Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

Details gleaned from the Railway Historical Society (NSW Branch) Railway Digest, October 2011 edition, quoting The True Value of Rail states:

• One passenger train takes 525 cars off the road and in one year one train load of passengers is equal to removing more than three million vehicle kilometres of traffic from roads.
• One freight train in place of trucks between Melbourne and Brisbane reduces carbon emissions by the same amount as a household of three going without electricity for 46 years.
• One trainload of passengers travelling by rail instead of car for one year reduces accident costs by an amount that could fund 130 hospital visits, 505 hospital beds per day or six doctors for one year.
• In one year one passenger train reduces carbon emissions by the same amount as planting 600 hectares of trees. This would cover Sydney’s CBD, Hyde Park, The Domain, Botanical Gardens, Pyrmont and Central station or an area 8.5 times the size of Brisbane’s CBD.

In Other News

The NSW Legislative Council has commenced an Inquiry into rail infrastructure project costing. The Legislative Council is concerned at cost structures for major infrastructure projects which seem to be more expensive than those for similar projects interstate.

The Committee will be chaired by Natasha Maclaren-Jones M.L.C. Submissions closed 21 September and hearing will be held during November – December 2011.

The NSW Government has appointed Hutchison Port Holdings, to operate Enfield Intermodal Logistics Centre. Sydney Ports Corporation estimates the new rail corridor arrangment between Port Botany and Enfield will help remove 300 truck movements from Port Botany each day.

A single line from Port Botany to Sydenham was recently criticised by Duncan Gay, Minister for Ports and Roads, as a sticking point for container transportation. The line has a level crossing at Mascot, flagged as a major safety issue for the line. Federal funding for duplication was used for signalling upgrades instead.

The following article was published in the Spring 2011 edition of “Track and Signal” and published by kind permission of Mr Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure.

The idea that Australia may join other nations with our own high speed rail network has excited rail enthusiasts across the nation and potential investors around the world. The convenience of stepping onto a train in central Sydney and hopping off just three hours later in Melbourne is an attractive proposition. High speed rail could indeed be a game changer in the way Australians choose to travel.

While there is still a great deal of work to be done, early research shows that a high speed rail could connect almost 65 percent of Australians and attract up to 54 million passengers a year. It would also provide the foundation for a low carbon, high productivity economy. In August, I released Stage One of a $20 million implementation study which examines how many people would use it, where it would go and travel times.

Crucially, the report also looked at cost. Preliminary findings show that the cost of the network, if operational by 2036, would be between $61 billion and $108 billion in today’s figures, depending on the route. A ticket from Melbourne to Sydney would cost between $100 and $200, while the potentially busy commuter route from Newcastle to Sydney could cost users between $60 for the occasional business traveller, down to $16.50 for daily users if a subsidy were to be made available.

Work on Stage Two of the study is currently underway and it will pin down a preferred alignment and station options. It will also look more closely at commercial viability, potential funding sources and advise on how to plan, construct and operate such a rail system. What is clear is that high-speed rail would have enormous environmental benefits with CO2 emissions per high speed rail customer standing at about one-third of those emitted if they were travelling by car.

There are also enormous economic benefits in connecting Australians by high-speed rail. It would open up regional centres to economic development beyond our major cities and ease road congestion. However, it is critical that we hasten with caution. Such a monumental endeavour must be thoroughly assessed to be sure it would be viable with our vast distances and relatively modest population. One thing we do know is that if it is to work, it must be integrated into the existing rail and other transport networks.

With the national eye turned to high-speed rail it is important to remember that major work is currently underway on our existing network. Right now, one third of our inter-state rail network is being rebuilt with some 45 major freight and passenger rail projects completed, underway or about to begin. This week I announced that the multi-million dollar project to eliminate sharp bends on the interstate rail network between Newcastle and the Queensland border had reached another milestone with the realignment of the track now completed at two more sights. By straightening the line between Mindaribba and Paterson and between Nambucca Heads and Raleigh, trains will now be able to operate at higher speeds, shaving almost an hour off transit times. Work along the Brisbane – Melbourne line will eventuate in a total saving of a remarkable 11 hours, reducing the trip from 37 to 26 hours. It includes extended crossing loops, new signalling systems and the removal of severe curves.

The work is already paying dividends. Earlier this year, Australia’s largest supermarket chain Woolworths announced that it was planning to switch to rail to carry the 2,000 tonnes of goods it moves north each week to Sydney and Brisbane. Making rail attractive to companies such as Woolworths makes great sense, with every 1500 metre train having the carrying capacity of 100 semi-trailer trucks. Woolworths alone has 160 B-double trucks on the Melbourne to Brisbane route. Carrying those loads by rail leaves our roads safer and less congested for private motorists and reduces our carbon footprint.

