NSAG had been requesting HMAS Adelaide’s paint to be tested since March but the State government refused.
Four of the State’s expert witnesses claimed the warship contained no lead paint. Our expert found approximately 23 000 square metres of red lead paint within minutes of boarding the ship on second day of hearing in July.
The ship will be scuttled with most of the lead paint still onboard as the judge only ruled for ‘exfoliating paint’ to be removed.
In his final ruling Justice Downes said “as there is limited understanding of the specific impacts of lead on the marine environment, especially over the long term and in marine sediments, additional monitoring is appropriate.”
On February 17 the Project Manager for exHMAS Adelaide assured us that “ALL PCBs have been removed” and on Feburary 24 Minister Tony Kelly stated in Parliament that the ship contained no PCBs
The first testing for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was not done until March 5 at NSAG’s request.
Only five samples were taken from “soft” sites and tested by a lab not accredited for PCB testing.
On March 12 Minister for Lands and Property Management Authority (LPMA) Tony Kelly famously declared on national television there were no PCBs and no lead paint on the ship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SprSOkNvAc
When the State conducted PCB testing outlined by NSAG’s expert the ship did test positive for PCBs in the insulation, gaskets and cabling.
Behind closed doors the State began ripping out cables that tested positive for PCBs after the proposed sinking date of March 27 and before the hearing began on July 5.
PCB’s were also used as elasticisers in primer paints. Adelaide’s sister ship ex-U.S.S. Oliver Hazard Perry tested positive for PCBs in the paint. HMAS Adelaide’s paint has never been tested for PCBs.
PCBs are known carcinogens and one of the deadliest chemicals created by man. They were banned in 1979.
HMAS Adelaide had its keel laid down in 1977 and was completed in 1979, commissioned in 1980.
No environmental impact statement was completed.
A Report on Environmental Factors (REF) was made available to the public in February (one month before the intended scuttling date) and only at the insistence of a suspicious community.
The local community had almost zero consultation and were never considered a ‘stakeholder’.
The true site location was nearly always referred to as Terrigal until December 2009
There has never been a warship scuttled this close to a populated area ever in Australia
Monitoring of the other five scuttled warships has been limited due to insufficient funding and they have never been tested for the presence of PCBs.
The other Australian scuttled sites range between 2 - 12 years old. According to our experts contamination could take up to fifty years to occur as the ship’s hull breaks down.
Wave refraction will occur with beach erosion and permanent change to the wave action a likely consequence.
There has been insufficient study and no localised data collected to properly assess the changes in coastal processes
The REF estimated the dive site will create the equivalent of five full time positions, $1 million to the local business community and $1.18 million in dive fees “over the early years of operation”.
Based on experience of similar dive sites visitation may drop by up to 50% after first year contrary to the inflated reports of up to $20 million annually and “hundreds of jobs”
The international community now acknowledge recycling as the primary mode of despatching obsolete warships due to economic viability and environmental responsiblity.
The recyclable components of the remaining hull, including 200 tonnes of pure marine grade aluminium, is equivalent to the total amount of metal Central Coast residents recycle in the yellow bins in one year.
This is the first obsolete warship to be scuttled in NSW and the outcome of HMAS Adelaide will impact the government’s attitude to disposing of future military waste
HMAS Adelaide is predicted to be only viable as a safe dive site for 25 - 40 years
Once this ship is down the ramifications will be present for approximately the next 250 years.
