Coode Island assessment a 'sham'

By Jolyon Campbell

MELBOURNE — A coalition of environmental groups has withdrawn from the environmental assessment process for the relocation of the Coode Island chemical storage facility, calling the negotiations a sham.

After repeated claims by environmental and community groups that the chemical complex in inner-urban Melbourne represented an unacceptable risk, the site produced one of Australia's most serious toxic misadventures when 10 tanks of noxious chemicals exploded in August 1991.

Following sustained pressure from local residents and action groups, the Kirner ALP state government agreed to a consultative relocation assessment. A site at West Point Wilson, between Melbourne and Geelong and a significantly safer distance from residential areas, became the favoured site for relocation of the facility.

However, in December, the current Kennett government sacked the Safer Chemical Storage Taskforce and replaced it with a "Consultative Committee" composed entirely of industry representatives.

The input of environmental groups, including Hazardous Materials Action Group, Greenpeace, Environment Victoria and the Australian Conservation Foundation, was no longer invited, and has been met with filibuster and misinformation by the Consultative Committee chairperson.

The agenda of the new committee has not yet been made public, but it is widely believed by participants in the assessment process that the Kennett government and federal ministers have already decided on using the Point Wilson site for a proposed military-industrial plant.

Mardie Townsend, representing the environmental groups which last week announced their withdrawal, explained, "We can no longer see any reason to continue our involvement since the state and Commonwealth governments are secretly planning to put the storage facility at Point Lilias and put the East Coast Armaments Complex at Point Wilson.

"The Victorian government has been dishonest and underhand in its dealing with the general public and with the environment groups. The federal government is trying to force us to accept a massive arms complex right next door to the chemical storage facility and has rejected all calls for a proper process to find the best site for ECAC."

Townsend said that the people of Victoria had been assured that the chemical storage facility would be moved from Coode Island by 1997, and that the process for examining the site recommended by the review panel would be open and thorough. "The state government has secretly selected Point Lilias as its site for the storage facility despite it being rejected by the Coode Island Review Panel on safety and environmental grounds.

"An enormous amount of time, energy and taxpayers' money has been put into examining the suitability of Point Wilson for the chemical store. Environment groups have spent nearly three years hard work helping the government solve the difficult but necessary question of the Coode Island relocation.

"We now find ourselves being treated with a combination of lies and secrecy by both the state and federal governments."

From GLW issue 136