We are also investing heavily in urban passenger rail, a responsibility that usually rests with the states. In fact we have at least one major urban rail project in place in every mainland state, a $7.3 billion investment. Federal Labor has invested more in urban rail than all previous federal governments collectively since Federation.

At Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) in August, an agreement was secured with major implications for the rail sector. The Prime Minister, Premier and Chief Ministers signed off on a plan to replace a myriad of confusing and often contradictory state transport rules in favour of a single national rail regulator. To be based in Adelaide, this new regulator will be in place by 1 January 2013 with one set of rules for rail workers and operators around the nation.

This historic achievement eliminates seven regulators, 46 separate pieces of legislation including seven safety acts, nine OH&S acts and seven dangerous good acts. For example, no longer will a rail operator be required to get separate safety accreditation from each state and meet different requirements for accreditation. The new law will also get rid of the differing rules for managing fatigue, replacing them with a national fatigue management framework. The deal, which will also see single regulators for the heavy vehicle and maritime sectors, will boost national income by $30 billion over the next two decades.

Rail travel has been part of the Australian landscape since the 1850s when the country was a collection of sparsely connected colonies. The 20th century saw the rise of road and air travel. In this 21st century, the Gillard Labor Government recognises that rail is the transport technology of the future. It has backed this with unprecedented investment so that Australians can reap the benefits and enjoy the greater productivity and environmental benefits that rail brings.

BBaCA Comment: With many pressures on Botany Bay and Catchment from ever expanding airport and port facilities, the Commonwealth Government support for electified High Speed Rail is good news. Converting 54 million passenger trips per year to city to city rail journey’s will reduce needs for Kingsford Smith domestic road traffic. It is pleasing that Premier Barry O’Farrell in NSW sees High Speed Rail as a better option to a second Sydney region airport.

“Public Safety is the role of Government”, NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, has stated. He has walked the streets of Stockton, discussing issues with local residents. Unfortunately he hasn’t motored a few kilometres south of his Parliament House Office to speak with residents of Hillsdale, Matraville, Botany, Banksmeadow and Pagewood, who have similar or greater concerns following 150 years of urban pollution. 

The Kooragang Island and Botany Orica accidents in recent weeks have brought into clear focus glaring omissions. The Premier and Minister for Heritage and Environment, Robyn Parker, are drafting legislative changes to bring public confidence back after it was shattered by emmissions from chemical plants in suburban Newcastle and Sydney.

What lessons have been learned?

1. Notification to the community was lacking!

While company executives knew of emissions, they were slow responding with meaningful information to people whose lives were effected.

2. State Legislation allowed lengthy delays in emergency information distribution.

NSW legislation allows reporting mechanisms with too much latitude for good public communication.

3. There seems limited Emergency Evacuation Procedures in place for Public Safety.

The steps for Emergency Evacuation and notification seem to be a secret held in public service, emergency service backrooms and Local Government Offices, which the general public are not privy to. “They might not be able to handle such information” seems the nanny state reply. Lazy government is no longer acceptable in the 21st Century. Modern technology can notify emergency situations, but what should the general public do before evacuation is in processed?

In Southern Sydney, Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor has clear instructions to local residents. Distributed in clear brochures and prominently on their website.

For Botany there is limited distribution frig magnets but no easily accessible information. 

4. Real Planning requires buffer zones.

In the 1980s Orica Botany removed it’s old Chlorine Plant and established a state of the arts facility. During that time a State Government study was implemented requiring buffer zones and emergency plans for hazardous transport on-site and offsite. These buffers were clearly mapped and no buildings were allowed.

Over the past sixteen years, Planning Department density requirements hasseen this land subdivided and housing built. Were the subdivision titles caviated with safety warnings by the Planning Department or local Council? You would have thought this would be the moral thing to do, but no. People have bought new housing without public health warnings.

Emergency Plans for various Botany Industrial Park sites are in the hands of the companies producing the items in question. Mercury Vapor Monitoring equipment was established on the Botany Orica site after full consultation with the local community liaison committee as best practice. There were no such devises at Kooragang Island and limited community consultation before during and after the balloon wentup over omission releases. Once again Emergency Evacuation Plans are held in secret by public servants. “The people might become frightened if they knew we had one”. During a recent emergency in Botany, houses were evacuated and Botany Town Hall was set up for emergency overnight accommodation, but no-one knows the plan exists.

5. State Government Timely Advice and Information.

The state machine has slowed, with the Office of Heritage and Environment and Ministry of Health taking longer to respond to emergencies than necessary.

