Today a court has found Delta Electricity guilty over a mass fish kill linked to pollution at its Vales Point coal-fired power station, marking a rare prosecution of a NSW coal polluter. 

In 2022, locals were horrified as over 15,000 fish and rays washed up on the shores of Lake Macquarie.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) prosecuted Delta Electricity, the owner of Vales Point power station, for its suspected role in this mass fish kill.  

The two-week trial in December 2024 was the first EPA prosecution against an NSW coal-fired power station in more than a decade, and comes after sustained community campaigning against pollution impacts from Vales Point. 

Today a decision was handed down in the Land and Environment Court of NSW.

Justice Pritchard found that the prosecutor had proved Delta Electricity guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Delta has been found guilty of breaching a condition of its licence by failing to maintain a faulty valve leading to “excess quantities” of sodium hypochlorite flowing into Wyee Bay causing the mass fish deaths. 

Justice Pritchard also found that “there is no reasonable explanation or hypothesis consistent with all the established facts considered together, other than the defendant’s guilt of the offence charged.” 

Delta Electricity will reappear at a sentencing hearing in February 2026, where the court will determine the appropriate penalty, which could be up to $1,000,000 in fines.  

Environmental Justice Australia has been supporting the community (including Coal Ash Community Alliance, Hunter Community Environment Centre, Future Sooner, and Nature Conservation Council NSW) to understand and observe justice being done throughout the investigation and prosecution. 

Delta prosecuted over fish kill

When rotting fish and rays lined the shores of Lake Macquarie, residents were horrified and concerned that Delta Electricity’s nearby coal fired power station, Vales Point, was to blame.   

After an investigation by the state’s environmental watchdog, the EPA concluded there was evidence to show that pollution from Vales Point may have caused the mass deaths. The EPA alleged that Delta “could have prevented the fish kill.”  

The EPA prosecuted Delta for its alleged failure to maintain its chlorine dosing plant in a proper and efficient condition, resulting in a faulty valve that caused a discharge of concentrated sodium hypochlorite into waters leading to Wyee Bay, at Lake Macquarie.  

As a result, thousands of fish and whitespotted eagle rays were killed. The prosecution followed a sustained community campaign spotlighting pollution issues from Delta’s Vales Point – including its impact on community health from toxic air pollution, contamination of groundwater from its coal ash dump and its non-compliance with NSW air pollution laws.  

The only other EPA prosecution against an NSW coal-fired power station was against Delta Electricity in 2009 for its operations at Wallerawang power station, which has since closed.   

Vales Point is the oldest power station in NSW.