Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

Following Orica Kooragang Island chemical spill incidents, much action has taken place reviewing public safety issues. The NSW government has amended the Protection of the Environment Act, reinstating Environmental Protection Authority independence and requiring, with hefty fines, “Immediate” reporting of incidents.

One issue not openly addressed was publicly available “Emergency Plans”. During an Orica Community Consultation Meeting, members requested a run through of the “Emergency Plan” should an incident occur at the Orica Plant in Denison Street. While adequate information was given by the company, “within their fenceline”, concern was expressed, the Botany and wider community were in the dark when it came to the more general issues beyond the fenceline with state emergency services. A recent Botany incident saw residents standing around on a cold winter evening, waiting for instruction when a factory incident occurred.

During the December Community Consultation meeting, Police Officer, Shaun Rae, gave a presentation, relating the new all authority co-operative Emergency Plan for Botany Bay Local Area Command, administered from Mascot Police centre.

The Plan relates to Port Botany, All Botany Industrial complexes and the general community. Local Command have developed a state of the arts, computer generated Emergency Response. The preparation process identified a number of critical issues, like need for more accessible water points for emergency services on major routes. These matters are being addressed immediately by authorities concerned.

The plan takes in exit routes, evacuation centres, demographics, even who owns each pipe under roads, allowing police immediate redress to the appropriate person responsible.

Should an incident occur, Mascot Police processes the Emergency Plan to all Police vehicles on installed computer screens with emergency command organizing all emergency services. Should the computer system go down, Emergency Plan hard copies are available for all emergency service personnel. The Police Service is working on every form of technology to inform community members of what is expected during an emergency, including texting, facebook, twitter as well as the more traditional door knocking.

This Emergency Plan is a NSW first, reflecting a new approach generated by Botany Bay Local Area Command. BBaCA congratulates Shaun Rae and the developmental team for a great outcome.

At the November Botany Industrial Park Community Consultative Committee, the Local Area Police chief, Commander Karen McCarthy, gave a presentation on the Botany Bay Disaster Plan. She outlined critical traffic challenges – the difficulties facing emergency response teams as well as the impacts caused by breakdowns. A truck breakdown on General Holmes Drive can result in gridlock on roads into the CBD. For every 10 minutes that the M5 is blocked another 1/2 kilometre of traffic is added to queues on the Eastern Distributor. One of the recommendations of the Emergency Plan is for a Road Network Assessment to be conducted. Note that in the the Government’s submission to Infrastructure Australia “Port Botany and Sydney Airport and Transport Improvement Program” dated November 2011, Police NSW are not included in the list of Agencies consulted! Nor are the Police included in the recent Amendment to the Protection of the Environment Legislation as one of the agencies to be notified – the agencies listed are EPA, Local Council, Fire & Rescue, Health and Workcover. This new regime arguably encourages a lower degree of coordination than the previous as no one Government Agency takes overall control from the beginning of an event.
For far too many years major traffic generating developments in this region have been approved without adequate planning being conducted. The Port Expansion is the prime example. It was approved for a cap of 3.2 million TEU on the premise that the rail share for container movements was increased from around 20%(2004 figures) to 40%. Recently at Budget Estimates Hearings it has been revealed that instead of the rail share increasing in recent years it has fallen to 14% . Reference is made to raising the cap and dropping the rail target to 28%. How is Sydney going to cope with the additional heavy vehicles. Mayor of Botany Bay Municipality, Ron Hoenig, is not optimistic - read his blog post of 23/11/11
The Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance(BBACA) campaign against the Port Expansion focussed on the negative impacts for the biodiversity and amenity of Botany Bay but also on the inadequate road and rail network supporting port operations. BBACA maintained that an expanded Port would strangle Sydney and impact the efficiency and productivity of the region. The cost of building a supporting road and rail network is far more expensive than alternative expansions, eg. Port Kembla, but when Treasury evaluated the cases presented by each of the Port Corporations (Sydney, Kembla, Newcastle) they did not factor in the supporting infrastructure costs for Sydney and argued that freight from Kembla would add additional costs.
No amount of reason, including the recommendations from a Commission of Inquiry, could dissuade the Iemma government from approving the Port Expansion. The O’Farrell government now has to deal with the consequences of that decision and the Police and other emergency agencies have to work out how they are going to cope with a full scale disaster in this region when even a minor breakdown can produce gridlock.
Recent posts: LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3

