Greenpeace criticises EPA

By Marina Carman

SYDNEY -- Weeks after a 10-tonne crude oil spill from a Shell terminal into Gore Cove in Sydney Harbour, the area is still polluted and there is no sign of prosecution by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).

Greenpeace researchers report collecting thick crude oil samples from the area as little as a week ago and a two-inch strip of oil residue along the high water mark. Shell and the EPA, however, claim that all traces of oil have been removed from the area and that the job took only 48 hours.

“There will always be oil left after a spill, even months afterwards”, Greenpeace oil campaigner Michael Bland told Green Left Weekly. “An oil spill isn't something that can be cleaned up in a day and walked away from.”

Despite the damage done to the area and Shell's admission that the company was at fault for the spill on July 19, there has been no talk of prosecution of the oil company by the EPA.

“We don't have an environmental protection agency -- we have an oil company protection agency”, Bland said. “How much more evidence does the EPA need before it takes action?”

The EPA's new guidelines for prosecution, released August 24, are another example of this, in that they appear to restrict the rights of ordinary citizens to take proceedings against polluters, said Bland.

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