Kwinana residents oppose industrial expansion

BY ANTHONY BENBOW

PERTH — “Kierath says our existence is a 'planning mistake'. We've
been here at Wattleup four decades, Hope Valley a century — that's long
before the heavy industry at Kwinana. So which one is the 'planning mistake'?”

Brian Vidovich, president of the Kwinana Air Buffer Zone (KABZ) group,
is angry about attempts by WA planning minister Graham Kierath to extend
the Kwinana industrial strip and in the process obliterate the communities
of Wattleup and Hope Valley, south of Fremantle. Many other local residents
share his outrage.

Kierath has introduced legislation to fast-track the government's Fremantle-Rockingham
Industrial Area Regional Strategy plan, a move KABZ member Horst Ruthrof
describes as “brutal”. “If this goes through, it will bypass two acts in
place to deal with the humane requirements and complexities of planning”,
Ruthrof said, by removing landholders' right to make any changes to their
properties without specific state government approval and quarantining
the land for future industrial development.

Landholders will be allowed to sell land only to the government and
residents say the compensation offered is inadequate.

The heavy industrial area at Kwinana includes oil, nickel and bauxite
refineries, a chemical works and a power station. The area is adjacent
to Cockburn Sound, “the most severely degraded marine area around Perth”,
according to a 1996 environment department report.

Concerns about sulphur dioxide emissions resulted in the establishment
of the “Kwinana air buffer zone” in 1992, which includes Hope Valley, Wattleup
and surrounding areas. As well as protecting horticultural and rural uses,
the buffer includes sensitive wetland areas, a rubbish tip and bauxite
refiner Alcoa's tailing ponds.

Vidovich recalls that local residents were unhappy with the way the
buffer was created, “One day we were rural, the next we were part of a
buffer zone. We asked why was there no consultation.”

Residents found out in 1997 that the state government had produced a
draft discussion paper which proposed a sweeping expansion of industry
into the buffer. Initially claiming that the paper was too expensive to
print, the government eventually caved in to residents' demands to print
and distribute an extra 500 copies.

Residents' anger grew when they realised that the government planned
to convert the entire buffer area into an industry zone, on the grounds
that such an expansion was necessary to protect residents from industrial
accidents.

The KABZ group points out, however, that no reason was ever given for
extending the current risk contour beyond the edge of existing heavy industry,
and that research shows a substantial improvement in sulphur dioxide emissions
in the buffer. World Health Organisation levels for residential areas have
not been exceeded in the last five years.

The government now claims that the Kwinana industrial area is “a cornerstone
of the WA economy”. “First they tell us the buffer is to protect us from
industry”, Vidovich said. “Now, suddenly, it's to protect the industry
from us!”

The KABZ group spent $20,000 on a detailed community submission opposing
industrial expansion at Kwinana, as did Cockburn Council. The submissions
called for further restrictions on pollution and heavy industry, the expansion
of existing townships and a scheme on mixed land use that protects the
environment.

Both submissions were ignored and both groups were denied a place on
the planning committee for the scheme. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
however, was welcomed onto the committee with open arms.

The debacle at Kwinana will be one of the topics under discussion at
a Politics in the Pub forum in Fremantle sponsored by Green Left Weekly,
titled “Saving our environment: community control versus corporate profit”.
The forum will take place on June 23, 7pm, P&O Hotel, 25 High Street,
Fremantle.

From GLW issue 409