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 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 concerns, regarding beach erosion appearing in our local newspaper has an opposite reaction from residents at Dolls Point, on Botany Bay foreshores.

A local Progress Association has raised concerns about sand building up along the beach near Dolls Point wharf. Lady Robinson’s Beach sweeps the full length of the Bay from Cooks River to Taren Point Bridge at Rocky Point. Dolls Point is a small intrusion into the Bay.

At this point a public wharf was erected, originally to service the pleasure grounds, now Peter Depina Park. In the past, major works have been undertaken along the foreshore to stabilise the beach front. A concrete retaining wall and walkway has been built, alienating the natural sand dune complex which is now suburban streets and housing. Groynes have been built into the Bay, in an effort to change wave and current patterns, protecting the beach.  

Unfortunately the present results have multiplied the sands deposited at Dolls Point and adjoining beaches. At present, one groyne has been completely surrounded by sand and Dolls Point wharf has been closed as it is surrounded by sand, like an eerie picture from the Sahara Desert. To seawards, mooring and navigational posts are completely sand locked.

The causes are many.

Some blame changing wind patterns, others believe man made remediation to the north along Lady Robinson’s Beach, where tonnes of sand was dumped as the desalination pipeline was completed has added to the problem during strong seas.

Botany Bay is becoming more complex as Kingsford Smith Aiport and Port Botany expand, urbanisation encroaches with increased pressure on govenments for more and more infrastructure with little thought for multiplying effects on the Bay’s fragile natural resources.

St George and Sutherland Shire Leader (St George edition 18/09/2010) remembered the great storm and beach erosion in May 1968:-

“HISTORIC pine trees and cannon toppled into the bay, and The Grand Parade was in danger of collapse when huge seas pounded the beachfront at Brighton-Le-Sands in May of 1968.

Freak waves whipped up by cyclonic-strength winds, coupled with 1.9 metre king tides, “tore off a mile-long strip of Brighton foreshore between President Avenue and Bestic Street,” the Leader reported.

Sans Souci water police said the waves were the biggest ever seen in the bay.

“At Brighton, rollers 12 feet [3.6 metres] high thundered against the foreshore, washing over the roadway and crumbling the retaining wall,” the report said.

“A dozen of the famous Norfolk island pines fell into the sea when the wall collapsed.

“Several old cannon, a feature of the Brighton-Le-Sands waterfront for many years, toppled into the bay as huge seas carved into the banks to the parade footpath. Brighton baths was extensively damaged.

“Fibro and iron structures were smashed near the baths entrance, and two-thirds of the heavy planking on the baths walk was dislodged.

“Rockdale Council engineers, fearing the four-lane highway was threatened with destruction, called every available dump truck into action.

“Hundreds of tons of rock filling were transported from Mascot, Taren Point and Bexley to build a new 30 foot [9.1 metre] seawall on the foreshore,” the report said.

“At one stage the toilet block opposite Bruce Street stood on the brink of a vertical drop.

“Scores of men worked through Wednesday night to help build a retaining wall to save The Grand Parade.

“They included 30 volunteers from Brighton RSL Club.”

Rockdale Council blamed the beach erosion, together with other damage from storms in 1966 and 1967, on dredging for the new airport runway into the bay. Kurnell was also hit hard by the storm, with evacuations, and Prince Charles Parade awash with waves.”

It is time Local, State and Commonwealth governments took their responsibilities seriously, protecting the Bay’s health. This is not a political party issue, it is whole of government responsibility.