No Ship at Avoca

Tony Burke MP Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

24 September 2010

Dear Mr Burke,
RE: Sea Dumping Permit for ex-HMAS Adelaide. NSAG Inc and Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and Anor [2010] AATA 702 – Enforcement and other matters.

1. The No Ship Action Group (NSAG) request an urgent meeting with the Minister to discuss the Sea Dumping Permit for the ex-HMAS Adelaide.

2. The decision in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal outlines several additional conditions to the Sea Dumping Permit that must be met by the NSW State Government and LPMA.
e) the ship must be cleaned of all remaining wiring, including junction boxes, which might be associated with polychlorinated biphenyls;
f) the ship must be cleaned of all canvas and insulation; and
g) the ship must be cleaned of all exfoliating and/or exfoliated red lead paint http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/AATA/2010/702.html

We were given iron-clad assurances that there was no lead paint and no PCBs on the ship by Minister Tony Kelly and your Department - this was not the case. Over 2000 kilograms of electrical cabling (some of which tested positive for PCBs) remained on the vessel when the Department approved the Sea Dumping Permit.

3. We wish to register our strong concern with regards to the remaining lead paint left on the vessel. This covers most of the 20,000 sq metres of the interior of the ship.
This lead paint was missed by all the environmental inspections undertaken by your Department and the LPMA.

It fell to our local community to fund an expert from the USA to reveal the existence of this lead paint at a substantial cost. The lead content of the paint averages 28% but some is 40% lead according to tests conducted by the NSW State Government during the hearing.

We are alarmed that the vessel will be allowed to be sunk only 1400 metres offshore with that amount of lead paint in a bed of sand that feeds our beach with sand. If you have children you will know that children eat sand at the beach frequently. The lead paint will over time flake off into the sediment surrounding the vessel.

We note on your website:
http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosphere/airquality/publications/marinepaints.html
“Many marine paints are high in lead and because of this they can be a health hazard, potentially causing intellectual problems in children.
Swallowing one lead-based paint flake about the size of a five-cent piece can cause lead poisoning.”

4. Condition 2 of the Sea Dumping Permit requires the LPMA to notify the Department in writing that the required preparations have been completed. Condition 3 effectively prevents LPMA from scuttling the ship before those preparations have been completed. It will be an offence for LPMA to carry out the scuttling without complying with the preparations.

5. Condition 28 allows the Federal Government to inspect the ship to ensure that the conditions have been followed. There are also inspection rights given to the Federal Government inspectors under the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 itself, where there are reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has been committed.

Please advise on what the Minister’s intends to do to ensure the ship will be inspected for compliance before the tow occurs.

We request that a member of NSAG be permitted to attend that compliance inspection.
We also request that NSAG is provided with copies of relevant information (eg notes of the inspection, photographs) showing compliance to NSAG before the ship is towed.

6. In addition, NSAG are extremely concerned about potential changes to the coastal geomorphology of the area. Assessments by coastal engineers have indicated there could be a 5.3 metre reduction in shoreline at North Avoca as a result of placing the 138 metre, 4000 tonne vessel in the proposed location.

Given the now known deficiencies in the assessment process, it would be prudent for the Minister to insist that the New South Wales Government commission an in-depth, public and independent study into the long-term effect this wreck could have on sediment deposits and erosion at Avoca Beach and surrounding areas.

7. An activity that is likely to significantly impact on listed migratory species (which include humpback and southern right whales) would be an offence under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Will the Minister regard it as a breach of the EPBC Act if the ship is towed and scuttled with explosives during the whale migration season?

8. NSAG strongly believes that this ship should be responsibly recycled at Garden Island drydock. The cost estimates for this were provided in the hearing in an affidavit by David Coyle. We request that the Minister consider this as the preferred option
given the strong community opposition to the scuttling and the risks and hazards identified.

9. If the vessel is used as an artificial reef for a dive site we have been advised it is only viable for approximately 20-25 years yet the ship will take 100 years to break down into the marine environment. NSAG feels this is short sighted decision that serves only the interest of commercial dive operators in the area.

10. We request as stakeholders in this project that we be immediately informed of any further developments with regards to the permit and the plans to tow the vessel.

Yours Sincerely
Michelle Meares
No Ship Action Group