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been replaced by the white picket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 ef-
fects 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
4 VILLAGE VOICE DRUMMOYNE March
aromatic hydrocarbons and total pe-
troleum hydrocarbons in the bay.
Some of these are known human
carcinogens and have caused ex-
treme 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 reme-
diation site stretching 200m from
the shore.
But Jemena, formerly part of
AGL, recently released its remedia-
tion 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 sedi-
ments further from the shore were
covered by a “variable depth of clean
sediment” and did not pose a signifi-
cant human health risk.
However, Dr Mariann Lloyd-
Smith, 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 sedi-
ments even more expensive to clean
up, Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
“Obviously, industry doesn’t want
to pay for this and so make argu-
ments to get around it. The EPA and
the DECC are completely complicit
in the industry approach,” Dr Lloyd-
Smith 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 in-
dustry 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.