Newsletter – Spring 2016 CLARENCE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE 31 Skinner St, South Grafton 2460 Phone / Fax 66 43 1863 Email: [email protected] Website
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Newsletter – Spring 2016 CLARENCE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE 31 Skinner St, South Grafton 2460 Phone / Fax 66 43 1863 Email: [email protected] Website www.cec.org.au More Blueberry Mayhem The Clarence Environment Centre received an anonymous report of siltation of an endangered wetland community by a new blueberry development on the upper Coldstream east of Glenugie Peak which we investigated. The following image shows the plantation with rows running down slope so drainage runs directly into the dam and the wetlands which are just off to the right of the photograph. The following series of photographs show a silt plume ending up in an adjacent waterhole, suggesting that the wetlands are being polluted. We asked the Department to investigate this incident, and we'll keep you informed of any outcomes. * * * Criminality, lies and deception – now a hallmark of the blueberry industry Since the last newsletter, when I reported on the planned blueberry plantation at Bawdens Bridge, there have been a number of developments. Firstly, objectors to the water extraction application by the proponent, which the CEC was one, received a letter from DPI Water with a copy of the consent conditions to be imposed, asking if these conditions were sufficient for them to remove their objections. As outlined previously, the CEC had asked for a number of conditions to be placed on the granting of the licence, including compulsory metering to ensure excessive pumping didn't occur, restrictions on the trading of water licences, and a review of the Clarence River Water Sharing Plan to reflect the significant drop in Orara River flows following the closure of the Nymboida Power Station. Unfortunately, only one of those conditions, pump metering, was included as a condition of consent. And while this is a significant concession, the addition of a clause allowing the proponents to pump double their entitlement in any single calendar year as long as they didn't exceed the maximum when averaged over a three year period was, we felt, unacceptable. We argued that this doubling-up would only occur in very dry years, when the river could least afford to loose that water. However, we were still considering the implication and whether or not to remove our objection, when the Daily Examiner dropped a bombshell in the form of what looked like a media release from Clarence Valley Council, extensively quoting Council's Director environment, planning and community, Des Schroder, describing “A MASSIVE 850-hectare multinational blueberry farm that could bring up to 1200 jobs to the area”. There are probably 850 hectares of blueberries in this image taken north of Woolgoolga The Bawdens Bridge enterprise is controlled by a consortium with Coffs Harbour businessman, Harjap Singh Dosanjh, in partnership with Vancouver businessman Luigi Aquilini, and Mr Schroder's delight at the creation of “a multinational presence in the region” was clear with his description of Mr Aquilini as “a Rupert Murdoch figure in Canadian business circles”. However, as the previous manager of the NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, who presided over the over-allocation of water licenses for local rivers including the Orara, Mr Schroder should be aware of the fact that, in dry years, there is insufficient water available in that river to irrigate 850ha of blueberries. Having sat in a face to face meeting with Harjap Dosanjh, and heard him scoff at the rumours that he planned to plant as much as 100ha of blueberries, because there simply wasn't enough water, and then read the water extraction application which clearly states the intention to irrigate only 30ha, this deception does not sit well with CEC. This is a small 10ha blueberry orchard. Imagine what 850ha would look like! The industry has been plagued with scandals in recent months, employing illegal foreign workers, and underpaying employees, then there are on-going concerns about illegal land-clearing and pollution, all of which appears to be a culture of thumbing their noses at authorities, and simply writing of fines and penalties as a cost of doing business. The Department of Primary Industry's blueberry “Primefacts” publication identifies that: “Blueberry plants have a shallow, fibrous root system and as such require supplementary irrigation throughout the growing season. Water storage facilities of 2–3 megalitres per hectare are required for blueberry production. That's more than 2,000ML a year for the proposed enterprise. They have already built a dam to hold their 'harvestable rights', the 60 megalitre monstrosity pictured below. The proponent has a licence to draw 66 megalitres a