Watershed Victoria

Surf riders/swimmers/watchers - Tell us what’s happening !!!

How do you feel about the industrialization of the South East Coast ????

Did you know that Max Wells (Surfing Victoria president & Rip Curl Pro comp manager) did a great job on October 24th when he spoke in front of the EES Panel on Desal Factory Proposal, giving the Panel (& the Dark Lords of Desal) what appears to be the only surf users perspective submitted in the whole Wonthaggi Desal Inquiry ? ?

The Bass Coast Boardriders Club lodged submission #179 which you can download (not large) - written/signed by John Gemmil, Bruce Fergie & Max Wells.

Well, we even got Max to speak in front of our docco team’s camera. OK - so he’s not on a surf board whilst telling us the story - but he got my attention !!

Stay tuned for news on the feature docco on our South East coast and the threats to it …

Daily updates from DANNY DESAL broadcasting from the INQUIRY in Pakenham

Well today was Bass Coast Shires turn to tell the Inquiry what it thought of the whole process and IF this thing goes ahead then it must be done as worlds best practice and not the “worlds worst practice” as Allan Bawden advised the Inquiry that the community consultation and engagement had been. He told them - and Danny concurs - that if the Council had conducted an engagement plan the way the State Government had then they “would have been lynched”!!!  It was good to see the Mayor Neville Goodwin there but again didn’t see any other Councillors! What’s going on here????  Sorry now have to correct that as Veronica Dowman did arrive around 11am and stayed for most of the afternoon.

Danny losing sense of humour with this mob so bring on the election although the candidates look a bit thin on the ground!

The Council staff - Allan , Hannah Duncan-Jones and Steve Piasente - did a great job in highlighting what has worked badly in this process and what would have to happen in the future if this thing goes ahead. Allan made it clear at the outset that they did not support the building of the plant and that it was their view that it was only being built due to the failures of the Government to properly assess all water options available to Melbourne and that it represented policy on the run. they also repeated the message through the day that the engagement with the community had been terrible and hence there was a high degree of mistrust and that it was imperative that the Inquiry make strong recommendations of what needs to be done if it goes ahead.

They went through what happens in the Bass Coast Shire advising the demographics etc and put up many great pictures of the landscape that everyone in the community wants to protect and to also explain why tourism is a growing industry in this area. They used the pilot plant EMP as the example of just how there is a lack of accountability and responsibility for monitoring and controlling what is happening on the ground and they want to get it right before it starts rather than try to fix it up afterwards. Now whilst Danny doesn’t want to really talk about what should be done IF construction starts on this awful thing but Danny has reluctantly convinced himself that the Council has to put forward all these restrictions and conditions to the Inquiry so they can make sure they are incorporated into what goes to the Minister and then through to the contractor. Without this step who knows what would happen??

Hannah Duncan-Jones gave a great presentation on all the planning issues and why they are important to the Shire and the community and that the EES doesn’t address or reflect them including the Coastal Spaces Strategy or even the principals of the planning schemes and the impact of this plant is heaviest on the Bass Coast Shire with the majority of the benefits of it going to Melbourne. Rob Milner a consultant for the Council tried to further enlighten the Inquiry on the proper use of planning frameworks but after questioning by the Government barrister, everyone was left with no confusion that the Environment & Planning Act allows the Minister for Planning to effectively use his discretion to do what he thinks best!  Another consultant David Dreardon, another consultant for the council talked through the landscaping assessments and

that the report inadequately deals with recreational aspects & values and no indication of the methodology applied so unsure when it was conducted and hence means to address it have been left out. He said the Kilcunda rail trail has been left undone, inadequate view assessment were done and the report makes no assessment of the importance of the recreational values and there was no info on number of people that use it so can’t identify how many it affects.

Steve Piasente went on to talk them through the big issues of the traffic, waste and power route impacts on the Shire and the roads that must be upgraded and fixed before anything starts. The list was long, trust me and they made it clear also that the gas fired power plant on the site was totally opposed by the Council. The Inquiry spent some time understanding the access roads etc into the site from all angles and what is bitumen and what is dirt etc so hopefully they will understand and we believe they were doing some touring after the hearings.

All the photo’s of the terrible roads in this area had Danny worrying about how we are going to cope with all that traffic on our little and falling apart roads!

Probably much more to tell about the day but might be good to get the presentations and put them up on the site so you can see them. Danny will work on that on Friday.

Only 4 days to go and Danny, whilst loving every minute of this excruciating process is looking forward to it being over !!!

Word on the street is that Melbourne people have heard the threat to cycling tracks from the mega-desal factory & other PPP projects - they are coming to help …

4th November 2008 (Melbourne Cup Day) - Picnic & Cyclers Info Day
Bike Riders: Please meet at Guide Park (opposite the Wonthaggi Hospital) at 10am on Tuesday, Melbourne Cup Day, for a group ride to the picnic place on Williamson’s Beach via ‘Ground Zero’ - Find out how the mega-desal proposal would affect cycling on the Rail Trail & across the Bass Shire..
Non cyclers: Please meet cyclers at intersection of Rail Trail & Proposed Desal Site
Inquiries to Frank: Ph 5672 2390

See the Events page for other Rail Trail and public access events …

October 2008

From President Bass Coast Boardriders Club
John Gemmill MAppSci.BEng.

