By Ivars Reinfelds and Peter Johnson
WOLLONGONG — Two hundred and fifty angry residents packed into the Warrawong Community Centre on June 1. They heard barrister Tim Robertson describe how the Carr government, on May 29, rushed legislation through state parliament to override any Land and Environment Court decision regarding the proposed reopening of the Port Kembla smelter.
The Southern Copper smelter at Port Kembla, previously the largest single polluter on the east coast of NSW, has been closed since February 1995.
Prior to the closure, 150 pollution licence breaches per year had been authorised by the minister for urban affairs and planning, against the reservations of the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). The director general of the EPA, Dr Neil Shepard, reportedly described the approval of so many licence breaches as "madness".
The smelter has been implicated in higher than average rates of cancer among Port Kembla residents. Past emissions of sulphur dioxide, lead, arsenic and cadmium have been so horrendous that during a local festival, visitors were overcome by fumes and required medical attention.
Fruit and vegetables organically grown in the Port Kembla area have been shown by the Illawarra Public Health Unit to have dangerous levels of lead and cadmium.
A letter from the Public Health Unit to a resident living 500 metres from the smelter stated that yard soil "should not come into contact with humans, particularly small children". Port Kembla Primary School is located directly underneath the smelter emissions stack.
A local resident, Helen Hamilton, has attempted to block the NSW government decision to reopen the smelter by taking the case to the Land and Environment Court.
Upon receiving advice that it would almost certainly lose the case, the Carr government rammed special legislation through the lower house approving the smelter.
With support from the Liberal Party, it also passed amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, which negate the right of any citizen to appeal a development once it has been approved by the minister for urban affairs and planning.
Robertson told the meeting that "there are at least 20 lever-arch folders" of information highly damning to the government's case, now unavailable for public viewing, even under the Freedom of Information Act.
Robertson has had access to the documents in his capacity as a barrister, but was not able to provide specific details: "I can't tell you because Mr Carr has gagged us".
The documents cover the last 10 years of the smelter's operations and the impact on the surrounding environment. Robertson described the hill on which the smelter is located as "a sea of contamination", and told residents that the secret documents contained daily recordings of pollution levels, with sulphur dioxide levels exceeding World Health Organisation limits right up to the escarpment (several kilometres from the stack).
The smelter has been approved to refine at least four times the tonnage previously smelted under the Southern Copper banner.
The pollution control equipment to be installed is second hand and is not the most effective technology available; an alternative water-based technology would greatly reduce the pollution.