Another Iluka resident had this to say about that same information session:
“Unbelievably slick PR
operation engaging up to 30 or even 50 of the staff from within the complex,
mostly office and management type staff I think. All squeaky clean and friendly
with first names on their jackets.
A few of the highway
people were across the issues but there was a lot of “I don’t know" or "I’ll get
back to you” or “come over here and meet so and so who might know”.
They claim the batching
plant is world’s best practice with systems in place to capture fugitive dusts
and emissions.
I asked repeatedly
about trucks carrying bitumen into the asphalt plant, or out of the plant
as asphalt were considered a Hazmat incident if there was an accident
involving either the bitumen tankers or the asphalt trucks, but couldn’t really
get an answer. No one seemed to know.
Plenty of spin last
night.”
Note
Bitumin and asphalt are flammable and combustible solids which are Class 4 dangerous goods.
Roads and Maritime
Services managers must ensure that appropriate systems are in place to
identify, assess and control workers’ exposure to bitumen. Additionally,
managers must ensure that workers are provided with relevant information,
training, instruction and supervision in the safe use, handling and emergency
response requirements (for example bitumen burns cards) of bitumen products.
Workers should be able to conduct their work without a risk to their health and
safety. For their part, they need to take necessary precautions to prevent and
effectively manage the potential hazards and risks of working with bitumen.
Industry partners are required to meet work health and safety (WHS) legislative
requirements and have in place appropriate safety management systems. Designers
of Roads and Maritime infrastructure must eliminate or control (where
elimination is not reasonably practicable) the possibility of injury or damage
caused by work with bitumen during the construction, use, maintenance or
demolition of infrastructure…
Work with bitumen refers
to road construction and maintenance work involving:
* All aspects of ‘cold’
bitumen work (such as crack sealing or jointing and road maintenance using cold
mix with emulsions applied at ambient temperature)
* ‘Hot’ bitumen
products, which are those applied above ambient temperature. These include
blending or heated bitumen binders, asphalt batch plant product, laying
asphalt, stabilisation of granular materials with hot foamed bitumen, sprayed
sealing with hot cutback or polymer modified bitumen or crack sealing with hot
sealants
* Bitumen binders
include cutback bitumen (with added solvents), bitumen emulsion (with
chemically treated water), modified binders (including suitable storage with
correct product signs and classification under Dangerous Goods) and oxidised
bitumen…..
After identifying the
hazards, risks and levels of risk for each risk, it is now necessary to
identify and implement appropriate hazard controls. Where no single measure is
sufficient, a number or combination of controls is usually required….
Ensuring emergency plans
are developed for the specific worksite and emergency information panels are
displayed on sides of vehicles carrying dangerous goods (HAZCHEM and UN
Numbers), emergency contact numbers and Transport Management Centre (131700),
where appropriate.
UPDATE
On Saturday 14 July 2018 the Woombah community held a meeting on the subject of the proposed temporary asphalt plant. This meeting was attended by Roads and Maritime Services Bob Higgins, some Pacific Complete staff and the Nationals MP for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis.
North Coast Voices has received a number of emails concerning this meeting and here are selected quotes:
* “Time after time –
Pacific Complete were asked direct and specific questions that were
uncomfortably left unanswered.”
* “Chris Gulaptis – when
pressed several times “Would YOU like to like your family to live next door to
an asphalt plant?” drew a pathetic “I do not know” to finally a capitulation.”
* “When asked about the
toxic fumes Mr Gulaptis said ‘I don’t know until I know….but if its bad,
if its toxic then of course it should be cut down, it should be closed down and
it shouldn't be anywhere in fact, let alone on the corner of Iluka road but at
the end of the day its got to go somewhere and we are going to look at the best
site and the site that will least impact on our community’.”
* “Mr Bob Higgins, the
representative from the RMS, who is in charge of delivering this project, was
even more dismissive of community concerns regarding health, suggesting that
things have improved over the years and “They have filters they have
scrubbers so essentially it is steam which you see coming out.” He
further went on to question in relation to odour s from the plant “Is it
harmful or is it inconvenient” “Is it harmful? I don’t believe this
is the case.”
I was appalled by that
response. Steam does not have an odour! Bob Higgins has previously admitted on
the ABC radio that Asphalt Plants do smell, they do have an odour. Breathing in
and smelling something means you are reacting to certain chemicals in the
air. Those odours can be toxic and cause headache, nausea and other harmful
health effects.
Mr Higgins also stated
that not only is the site to be used for stockpiling paving materials and then
the asphalt batching plant but also a Foamed bitumen plant, which had not been
disclosed to the community previously. I find this also to be an
additional concern."
* “It was brought to the
attention of the meeting by a local residents that the Mororo Wetlands which
lies on the western side of the highway is an area of significant environmental
significant s with a number off endangered species of animals and pants as well
as a koala presence. From observation of the site it is clear that any
run off from that site runs underneath the highway into Mororo Creek and Mororo
Reserve. This was not addressed by anyone at the meeting."
* “Adam did talk about a
new corridor being constructed under the highway for koalas to travel from one
side of the highway to another however nothing about the current corridor which
currently opens up onto the prepared site of the batch plant. He did not state
the new corridor would be completed prior to proposed operation of the batch
plant. Has anyone informed the Koalas?”
