Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

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.

The Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources has released a new factsheet on Polychlorinated biphenyls.

These are the chemicals currently awaiting destruction at Orica. 

Read the latest issue of Environmentally Speaking - items include: Buy Nothing Day; Alternative Fuels not always Green; Clean up at Congwong; Wrapping Little Bay; Backyard Buddies.

The NSW Treasurer, Michael Costa, in response to questions about Peak Oil reponded with ….The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones; it ended because we found a new technology. The Iron Age did not end because we ran out of iron and the hydrocarbon age will not end because we run out of hydrocarbons…….

The main game is the reduction in resources on which our life depends -fertile land for agriculture, clean water, rich biodiversity (to maintain stable climate).  As Jared Diamond writes about the decline of the Easter Islanders:  http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/042.html  In just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism. Are we about to follow their lead?

For a good source of information on Peak Oil: http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/ 
 For the full Costa response: Read the rest of this entry »

It will be a long hot summer with plenty of opportunities to take the kids fishing. If you bring back the catch to the Penrhyn Boat Ramp there will be a bench for cleaning the fish - but no water.  “No worries”, you say and head down to Penrhyn waters to clean the fish.  The kids play around in the water while you clean the fish.  Then you notice the large red WARNING sign which tells you that the estuary is contaminated and advises you not to come in contact with the water (swimming/wading).  So why you ask yourself have the taps at the cleaning bench been cut off.  Good question.  Sydney Ports Corporation have control of this area and eventually will convert it into another shipping container terminal.  But in the meantime what about exercising some common sense and put back the water.

Read the latest Newsletter from Oatley Flora and Fauna October-November Newsletter

Following the Burnley disaster in April another crash to illustrate the additional risks of tunnel travel.  3 lives were lost in Burnley and millions in tolls and repairs.  Now a similar disaster in California.  Burnely tunnel warnings ignored:  http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21587866-5012713,00.html

 LOS ANGELES (Reuters 14/10/07) - Three people were killed and at least 10 injured in a multi-vehicle crash that caused a fire inside a tunnel and forced the closure of a major freeway in the Los Angeles area, authorities said on Saturday.

The fire broke out late on Friday, following a traffic pileup involving as many as 15 trucks inside a tunnel under Interstate 5. The highway connects Los Angeles to many of its northern suburbs and San Francisco.

More than 1/3rd all vehicle emissions come from freight related tasks and this proportion is growing and within a few decades will overtake private vehicle emissions.  It’s a figure that puts into perspective our dependence on road freight as well as the impacts.

Click here for Botany Bay Catchment Map

Click here for ABORGINAL LAND COUNCILS IN SYDNEY MAP

Click here for sub-catchments: CMA map  

Under the Sydney Metropolitan CMA breakdown the Botany Bay Catchment does not exist.  We have the Eastern Beaches sub-catchment, which covers the north of Botany Bay to the the CBD fringe;  the Cooks Catchment; and the Georges Catchment will includes all of Kurnell.  Comparing this map with the Southern Sydney CMB map of the 2002 Blueprint we find that Waverley municipality is now in the Parramatta subcatchment(previously Botany Bay) and Cronulla South is in the Georges Subcatchment(previously Port Hacking - Hacking has also shrunk in the south).  

 Welcome to the future of container shipping.  The next assault on Botany Bay will come with the dredging of the shipping channel to allow the mega container ships entry.  The biggest at present is the Danish Emma Maersk which can carry 11,000 - 14,000 TEUs, 397 metres long, cruises at 27knots and only needs a crew of 13. ……and a draught of 30 metres.  Built to load up mana from China for delivery in Europe.

 US ports cargo trade down: Date: October 10 2007:    Sydney Morning Herald: Ronald White and Leslie Earnest in Los Angeles

THE United States’ major ports were supposed to land a record number of cargo containers crammed with foreign-made goods in August, but things took an unexpected turn, with imports sinking by 1.4 per cent in another sign of a slowdown of the US economy. Read the rest of this entry »