Following the Botany Mercury Vapor Emission, new haste was observed. Orica, NSW Health and Office of Heritage and Environment, emailed notifications to Botany Orica CLC members and people who registered with the company and a later letterbox drop on a limited basis was undertaken. This was a good first step in updating local community – But a lot more is required.

6. Public Health Tests

Those who have lived in Botany and surrounds for years have quiet concerns about potential illnesses generated by 150 years on pollution in this industrial suburb and Port Botany complex. There is no centralised health information available to the General Community.

7. Up Front Information Important

During the period of public concern, various statements have been made by politicians, news media and community representatives. It is important only verified information is published to the public. In recent news releases statements have been made that mercury was flowing into Penryn Estuary and Botany Bay. At a recent community meeting an explaination was requested and it was found this information was very old and mercury was not flowing into the Bay.

There is room for improvement and we must get our act right.

The New South Wales Government proposes privatising the Port Botany facility at an estimated financial gain of $A1.5 billion to $A2.5 billion. The Treasurer, Mr. Mike Baird, stated the money would be used on the Princes and Pacific Highways.

It might do the government good to relook at this project. Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance opposed Port Botany expansion and continues to believe closing Sydney as a working harbour was foolish and short sighted. As Captain Cook reported to his government in 1770, 1000 ships of the light could comfortably moor in it’s waters in safety. Botany Bay is one of the most foolish places to place a working harbour, landlocked, too shallow, transport problematic and humanly unfriendly.

The northern Botany Bay community have bourne the brunt of this foolish project, driven by ideaology.

Issues include:

• projections for container growth beyond the 3.2million TEU (20 feet equivalent unit) cap at Port Botany see – http://laperouse.info/?p=1037 Will the Government ensure that the approved cap of 3.2million TEU is part of lease terms?
• growing truck traffic on key arteries such as the M5, M4, ED as well as encroachment on residential suburbs and major public assets such as the Port Botany bus depot – see http://laperouse.info/?p=1786
• achievement of 40% rail target by 2015 – the current figure is below 20% noise pollution – see http://www.matraville.info/how-far-should-the-noise-of-a-beeper-alarm-travel  - and air pollution with special reference to particulate matter from container trucks and train engines maintenance and improvement of public assets: Molineux Point Reserve and Prince of Wales Scenic Drive; Foreshore Beach and Boat Ramp; Penrhyn Bird Santuary and Lookout; Pedestrian Access Bridge to Port Botany These assets were developed as compensation, in part, for the loss of local amenity.
• environmental impacts caused by Port Botany that need to be addressed: erosion on Foreshore Beach; erosion of Lady Robinson Beach; decline in Penrhyn Estuary as habitat for migratory birds; diminished amenity at Yarra Bay; poorer water. Foreshore Beach receives unacceptable EPA Beachwatch reports and additionally we don’t have a complete picture of the impacts the T3 development has had with regard to the distribution of toxic chemicals from local industry. As you may be aware there are monitoring points for the Orica groundwater plumes in Penrhyn Estuary. The Orica chemical spill was the largest in Australia’s history and is not expected to be cleaned up this century. The containment line on Foreshore Road needs to be maintained and monitoring in Penrhyn has to continue along with yet to be commissioned studies west of Penrhyn, off Forehore Beach.
• planning powers granted to Sydney Ports in 2009 under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 – these should be returned to Botany and Randwick Councils and Department of Planning. The following link provides a list of developments which have fallen under Part 5 to date: http://www.sydneyports.com.au/corporation/planning/part_5_applications
• management of Major Hazard Facilities located on T1, the DP World Terminal. MHFs located there account for 12% of the State’s total.

The O’Farrell government has a primary responsibility to tax payers in Botany and surrounding suburbs to ensure immediate action is taken to eleviate traffic congestion and associated pollution issues generated from Port Botany and Sydney Airport, which generate conditions which brought the last government down and ensured his government was elected with such a large majority.

It is of little use for the National Party to see massive road funds before their eyes, when the real solutions are rail solutions and generating more freight from ports outside the Sydney Basin. Mr Gay, the Minister for Ports, stated in recent months, Commonwealth funding for rail duplification for the Botany goods line had been transferred to signalling, while this essential project, which would removed thousands of container trucks per year from our clogged arterial roads, has not progressed.

To ensure residential acceptance of these changes, the state and Commonwealth governments must introduce national freight standards for freight companies, dictating minimum standards for container waggons and freight engines, similar to those for cars and road transport. For too long, residents have put up with antique locomotives belching deisel fumes and freight cars making resounding percussion noises in suburbia. Jacob brakes have been banned in suburban trucking transports and rigs are regularly checked for complience. On state rail networks many rejuvenated 1950s deisel locomotives continue their journeys, when they should have been pensioned off.  

