Shell pollutes Sydney Harbour

By Pip Hinman

SYDNEY -- While more than 10 tonnes of crude oil was spilled in a routine transfer between tankers at the Shell terminal at Gore Cove on July 19, to date, Shell has not been prosecuted.

“This shows that we just don't have the right laws to deal with polluting companies,” Greenpeace's oil campaigner Michael Bland told Green Left. While Shell has been prosecuted six times for oil spills since 1980, Bland says that oil spills occur every day.

The day after the July 19 spill, the Environmental Protection Authority was reported as saying it did not consider that a “significant” spill had occurred and were satisfied with Shell's clean-up operation.

Greenpeace and the Nature Conservation Council disagree and have called for tougher laws to deal with spills. As Bland noted, “Sydney is a sitting target with a major oil refinery in its midst and constant oil tanker traffic through the Heads.” Unless authorities like the government and the EPA force oil companies to be made accountable for polluting the environment, a major disaster on Sydney Harbour is inevitable, Bland concluded.

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