Phone: 0409 425 133

” … [Desalination] Plant will spew out a cocktail of toxic effluent that will not
disperse as the government initially predicted and may well cause upwellings
of toxic muck into the shallows, an area in where lovers of the sea frequent. “

Full release = one page - click below…

DR KAEMPF EVIDENCE DEEPLY WORRIES SURF RIDER

More from Dr K is in THE KAEMPF FILE

Full Title of Inquiry: Melbourne’s Future Water Supply

When is it happening? - Start: 2008 End: This date has been repeatedly postponed by the the State ALP Government so as to not show the public how the farcical their 2007 ALP/DSE Water Plan for Central Regions is in reality >1

Who is hosting the Inquiry? - Committee of Victorian Parliamentarians within the Environment and Natural Resources Committee who are from various political parties

What: This inquiry is important because it NOT an ALP members-only State Government inquiry - so there cant be a cover up of what the water figures really are (though the final published findings will probably be distorted by the State bodies under the direction of ALP Ministers)

Download: Watershed Members’ Submission To Water Inquiry (PDF ~ 1.1mb)

Recommendations Summery: (click below to expand)

Summery Of Recommendations

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Download: Victorian Water Foums Submission To Water Inquiry (PDF)

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Footnotes

>1 . The Victorian central region Water Plan ad-hoc farcical sheme is made up of

• A desalination mega-factory - likely to be dependent on very nasty Chlorinated compounds, and the ‘Brumby cartel’ have stated that the effluent (congaing these types of compounds) may well be put DIRECTLY into a HIGH CONSERVATION environment !
  
• A North-South Mega-Pipe - no EES done on it , breaks ALP promises, takes water from Murray basin !!
  
• A corporatised inter-city water grid
• The failure to fully upgrade the two huge Melbourne wastewater treatment plants
  
• An as yet unnamed PPP cartel (the ‘Brumy Cartel’) - but one that smells strongly of ALP corruption (Chris Masters - why are you retiring now ??)
  

Please come to a session of the hearing to support Watershed and the the dozens of Organisations and individuals making vital presentations to oppose to the crazy Wonthaggi desal proposal …

TIMETABLE (Version 3) for Hearings of the EES Inquiry

DOWNLOADS

• THE KAEMPF FILES - Expert Witness Dr Jochan Kaempf based at Flinders University (S.A.) showed up the appalling slack marine science and holes in reports provided by the Government.
• THE HEISLER REPORT - Vetenary family the Heislers led by Dr Chris Heislers, …. more to come
• … more to come

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

October 2008

From President Bass Coast Boardriders Club
John Gemmill MAppSci.BEng.

Phone: 0409 425 133

” ..[Desalination] Plant will spew out a cocktail of toxic effluent that will not
disperse as the government initially predicted and may well cause upwellings
of toxic muck into the shallows, an area in where lovers of the sea frequent. “

Full release is one page - click below…

DR KAEMPF EVIDENCE DEEPLY WORRIES SURF RIDERS CLUB

What: Visual Slide Presentation made to full Inquiry Panel

By: Dr Jochen Kaempf
School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

Title: A critical assessment of the EES of the Victorian Desalination Project with Emphasis on Marine Pollution

Size: 1.5 MB

DOWNLOAD:

• 1.5 MB ZIP of JPJ SLIDES - Dr J Kaempf - 2008

This is the zipped 1.5 MB presentation of the the oceanographer Dr Jocham, to the panel, converted from a large power point file to a series of web-friendly slides….

Other file types can be made available on request … (Contact Page)

Day 10 - WONDERFUL WATERSHED DID US ALL PROUD TODAY

The Watershed team did a great job in trying to raise so many important issues that MUST be thought about by the Inquiry in their deliberations and we should all feel proud of the community effort that has brought us this far. One has to wonder what would have happened if Your Water Your Say and Watershed weren’t there speaking out and raising all these issues? (too scary to think about really)

Danny wonders where all the Bass Coast Shire Councilors were?? Not one in attendance today at the Watershed presentations and Danny wonders why they couldn’t show up to support the community group!! If this is as much a political process as an environmental one it would have been helpful for the ‘politicians’ of local government to have supported this group. Some might think this comment is a little unfair but remember, these are Danny’s views and he has the power of the pen!

It was good to see Allan Bawden come down to Pakenham and his attendance and show of support is appreciated by Danny at the very least. Danny noticed also that the EPA visited for the expert witness presentations but then left as did one DSE person but then wandered in and out when Watershed was presenting. Make of that what you will !!

Also great that so many people could make the trip to Pakenham to show their support and that the community deeply cares about the impact of this proposal from many aspects of social impact to marine damage to climate change.

