Kendall Bay

Toxins linger beyond the picket fence

From left: Breakfast Point residents Greg McGrath and Don McKenzie said the plans to remediate the bay do not go far enough; the remediation site from 2006, where investigations found toxins up to 200m from the shoreline; a map of Jemena’s proposed remediation site, which shows only a part of the original site and extends about 68m.

By Lauren Farrow

The State Government is letting polluters walk away from almost a century of environmental damage at Kendall Bay, according to environmental experts and residents, who say clean up plans fall short. Since the 1880s heavy industry dominated the foreshore at Kendall Bay, with workers at AGL’s former gasworks site heaving large bags of coal up and down the wharfs to burn. Although these gasworks have been replaced by the white picket fences of the up-market residential development Breakfast Point, the effects of the industry remain. Breakfast Point resident Don McKenzie said it was common to smell petrol-like chemicals and see lumps of coal washing up on the bay’s shore. It’s a story that is backed up by decades of toxicology reports that show high levels of polycyclic

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aromatic hydrocarbons and total petroleum hydrocarbons in the bay. Some of these are known human carcinogens and have caused extreme environmental harm. Due to these findings, in 2004, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) ordered AGL to clean up the bay. Within this order was a remediation site stretching 200m from the shore. But Jemena, formerly part of AGL, recently released its remediation plan, which only includes two small sections of the bay, extending about 68m. “As residents, our concern is that the area is polluted and they are going to leave known toxins in the bay,” Breakfast Point resident Greg McGrath said. “These can wash up and down the river, and onto places were people wade or swim.” But according to a spokesman

from Jemena, contaminated sediments further from the shore were covered by a “variable depth of clean sediment” and did not pose a significant human health risk. However, Dr Mariann LloydSmith, senior adviser to the National Toxics Network of Australia, said this was just an argument used to avoid hefty clean-up costs. In 2002, it cost AGL $70 million to complete the remediation of the land at Breakfast Point, with sediments even more expensive to clean up, Dr Lloyd-Smith said. “Obviously, industry doesn’t want to pay for this and so make arguments to get around it. The EPA and the DECC are completely complicit in the industry approach,” Dr LloydSmith said. “It’s an issue that I have been dealing with for the past 30 years. Companies have been polluting and

walking away with a regularity that would make you cry,” she said. What do you think? Should industry be forced to clean up the bay? Tell us at www.villagevoice.com.au WHAT ABOUT THE MARINA?

Breakfast Point Pty Ltd’s controversial plans for a 177-berth commercial marina at Kendall Bay is facing rocky conditions, if proposed remediation work in the bay goes ahead as planned. A spokeswoman from the Department of Environment and Climate Change said contaminated sediments can remain in the bay but are under a “do not disturb’’ order, which means no dredging or building of any sort. Breakfast Point Pty Ltd did not respond to the Village Voice’s questions.