BRUMBY WANTS BLACKWATER

It bad enough that our Premier has insulted Adelaide residents, but how about his enthusiasm to insult AND poison Victorians?

This week Mr. Brumby is peddling the notion that “vacuuming” the toxicants out of the Yarra will tidy it up and be good for the environment! He seems to have forgotten that almost 4 million cubic metres (7 million tonnes approx) of that toxic Yarra sludge will be transported into the Bay and dumped off shore in an underwater toxic dump facility with a footprint of almost 6 sq. kilometres.

Last week, Mr. Brumby was encouraging us all to eat fish if we want to – even though his own EPA and Department of Health have issued health warnings not to eat or even touch fish from the Bay which look unwell or lethargic.

Next he will be saying that smoking is good for your lungs.

Mr. Brumby’s underwater toxic dump is first cab off the rank for his poisonous plan for the Bay. If the project ever starts, that's what Boskalis would start with. It is massive in comparison to the Nowingi dump which Victorians roundly rejected in 2006. Nowingi was 9.5 hectares of toxicants on land compared with Mr. Brumby’s plans for a 588 hectare toxic dump in Port Phillip Bay. That’s sixty times bigger area than Nowingi in our Bay – our priceless economic asset.

But Mr. Brumby is quite happy to dump 3.87 million cubic metres of contaminated and toxic spoil  (seven million tonnes)[1] into the Bay, leave it settle for somewhere between 140 days to five years and then “drizzle”[2] sand over it.  The state assessment process for Nowingi only approved storage of around 30,000 tonnes per annum of waste and a total of 250,000 tonnes (approx 140,000 cubic metres).

The Port of Melbourne Corporation’s SEES is also silent on what the underwater dump might be used for other than future maintenance dredging, but its capacity would be a whopping 41 million cubic metres (SEES Chapter 4)

The volume of just the contaminated and toxic spoil which Mr. Brumby wants removed from the Yarra and then dumped in the Bay is not far short of what was moved during the entire City Link project or the massive Martha Cove harbour and residential development on the Mornington Peninsula[3].

It’s time for a re-think Mr. Brumby. Stop slinging off at your neighbours and get started on a solution for your toxic troubles. Our thanks to all the people who are urging Mr. Brumby to do just that. Let’s hope he listens.

 


 



[1] A conversion figure of 1.8 tonnes per cubic metre has been used to convert the 3.87 million metres of contaminated and toxic spoil to tonnes. Cubic metre data from PoMC’s SEES Chapter 7 page 63)

 

[2] Terminology of PoMC consultants SKM  Technical Appendices ‘Channel Deepening Project-EES Port of Melbourne-DMG Final Bund Design Report 2005’

 

[3] 4.5 million cubic metres Source Mornington Peninsula Shire Council


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