Friday, August 05, 2005

Australians Battle Dredging Operation

Australia’s Port Phillip Bay is set to be the scene of more dramatic protests after a court threw out a last-minute bid to stop trial dredging. The nine-week channel-deepening trial is now set to begin today in the bay's south channel off the coast of Mt Martha.

The Port of Melbourne says trade is being restricted because the channel is too shallow, and the State Government says an independent panel set up to investigate environmental concerns has recommended the trial.

The Blue Wedges Coalition, says the $32 million trial is effectively the first installment of the project. Further, the coalition says the panel recommended a very, very small scale dredge just to test the equipment of the heads. This, they say, is a far cry from what is now planned.

The Blue Wedges Coalition made the last-ditch legal challenge after trying to block the giant dredging ship Queen of the Netherlands from entering the bay. On Tuesday morning protesters came close to the vessels in an attempt to halt their operation. A flotilla of charter boats and surfers confronted the giant dredger as it entered Victoria's Port Phillip Bay to begin a controversial trial to deepen the shipping channel. They were joined by other recreational boats as well as a number of surfers who repeatedly swam across the path of the Queen of the Netherlands, just short of a 100-metre exclusion zone enforced around the dredger.

The Queen of the Netherlands also confronted a small water-borne protest as it passed under West Gate Bridge on its way into port. Four inflatable boats and up to eight surfers and kayaks faced the dredger as it moved up the Yarra River. The dredger passed within meters of several surfers before police boats shepherded away the rest of the protesters.

Meanwhile, the Times reports, the offices of Premier Steve Bracks and other senior government ministers were targeted by dredging protesters. Buckets of sand were dropped outside the offices of Bracks and four other senior ministers and the words "don't dredge our bay" were stenciled outside some of offices.

The Blue Wedges Coalition says that the dredging is moving forward at a ridiculous speed in spite of a substantial body of evidence that it ought to not happen at all. The coalition points out that an independent panel's report found the channel deepening proposal to be fundamentally flawed, and handed down 137 recommendations to be addressed before the project is further considered. Broadly these recommendations were:

• Environmental risk analysis not methodologically sound, requires further development

• Channel designs not optimized. Opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and costs not maximized

• Chosen dredge technology not best practice, environmental impacts not minimized

• No reliability could be placed on turbidity modeling

• Characterization of contaminated sediments not sufficient to assess effects of and methods of disposal of those sediments

• No clear or proven means for satisfactory performance of the proponent’s Environmental Management Plan

• Not clear as how project will be delivered to time and budget by means that do not have undue adverse environmental effects

• Direct economic benefits to Victorian would be less than the cost of the project.

• Interests of Bay users, both recreational and business, not adequately addressed

Jenny Warfe from the Blue Wedges Coalition says the project was motivated by profits and would benefit international companies to the detriment of the community and the highly diverse marine life of the bay.

Dr. Graham Harris BSc, ARCS, DIC, PhD, FTSE - CSIRO Fellow from a review of the Environmental Effects Statement (EES) made on behalf of the Association of Bayside Municipalities says, "The major impact on the Bay is going to be the effects on ecosystems, species and ecological processes arising from the suspended sediments stirred up by the dredging itself and disposal of the dredged material. In particular, there are long term unassessed risks to the National Park ecosystems at the Heads, to fish etc and to the sea grass beds in the Southern part of the Bay. These arise from smothering and light penetration reductions through plumes of sediments and the increased water turbidity. This is where there are acknowledged to be "extreme" or potentially "catastrophic" risk of long term damage to the Bay from short term dredging activities. The possibility of hysteretic effects (point of no return) is real. The EES speaks of regeneration and recovery times of up to 10 years - this may be optimistic in the case of sea grasses in the Southern part of the Bay."

The environmental group Earthcare St Kilda says it, “…has major concerns in regard to the impact of the Shipping Channel deepening proposal on the Port Phillip Bay ecology. We fear oil spills, toxic algal blooms, ships running aground, sick and dying penguins, water that is murky and unsafe for swimming and release of pollutants such as lead, Mercury and DDT. These are the very real risks of the Channel deepening project.”

The group says, “Increased turbidity will reduce light penetration in the water column thereby limiting photosynthesis. This will cause reduced primary production of phytoplankton, macroalgae and sea grasses, and therefore reduced opportunities for the Bay species that feed directly on or among them.”

Earthcare is particularly concerned, “…the decreased foraging ability for species such as penguins, which rely on good visibility to hunt successfully. If the channel deepening goes ahead and creates long-term high turbidity conditions, the St Kilda Penguin colony could be at risk of starvation.”

According to Jo Samuel King, another spokesperson for Blue Wedges, 3 million cubic meters of Yarra toxic mud containing DDT, lead, mercury and arsenic is buried in the seabed of the bay. Dredging would disturb the mud and make the bay highly dangerous to people and the environment.

There are economic and commercial worries as well.

Andrew Malouf, of the Victorian Fishing Charter Boats Association, said both the trial - at the heads and at the northern end of the bay near the port - and the proposed $580 million project would damage the dive and fishing charter industries. "This is going to have an effect all the way down the food chain - from the tourist operators to the local cafes to petrol stations to the accommodation houses," he said.

The decision by the court does not in any way mean the protesters are done. "The next major action is on Sunday at Rye pier at noon, when Blue Wedges will be attempting to stop the dredge by surrounding it with a variety of marine craft," a spokeswoman, Jo Samuel-King, says on News.com.au. The protesters, says the Blue Wedge coalition, will be joined by former Olympian and winner of seven World titles in wind surfing, Fiona Taylor.

The Blue Wedges Coalition is a ‘grass roots’ association. It is a diverse mix of 51 community and environmental groups around the Bay and around 200 individuals who have signed the Blue Wedges Charter. Sources: Earthcare St. Kilda, Dredge the Bay No More, Sunday Times (Australia), World Today Green Left Weekly (Australia) Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Blue Wedges Coalition, Herald Sun (Australia), News.com.au

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