WESTERN AUSTRALIA Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD) THIRTY-FIFTH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION 1997 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Thursday, 16 October 1997 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 16 October 1997 THE SPEAKER (Mr Strickland) took the Chair at 10.00 am, and read prayers. PETITION - STEPHENSON AND WARD INCINERATOR SITE DR EDWARDS (Maylands) [10.02 am]: I present the following petition - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly in Parliament assembled. We, the undersigned, request that: The regulators, Water and Rivers Commission, Health Department of Western Australia, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), with the independent adviser to the EPA appointed by the Minister, Professor Arthur McComb, and the Department of Environmental Protection's Pollution Prevention Division, adopt the remediation option for the Stephenson and Ward/Medi-Collect Incinerator Site in Welshpool which ensures the complete removal of all contamination, including the contamination beneath the incinerator building. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Mr Speaker, you will note that the petition has been signed by Professor David Bellamy. The petition bears 365 signatures and I certify that it conforms to the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly. The SPEAKER: I direct that the petition be brought to the Table of the House. [See petition No 96.] PETITION - ROADS Safety Bay Road and Ennis Avenue, Rockingham MR McGOWAN (Rockingham) [10.03 am]: I present the following petition - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly in Parliament assembled. We the undersigned, wish to register our concern at the intersection of Safety Bay Road and Ennis Ave in Rockingham. This intersection services a large population, including that of Safety Bay, Waikiki, Warnbro, Port Kennedy and Baldivis. In addition to this Ennis Ave is the main thoroughfare to Rockingham and the Kwinana Freeway and Fremantle for people coming from Golden Bay, Singleton, Mandurah and beyond. The speed on this particular section of Ennis Ave is 110Km/hour. During peak hour this intersection can be a death trap with vehicles travelling at high speeds hitting vehicles turning or crossing. We ask that you urgently review this situation and put in place measures to increase the safety level of this intersection by installing traffic lights and/or an overpass. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. The petition bears 46 signatures and I certify that it conforms to the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly. The SPEAKER: I direct that the petition be brought to the Table of the House. [See petition No 97.] SELECT COMMITTEE ON PERTH'S AIR QUALITY Discussion Paper MR TUBBY (Roleystone - Parliamentary Secretary) [10.06 am]: I table a discussion paper produced by the Select Committee on Perth's Air Quality entitled "Vehicle Emissions" and move - That the paper be printed. [Thursday, 16 October 1997] 6967 This discussion paper is the third in the series of five to be released by the select committee. The paper outlines strategies designed to reduce vehicle emissions from motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks and light commercial vehicles in use in the metropolitan area. The committee acknowledges that one of the key ways of reducing vehicle emissions is to use vehicles less and adopt other transport modes, such as public transport, cycling and walking. It is the committee's intention to elaborate on the strategies relating directly to alternative transport modes in the fifth and final discussion paper to be released in November. Emissions from vehicles come from a number of sources. The most obvious is the exhaust, particularly when the vehicle is not operating effectively or efficiently. Emissions also arise from evaporation at the engine, the fuel system and the fuel tank. Vehicle emissions are the second largest contributor to episodes of particulate haze. Vehicle emissions are also a major source of nitrous oxide and reactive organic compounds contributing to the generation of photochemical smog. These emissions also contribute a variety of air toxics including benzene and toluene. In comparison to other cities around the world, the Australian vehicle fleet is relatively old with 55.4 per cent of the fleet estimated to be pre-1986 and with 48.5 per cent of the fleet running on leaded fuel. The Perth passenger vehicle fleet is similar with approximately 54 per cent being 1970 to 1986 model years. This means that a large proportion of the vehicles in use today were designed to meet only the very early standards. Diesel engine vehicles emit a disproportionately high level of transport related particulates. Typically these vehicles represent only about 10 per cent of urban traffic or 35 per cent of fuel consumption, but about 70 per cent of urban transport particulate emissions. Particulate levels from motor vehicles are predicted to increase over the short to medium term, principally because of the growth in diesel vehicle use and the absence of particulate emission standards until the mid-1990s. Although diesel vehicles emit some smoke on acceleration, smoke should not be emitted constantly. Black or grey smoke arises when there is incomplete fuel combustion. Blue smoke arises when engine oil is being burned or atomised, and white smoke arises when fuel is not burning. Simple maintenance procedures can often alleviate these smoke emissions if maintenance is undertaken correctly and regularly. It is a similar situation for petrol vehicles, where black or grey smoke arises from incomplete combustion, blue smoke arises from engine oil being burned and white smoke is emitted if coolant and/or water is being vaporised in the combustion chamber. Written and oral submissions received to date have come from individuals, community groups and associations, businesses, industry, academics, health professionals and government agencies. A complete list of submitters will be provided in the committee's final report. An opinion expressed in the submissions was that the Government had failed to deal adequately with vehicles that were contributing to Perth's pollution problem. The smoky vehicle reporting program, which is operated by the Department of Environmental Protection, was seen as a bandaid approach, and the policing of vehicles that had an exhaust problem was considered inadequate. Other submissions outlined the technological inadequacies of vehicle, engine and fuel design as contributing factors to the amount of pollution from vehicles in Perth. It is estimated that 25 per cent of car trips made in Perth are less than 3 kilometres in length. Since the effective operation of catalytic converters is temperature dependent and that it takes between 10 and 15 km of driving for the catalyst to reach optimum operating conditions, there are many instances when emissions from vehicles are higher than we would expect. Concern was expressed in some submissions that although all new vehicles were required to meet the Australian design rules for emissions when the vehicles came onto the market, it was considered to be a well known fact within the servicing and maintenance industry that tampering with fuel systems and removal of emission control equipment was taking place. This was considered in submissions to be prevalent among the diesel and trucking industry. There is no policing of this, and there appears to be no penalty for those requesting that work. Evidence was presented to the committee that overfueling, which is rife within the transport industry, is undertaken to increase the horsepower rating of heavy haulage vehicles. A 10 per cent increase in the diesel injection into the engine creates a 400 per cent increase in the emissions produced. It is a significant problem and one that must be addressed seriously. This discussion paper outlines a range of strategies which could be implemented to reduce vehicle emissions. All of these strategies have been recommended to the committee through public submissions or during the presentation of evidence. The committee is not suggesting that every strategy listed should, or must, be implemented. Instead, it is seeking public comment on the strategies which are considered to be the most effective and which would receive the most public support. The strategy options have been classified as either educational, technical, regulatory or market based. The educational strategies include implementing a driver education campaign relating driver actions to vehicle emissions, 6968 [ASSEMBLY] implementing a community education program about the importance of regular inspection and servicing of vehicles, and providing free or inexpensive vehicle testing facilities in Perth as part of an education campaign. The technical strategies include improving vehicle technology such as better engine design and aiming for zero emission targets; improving fuel - petrol and diesel - quality, such as by lowering the sulphur content of diesel; and examining the usefulness of remote sensing devices or radar to detect vehicles with excess emissions. Regulatory strategies include introducing an annual or biennial vehicle emission inspection program requiring all vehicles over a defined age to be licensed as road worthy from an emissions - exhaust and evaporative - perspective and including testing of cars, trucks, buses, light