- STOP THE TUGBOAT: Adelaide due to depart Sydney 6.30am tomorrow (Thursday)
- Minister Kelly appears wrong on PCBs
- Environmental Defenders Office appeals in court
- Avoca residents stage night-time protest on Sydney Harbour with Wilderness Society
- Chair of international network calls for immediate full review before scuttling
Minister for Lands Tony Kelly appears to be dead-wrong about the presence of PCBs on the ex-HMAS Adelaide.
Minister Kelly may have misled the public at least twice last night (Tuesday March 23) when he stated on two Sydney televisions stations that all PCBs had been removed from the Adelaide.
Today the No Ship Action Group sent “explosive” information to the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) showing the highly likely presence of PCBs in insulated cables in the ship.
Yesterday the Environmental Defender’s Office, acting for the No Ship Action Group, lodged an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against Mr Garrett’s decision to issue a sea dumping permit.
NSAG’s explosive information comes from a photograph taken during a tour of the ship with Labor Member for The Entrance, Grant McBride, last week (Wednesday March 17).
In the week since the tour the images have been pored over and the attached image, when magnified, clearly shows cables labeled with their date of manufacture as 1977. Documentation provided to the Environmental Defenders Office states that cables of this era contained PCBs in a liquid format.
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, CoChair of International POPs Elimination Network, commented on the attached picture.
“I believe this image of a viscous yellow substance weeping from the ends of protruding electrical cables is further evidence that the stripping and cleanup of this ship has not been fully carried out,” she said.
Mr Kelly’s department and the contractor adopted the Canadian standards for the ship’s clean-up.
“The Canadian guidelines state that: the "Open ends of electrical cables that show any evidence of fluid weeping (except for water) must be removed in their entirety,” Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
“This image clearly shows they have not been removed.
"PCBs are one of the most toxic substances known to man and every effort must be made to ensure they do not pollute our oceans, our fish and environments.”
Dr Lloyd-Smith was a member of the National Advisory Body which developed Australia’s PCB Management Plan, and is a Senior Advisor, National Toxics Network Inc. The International POPs Elimination Network worked globally on the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which banned PCBs internationally in 2001.
NSAG have taken other images showing cable trapped in bulkheads ceilings and floors on the ship.
Ironically, one objective of the ship tour was to convince NSAG that PCBs had been completely removed from the vessel, a NSAG spokesman said.
“A fully independent review of this ship is needed immediately and certainly before it is scuttled,” Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
In these last desperate hours the No Ship Action Group joined forces with the Wilderness Society and took to Sydney Harbour in protest at 8.30pm last night (23.3.10). The group sent our Government a clear message: Our oceans are not a dump for Government waste.
The protest group were in a boat which stayed outside the ex-HMAS Adelaide’s 30 metre exclusion zone and used a high-powered projector to display messages on the side of the seven-storey warship docked near the Anzac Bridge at Glebe.
The projected messages drew interest from local bystanders and included: TOXIC TIME BOMB and A MINUTE TO SINK, A LIFETIME TO REGRET, Our Oceans are not a Dump and Avoca Takes No Ship from Anyone.
A high resolution photo of the wires suspected of containing PCBs is attached and low resolution photos of the projector ship action in Sydney Harbour are also attached. High resolution versions of these are available for download here:
Garrett dumps on Avoca
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanfm/4456685753/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Avoca takes No Ship
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanfm/4456688679/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Our Ocean is not a dump
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanfm/4457470618/in/photostream/
Avoca Takes No Ship from Anyone
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanfm/4457474058/sizes/l/in/photostream/