For those that weren’t able to attend Danny has taken copious notes so all can see how the day went and will get them up to the site as soon as possible after tidying them up and taking out the swear words!!

Danny also proud of the individual presenters - Nola Maxfield, Chris Heislers and David Wingfield - who argued both persuasively and emotionally as to what was wrong with both the EES and the desal plant itself. They should be loudly applauded for their efforts by everyone. Their individual presentations will be put up on the website asap for you to see and enjoy or rather dismay at the lack of information available in the EES to address these specific issues. The presentations really did put a human face on Watershed and just how much real and detailed knowledge and expertise is in the local area that will be directly affected and they need to be listened to and given equal weight to in the Inquiry’s deliberations.

Despite considerable barrister type questions Jochen Kaempf did a great job of virtually telling them that there was so much still missing from the ASR evaluations that they were running a ’severe’ risk in going ahead without considerable further modeling and assessment. His report will be made available on the site as soon as we can get it electronically as well.

It’s a short summary today and if you have the time Danny suggest you have a read of the presentations when they are available on the site as that fills you in since it was our day today.

It’s Bass Coast Council day on Thursday at San Remo and Danny is confident they will put up a strong case.

Kathy Mitchell did also make a point of saying how the Panel did value the input from the community and it will be taken seriously and thanked Watershed and its members for their significant contribution as we were an important part of this process. We can only but dream that it carries equal weight when they are writing their report to the Minister !

Danny dares to dream!

Daily updates from DANNY DESAL broadcasting from the INQUIRY in Pakenham

Before Danny starts on the exciting proceedings of today he thought he might just say

DON’T FORGET WATERSHED DAY TOMORROW - WEDNESDAY 29/OCTOBER

Danny getting lonely!

The first witness was Hansen Partnerships who said that the landscape and visual impacts have not been suitably resolved and the EES doesn’t value the impact highly enough particularly if there is already Significant Landscape Overlays (SLO) in place and the ERM report is unbalanced and is biased towards development. Well Danny nearly fell over, surely the highly paid consultants by the Government wouldn’t favour their clients!!!! Never heard of such thing! The barrister type questioning of the witnesses is quite intriguing with the questions around the use of words to create impressions. Isn’t that what everyone is doing???

But wait, the light bulb has just gone on over Danny’s head - Cardinia Shire is pushing for the gas plant co-located on the site whereas the PGOG is pushing for more analysis to be completed and to underground from the grid. The PGOG understands that a gas plant on-site will still likely need to be connected to the grid and hence the issue of power lines comes up again but Cardinia just want it out of their Shire and seem to think that all their problems will be solved by the gas plant on-site. Danny is getting a little tired of using this expression but can’t find anything better - HOW NIMBY CAN YOU GET! But the proponent didn’t let them get away with it and emphatically hit the point that it would be highly likely that there would also be a power connection from the gas power plant back into the grid!

Same problem for Cardinia, different date!

You may or may not agree with me but this is a very very shortsighted and insular view. It’s basically saying we don’t care about the environment and other people in other shires we just want to look after ourselves. Now if anyone reading this is a resident of Cardinia Shire then Danny thinks you should be telling your Council that this is a really shallow and selfish perspective. Danny doesn’t want to upset people but, aren’t we all in this together?? Don’t we all care about the overall environmental impact of this or just the part that affects us directly?

The next expert talked about planning principles and the Planning & Environment Act and how it should relate to the terms of this Inquiry even though it has been convened under the Environment Effects Act. It’s all a bit legalistic but some quite valid points were raised about just how rigorous (or lack thereof) the assessments have been in this regard JUST as they relate to the area covered by the Cardinia Shire. But he did admit that the decision to build the desal plant will leave a lasting legacy and that when it comes to the delivery of water, “at what cost?” (Danny thinks he has heard that expression before!!!)

Danny also thinks that when someone says you don’t need good legal representation in the EES process - IGNORE THEM! This is as much a legal battle and use of language to ensure the panel members understand what they have been instructed to do by the Government and its not their role to evaluate Goverment policy, in this case, water policy. The QC’s for the Government certainly grilled the expert witnesses put up by Cardinia and will no doubt do the same for Watersheds expert and others. Let me just say that Chris Townsend SC put their expert under considerable vigorous questioning and when looking at the Inquiry members you have to wonder what impact it has. Danny not sure if its positive or not but I did get the real impression from Ms Mitchell’s comments that they are looking at a much broader set of issues and the proponent should not try to confine them.

Cardinia then went on to put forward a cost comparison of the various power options which Danny doesn’t have the expertise to go into any detail on. Doesn’t matter really as ultimately it will come down to what is the most acceptable bid put in and we won’t see it anyway as no doubt it will be “commercial in confidence”!!! I guess their real push is to get the Inquiry to recommend that much more work needs to be done to work through the power options and if that delays the project well Danny might get happier with them.

Guess what - Cardinia told everyone they won’t be in attendance until the closing day! What a surprise!!!!

That’s all folks and look forward to a positive day on Watersheds day on Wednesday.