* “No answers were
forthcoming from any speaker that addressed the dangers to the public, only
that studies were currently underway. They had no plans in place to protect the
safety of local road users.”
It appears that this meeting was at times quite testy with Gulaptis alternating between being quite defensive or argumentative, however it has resulted in a promise on the part of Roads and Maritime Services of a second extension to the formal submission period. With a date yet to be fixed.
Unfortunately what appears to have also been admitted is that because there are not one but two seperate plants that will be operating on the site, the number of construction vehicle movement is higher than previously disclosed.
For those interested, here is a link to the audio of this meeting:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cnwP7E_PK6jFBdw7ec0bxh5Ywsv_bUNi/view.
At 43:11mins a Woombah resident living close to the proposed site with her husband who has Stage 4 lung cancer spoke of lack of available information, questioned air quality and any effect this may have on her husband's quality of life.
FURTHER UPDATE
Another concerned Woombah resident’s opinion of the 14 July
community meeting:
“From the outset it was clear the community who had gathered in the park
yesterday, wouldn't receive the answers they deserved to the questions they had
asked. Chris Gulpatis was keen to tell the crowd just how much money his
government was spending. I suspect we were meant to feel grateful
for all the government is doing for us but isn't this their job? Chris
explained he had had a briefing on the plant the other day and thought it all
looked pretty good. He qualified this with not being a resident of
Woombah or Iluka, nor an engineer, he also wasn't familiar with the
process. Hey hold on Chris why didn't you make yourself familiar about
this? You knew you were coming to a meeting with your constituents who
were concerned?....
The first resident to ask a question was about the traffic
and the number of vehicles we could expect. The documentation had these
numbers as being different and residents were clearly confused. They were
told there would be around 300 vehicle movements on the days when the plant was
working at peak but that there were other truck movements to expect and so the
number was more like 500. There was a quick sorry but that was the nature
of the business.
When asked about contingency plans for peak holiday periods like Christmas, was
there a plan for managing this? We were told that up and down the highway there
were severe guidelines in place with their contractors designed to manage their
movements on the highway during holiday periods and that has been in place for
many years. So how come the pretty graph you have given us shows peak
truck movements in January next year as the bitumen plant ramps up their
production? Aren't you contradicting yourself Bob?
Next we heard from a resident living in Banana Road with specialist interest in
wildlife. He asked about the large koala corridor that comes out at the
access point of the proposed bitumen plant. The response to this was
rather amusing from Bob as he started he started to tell him about the koala
corridor, the resident was quick to say I know about this too Bob. He
asked what happens here with this corridor where we have koalas using this
corridor all the time and coming out at Mororo Creek Reserve. He informed
Bob the UNSW had been working in the area for the last four years and they had
found endangered species including the golden headed python and sugar
gliders. His question was how do you address this? Bob reminded us
of his long experience and general experience of building roads on the highway
and that he had come across this before. He was asked where was this
information for the public to consider when undertaking their
consultation. There was no reply to this question.
The next question was about the traffic flow asking about the high numbers of
trucks in January - was this a mistake in the projections being put forward as
it was a peak period for tourism in the area during this holiday period.
His answer to this questions was rather confusing and he just restated his
earlier advice that there were strict guidelines in place for contractors……
The next resident summed
it up eloquently, the community were concerned, they were worried the plant
would affect their health. Full stop. Another resident who worked
for WIRES said he was pretty pissed off as he had released a number of rescued
animals into the area of the plant. When asked about how odour would be
contained on the site the team looked worried. Bob took the question
saying odour was an interesting one because it was all about smell.... yes Bob
we know! The question he suggested we needed to think about was - was it
harmful to someone or was it an inconvenience to someone, he said he couldn't
answer this one, the crowd suggested they could!
One of the residents
closest to the plant had a couple of questions regarding due process. She
had bought there just two years ago and had done due diligence of all the
searches possible. She knew the road works were coming and was grateful
for that. The only thing that turned up in her searches was the compound
across the road. She asked why if you know there is bitumen required for
the road why couldn't I find such information. A year ago someone from
the consortium had turned up at her property unannounced to say they were
renting some land for raw materials as a depot or stockpile. Moving on a
year later they get a letter box drop saying feedback was being sought with a
week to do this. When attending the information session last Wednesday
she asked where was the report about air quality? She was told this
wasn't available for two weeks. She asked this because as one of her
major concerns is about this as her husband is dying from Stage 4 Lung
Cancer. She couldn't understand how this information wasn't available
within the timeframe of the consultation. She appealed directly to Chris
asking him "what can you do for my husband? We bought here because of
the zoning, because of how it protects wildlife, for the environment, we have
no chance to sell our property. A) because they don't have the energy, B)
because they would lose money and my husband's dying days is going to be what
no one here seems to be able to tell me what he will be breathing in, what he
will smell and how its going to impact on his quality of life and his quality
of death"….
Do the residents of
Woombah feel they have been listened to? I don't think so. One
woman expressed just that before the consultation was wound up. She was upset
because she didn't feel like we had been listened to and most people in the
audience felt the same way.
At the end there was a little concession – let’s extend the consultation.
That's all well and good but when are you going to hand over the information we
need upon which to make our judgements? When exactly? "
