the pit lake returns nothing to the river. Unlike the Loy Yang mine, Hazelwood’s take has no cap, no seasonal limit and no low-flow protection.
- The Lakes are already getting saltier, right across the system, even allowing for how much river water comes in. Freshwater birds such as the Australasian grebe are declining, while salt-tolerant species increase.
- A connected pit lake would send its water downstream. ENGIE’s own modelling predicts copper well above safe levels for aquatic life, and still rising after 100 years. The proposed outlet gate has no limits for metals or nutrients.
- The Ramsar wetlands are at risk. Less river water means fewer floods to flush Lake Wellington, salt pushing further up the river into the wetlands, and longer dry spells at Sale Common and the Morasses. These wetlands are drought refuges and home to the endangered Australasian bittern.
- “Less than six months” is really about nine years. The EES says the project brings forward Lake Wellington’s salting by less than six months. Measured against EPA’s own records, the same effect equals about nine years of change.
FoGL is asking for the same water rules the State already applies to Loy Yang, and for real protection of the Ramsar site.
Have your say
Public submissions close at 11.59 pm on Monday 2 November 2026, via Engage Victoria. You don’t need to be an expert. Points worth making in your own words:
- No new water take from the Latrobe system beyond what the power station historically used.
- Top up the lake with manufactured water, such as recycled water from the Gippsland Water Factory, treated so it can’t harm the lake or the river.
- No connection between the pit lake and the Morwell River or Eel Hole Creek.
- Protect the big floods that flush Lake Wellington.
- No new groundwater licences, especially on the east side of the mine.
- Put back the water the pit lake keeps.
Environment Victoria’s submission guide is a great place to start: https://environmentvictoria.org.au/hazelwood-ees-submission-guide/
Thank you to Environment Victoria for hosting, and to everyone who joined us. FoGL will publish its own full submission soon.
Friends of the Gippsland Lakes