There is a long way before privatisation for Port Botany will be accepted within Sydney Basin. Some wider issues include completion of Maldon – Dombarton rail connection between Port Kembla and the Southern line, building the Melbourne to Port Brisbane inland railway via Parkes and securing the inland terminal at Parkes for the East West Perth to Sydney line.

We need people of vision and ministers need to look further than dollars from privatisation.

Recent news from Stockton, a Newcastle suburb, has sent alarm bells ringing in the environmental community.

ORICA’s ammonia plant at Kooragang Island, Newcastle, has been shut down by the State government after plumes of hexavalent chromium escaped on Monday night.

NSW Environment Minister, Robyn Parker told Parliament,  “The Office of Environment and Heritage has issued a prevention notice to Orica. … the plant cannot reopen until appropriate action is completed,” she said.

“I can assure that the Office of Environment and Heritage, jointly with NSW Health, will comprehensively investigate this incident and will provide all relevant information to the community.

“Most importantly, to ensure people, families and the community take the necessary precautionary steps.”

The real problem was the company, ORICA, was too busy containing the problem to advise local residents in Fullerton St. Stockton.

Both the Newcastle Herald and Southern Courier newspapers carried articles of concern as escaped material had potential cancer causing affects in an area where children were active.

Many remembered Erin Brockovich, a Southern Californian legal worker and activist.

Brockovich’s investigation eventually established that the health of countless people who lived in and around Hinkley, California, in the 1960s, 70s and 80s had been severely compromised by exposure to toxic Chromium 6. The Chromium 6 had leaked into the groundwater from the nearby Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Compressor Station. In 1996, as a result of the largest direct action lawsuit of its kind, spearheaded by Brockovich and Ed Masry, the giant utility paid the largest toxic tort injury settlement in U.S. history: $333 million in damages to more than 600 Hinkley residents.

In the same way residents from Botany and adjacent communities heard alarm bells ring during the early part of this century with ground water toxins, HCBs, found in bore water flowing through the ORICA (old ICI) site. A lengthy campaign established community consulation with this multinational corporattion with specialist input from State and Commonwealth departments. It has been established ground water pollution will take 300 years to clean up. It only took 150 years of acqifer polution to establish.

As community members meet regularly with ORICA, monitoring company activities in a volunteer capacity, words of two men float in the air around them.  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke and “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” — Wendell Phillips.

While humans sometimes make mistakes, the alarm bells must be in place, protecting communities against life threatening consequences.

Learn more: Check out the Newcastle Herald and Southern Courier websites.

More info: www.forumonlawcultureandsociety.com/biography/erinbrockovich

The Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources has released a new factsheet on paticulate matter . Small particles as mentioned in this factsheet are found in industrial pollution and diesel exhaust.

R A P S Residents Against Polluting Stacks Inc, Sydney NSW Australia  http://www.nostack.8m.com/

9 October 2007

Media release  Contact: Andrew Macintosh (02) 6162 4146 or 0403 804 540

Shipping’s falling market share is making greenhouse emissions worse: New Report from The Australia Institute (more…)

Movements of traffic in and out of part of Port Botany ground to a halt because of a chemical scare in a shipping container.  It should make authorities review  the present concentration of hazardous activities in this area and think about decentralisation.  Not only does it pose a major threat to Sydney – only 10 minutes from the CBD – but it would be an economic nightmare for the State if there was a knock on effect from some future catastrophe and the port and airport gas and other supplies were destroyed.

Chemical scare surrounds shipping container  13/9/07 am:  ABC News online:

The customs building at Port Botany in Sydney has been evacuated because of a suspicious chemical found in a shipping container.  Twenty-five workers have been removed while HAZMAT crews investigate the chemical, which was discovered about two hours ago.

Superintendent Craig Brierley from the New South Wales Fire Brigade says Bumborah Point Road at Matraville has been closed.”The container’s full of what we believe is furniture,” he said.

“The night before, Customs fumigated as a routine matter. It may just be a remnant of a fumigant. We’re not exactly sure. “We’ll take some readings and work out our next course of action.”

Ever been to a smorgasbord where those at the head of the queue pile their plates regardless of how little they leave for those who follow.  This pretty much describes the gouging and gorging behaviour that is being supported and applauded by our NSW State Government.  With the media distracted by APEC, Minister Sartor has given the go-ahead to an Anvil Hill sized coal mine outside of Mudgee as well as the Enfield Intermodal.  More congestion and pollution for an area already suffering overload in both areas….and for what.  Before long one-third of all our so-called trade through Port Botany will be the export of empty containers.  That’s right, the biggest exports from NSW are EMPTY CONTAINERS and COAL.  How sustainable is that?  (more…)