Community impacts

According to the Western Black Sea Development Agency, the coal power plant threatens the local economy. Small-scale farming, fishing and tourism are major sources of income in the surrounding villages of Gömü, Tarlaağzı and Amasra.

Pollution from the plant

Pollution due to mining and the power plant would increase emissions of carcinogenic particles and, hence, threaten the health and livelihoods of locals. Amasra’s geographical location makes it subject to an inversion effect, a meteorological deviation that captures emitted particles and fine dust and allows them to settle on the town of Amasra. As Professor Erdoğan Atmış has explained, "Air cannot rise in Amasra due to the temperature difference between land and sea surfaces. The fog layer descends and stays suspended in the air if there is a mountain. If you emit carbon dioxide or sulphur in a place like this, it will mix into the atmosphere, come down and settle. This is a serious, lethal danger." The plant emissions would further affect small-scale farming, e.g. strawberry farming and hazelnut harvesting. Ash and toxic elements will settle on fields and contaminate the plants.

Impact on fish stocks

The coal plant's cooling water would be taken from the same source where drinking water for the local villages is withdrawn. Bartın Municipality, which is responsible for the distribution of drinking water, has won a court case against the company on the grounds of ineligibility to use the same water source for cooling the plant. The heated water from the coal plant's turbines would then be expelled into the Black Sea where it would endanger aquatic life. This inflow of heated water from the power plant would affect local fish stocks and is thus raising the fears of local fishermen whose income depends on fishing. Moreover, the fishermen use the small fishing port in Tarlaağzı which faces restructuring in order to give way to the planned harbour. In the project EIA, Hema admits that "the water quality of the port is likely to be affected by the construction activities and ongoing activities during the hard coal mine project" (EIA, page 22).

Impacts on tourism

The increasing importance of tourism for the region would be undermined by the coal plant. Beaches would have to be destroyed to make way for the harbour. The town of Amasra is temporarily on the UNESCO World Heritage list because parts of the ancient town date back to the Byzantine age. It is visited by 250,000 people every year. Turkey's Tourism Strategy 2023 has proposed the region around the plant to become an eco-tourism region and, in the 2007-13 Tourism Action Plan, the region was placed in the "Ecotourism Focused Development Zone".

The operations of the plant, the mine, the port and associated transportation would also involve noise pollution that could have negative impacts on the health of locals as well as Amasra's appeal as a tourist location. As trucks would have to continue transportation throughout the night, "the noise levels are expected to exceed both national and IFC standards" (EIA, page 23).

Further impacts

Until the port starts to operate, the EIA states that coal would be transported by lorries via main roads which pass small villages and schools. These may be affected by the pollution resulting from such transportation.

Most parts of the required areas have already been purchased by Hema, but 11 parcels of land remain to be expropriated. Further resettlements of local villages will result from the plant's construction.

While the investors are placing emphasis on the potential economic benefits which could accrue from the project, such as the standard implied 'benefit' of an increase in job opportunities for locals, the investors' proposed actions suggest something different: the project is based primarily on foreign supplies of technology, capital, employees, partners and even imported coal. The overwhelming negative consequences for the local economy which the plant would involve can not be compensated for or offest by any 'short-term' benefits it may (or may not) bring.

Nine mine workers have died underground during the first 12 years of the mining project.

Agriculture, fishing and tourism - the main economic activities for local communities - will be heavily impacted. 

The rights of local inhabitants to a healthy environment are threatened with more than 40,000 trees already cut for the passing electricity circuit, and more will be cut to realise the construction.

Amasra, as is the case for the rest of the Black Sea coast in Turkey, is prone to floods. Contributing to the warming of the climate will exacerbate these risks for local people.

Forest impacts

To make room for the power plant project (including the mine, industrial facilities and power lines), large areas of forest land would have to be felled. The land to be allocated for the power plant alone would require 380 hectares of natural forest to be cleared, next to the Küre Mountains national park. Other associated facilities would require additional hundreds of hectares of forest land to be cleared.

Hurriyet Daily News reported in 2014 that most sections of the transmission line, which would connect the plant to the national grid, would pass through forest ecosystems. The authorities have already begun cutting down trees, thereby damaging sensitive parts of the ecosystem.

Air impacts

Coal power plants emit large amounts of greenhouse gases which cause climate change. Furthermore, they also emit gases and fine dust that can penetrate the lungs and cause respiratory diseases. To date, the project sponsor has not disclosed an appropriate desulphurisation system to filter out nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and dioxide, and fine dust and ash. Without these filters, toxic particles would fall around the plant and increase health issues for local residents.

Water impacts

Cooling water for the plant would be extracted from the same source where drinking water for local villages comes from. Bartın Municipality has won a court case against the company on the grounds of ineligibility to use the same source for the cooling of the plant, as Bartın Municipality is in charge of distributing drinking water from the water source.

Waste concerns

The project EIA report is not clear about what will be done with the coal launder facility’s dangerous waste. The previously established practice of dumping waste from coal facilities in ash dams in the middle of forests in the Aegean region of Turkey gives major cause for concern regarding the proposed Amasra project and its intended approach to coal ash disposal.

Legal forms of intervention and opposition by local residents against the evaluation of the EIA are being ignored, including the 42,000 collected signatures from the region’s inhabitants opposing the project.