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Although the Supplementary Environmental Effects Statement (SEES) was said to be the best ever done in Victoria, it seems the Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) was over zealous in its choice of words.

It has only now transpired that rock scour caused by the Trial Dredge in 2005 is still damaging the Entrance, exposing and weakening underlying layers of rock. So much so that instead of the original project design of -17 metres depth at The Entrance, PoMC has now admitted it needs to revise that figure to -22 metres. All that damage by the supposedly “successful” and minor Trial dredge! Studies are still underway to determine the effects such an increased amount of water in and out of the Bay will have. And they still expect us to believe that if they remove another 550,000 cubic metres of rock it won’t cause a bigger disaster!

On top of that debacle, the SEES toxic sediment analysis was incomplete. It was only on the day that their Expert Witness appeared before the Inquiry that PoMC produced crucial data on predicted toxicity in seafood if the project was to proceed – and only then because they were forced into it by concerned submitters. Even then the new data was in raw form and had to be analysed by other specialists - with alarming results.  

“In other words the SEES is not complete; it is another ramshackle piece of work like the first EES, produced by a Port Corporation with a crash-through mentality. By designing such a dud project, the PoMC left the Premier and Environment Minister without a feather to fly with. It must have been a bit hard to keep promoting a project which is such a shocker” says Ms. Warfe.

No wonder both men looked so pleased to be moving on, hopefully to better things. And given that they are both regular Bay users, we reckon that they will be feeling a whole lot better about not being the ones to bugger the Bay. We hope to see them both enjoying the Bay again soon.