year from the Orara River, that still leaves 2,000 megalitres of storage required. Imagine another 20 off stream dams like that below, and where the water will come to fill them. * * * Ode to a Knitting Nanna Please send back my Nanna Mr Baird I miss my Nanna very bad But she wants us kids to grow up well Mum she's gone away In a land that'd clean and green And now I'm feeling very sad Not in a dead polluted Hell Hope she'll come back some day Or a poisoned water scene I asked my Dad if she was dead For coal mines spoil the farmer's land Just like my friend's old Pop And coal gas poisons water Dad just sighed and shook his head My Nanna doesn't want to hand Said, “Go and ask a cop” This mess to son or daughter That's when I knew she'd gone to gaol So Mr Baird, please listen And she did it just for me To a little grandchild's sorrow Nanna couldn't pay the bail Change back the law today please do She's on the pension, see And let Nan come home tomorrow. Dorothy A Hillis - June 2016 In response to the Baird government's move to criminalise peaceful protest action. * * * Lack of transparency over reports of asbestos burial at the Tyson St Depot site, forces CEC to resort to GIPA The on-going asbestos drama Our Winter newsletter reported on Council's denial of the existence of buried asbestos at the proposed new works depot site in Tyson Street, South Grafton. The reported burial, by the previous site manager, was hotly denied by Council's General Manager and the Mayor, but confirmed to the CEC by two other former Council employees, which led to our investigating the issue more closely. Council however, hid behind a report by consultants Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB), a consultancy firm employed to check the site for various pollutants including the asbestos. However, the search area identified in the PB report appeared to show a significant discrepancy between where the former manager had initially claimed the asbestos had been buried, and the areas actually tested. Also, a close look at what Council requested of Parsons Brinkerhoff is not reassuring, their request being spelled out in Parsons Brinkerhoff's report under “SCOPE OF WORK“ including: a) site walkover inspection to establish the Yellow and red boundaries show just how close the current site status and identify the location and school's playgrounds are to the works site volume of material which has been imported and stockpiled onsite since the writing of the 2012 ESA report. b) assess the stockpiled material and collect samples for laboratory analysis in accordance with NEPM 2013 guidelines c) assess additional areas potentially impacted by historical contamination including a mercury impacted soil burial area at Area 2A and an asbestos pipe identified in proximity to the former sludge lagoon and settlement pond, and d) undertake a pre-demolition hazardous materials survey of all above ground infrastructure onsite which are scheduled to be demolished. Nowhere is there any request to search for buried material. In fact a late request from Councils manager of water and sewerage, Greg Mashiah, for additional drilling in the sludge pond area was apparently deemed unnecessary (by Parsons Brinkerhoff), and was never done It all revolved around a map that was given to Council by a third party, and was then used to show PB where the search should be undertaken. To put our minds at rest, we asked Council for a copy of the map and received a direct “NO” in response. This, and the fact that Councillor Karen Thoms was also denied access to the document, persuaded us to take the matter further by way of a $30 GIPA, Government Information Public Access, (formerly Freedom of Information), requesting a copy of the advice (letters /maps etc), provided to Council by the former manager of the site, and any subsequent advice passed on to PB, in case they were different. That GIPA was also knocked back by Council, claiming there was “an overriding public interest against its disclosure”, and that it would, “reveal or tend to reveal the identity of an informant or prejudice the future supply of information from an informant”. We believed that the potential health implications for hundreds of children using the South Grafton High School, just across the fence, was most certainly in the public interest, so we took the next step which was requesting an Internal Review of the decision, pointing out that very fact. We also pointed out that the ex site manager's name along with his allegations of asbestos burial, had been widely reported on social media, and the future supply of information from the informant was long since prejudiced by the actions of Council's Director of Works, Troy Anderson, who wrote to the Clarence Forum's John Hagger in December 2015 claiming, “As advised previously, I would be pleased to meet with (the ex site manager) to discuss any information he may wish to provide.