Sydney Water is building a desalination plant at Kurnell powered by wind energy and is calling for nominations from community groups, businesses and the public to take part in Sydney’s Desalination Project Liaison Group.

Sydney Water Managing Director, Kerry Schott said the group would provide an important forum for Sydney Water and its partners to work with representatives of the local community.

“The aim of the group is to have open communication about the project, address community issues and provide feedback to group members and the public”, Dr Schott said.

“An independent chairperson will chair the group.

“Sydney Water is committed to working with local communities during the construction of major projects”.

People interested in nominating for the liaison group should read the Terms of Reference and complete an Application Form. For further information call Sydney Water on 1800 685 233 (freecall).

Sydney Water will assess nominations in consultation with Sutherland Shire Council.

Nominations close 3.00pm, Friday, 21 December 2007.

The Botany Bay Coastal Catchments Initiative (BBCCI) is conducting workshops over the next few months to give a brief overview of the BBCCI and to seek stakeholder input into “resetting” or agreeing on some interim environmental values and levels of protection for the estuaries and freshwater waterways of the Botany Bay and its catchment.The workshop only takes about 1 ½ to 2 hours and can be brought to you. It will allow you to have your say on how you use/value Botany Bay’s waterways (including upstream freshwater catchments), what are the main pressures on them, what management measures you think will help protect the waterways. You will also be participating in setting some interim aquatic ecosystem protection levels for Botany Bay, its estuaries, and freshwater waterways.

Please contact John Dahlenburg at the Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority to book a workshop for your council, council area, community group or organisation - Phone (02) 9895 6244 or email bbcci@cma.nsw.gov.au

The Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources has released a new factsheet on particulate matter. Small particles as mentioned in this factsheet are found in industrial pollution and diesel exhaust.

The Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources has released a new factsheet on Polychlorinated biphenyls.

These are the chemicals currently awaiting destruction at Orica.

Below is a letter written by Greg Killeen that was recently published in Lloyd’s List.

Sir

I write in regard to your story (”NSW Opposition slams uncoordinated NSW spending”, Sam Collyer, Lloyd’s List DCN , September 27, 2007) and would agree the Iemma Government has no integrated freight plan and this equates to gross economic mismanagement of NSW and its taxpayers’ money.

With Sydney’s lack of appropriate road and rail infrastructure to support current container trade, the Iemma Government should scrap the proposed 60-ha Port Botany expansion and use the $700m-plus construction budget, along with the AusLink funding, to address this issue immediately.

There is no urgency for a 60-ha third terminal as DP World’s proposed $43m upgrade and the recent completion of Patrick’s $220m upgrade will increase Port Botany’s capacity to around 2.7m teu per annum - doubling current capacity - and without NSW taxpayers’ money.

The Port Botany expansion is planned without any sound business principles.

The Iemma Government will soon announce the successful tenderer for the “design and construction” of the 60-ha footprint (twice the size recommended by the COI), prior to securing a contract with a stevedore to develop and operate on it, resulting in no surety of a return on the expenditure.

With the Iemma Government unable to manage a long-term lease with DP World at Port Botany, what will be the economic and commercial impact if Patricks does not exercise its 18-ha (30%) option on the proposed 60-ha expansion, that it was offered to get out of Darling Harbour before 2000?

Port Botany was approved to process a maximum of 3.2m teu per annum with the proposed expansion. However, it will have a capacity greater than 4.2m teu per annum combined with current stevedores’ upgrades.

If and when the port were to operate at this capacity, even with the 40% freight rail target for containers, it would equate to a 200%-300% increase in containers transported by road, creating an ongoing detrimental impact on Sydney’s traffic congestion.

Mr Tripodi’s comments are true - that there was extensive community consultation for the Port Botany expansion; however, the community submissions were, and continue to be, ignored as was the recommendations of the COI.

The Iemma Government has given itself powers beyond legal reproach by establishing “state significant” legislation to approve any development, regardless of the detrimental economic, environmental and social impact and has turned NSW from a democracy into a dictatorship.

The Iemma Government must reconsider the proposed Port Botany expansion and address the current container freight and infrastructure issues with a whole of state approach and implement the NSW Ports Growth Plan now.

Or it will prove the Government has learnt nothing from its other infrastructure debacles, such as the Cross City Tunnel, Sydney Airport RailLink and the M5 that was at capacity the day it opened etc., because it will squeeze the last breath out of Sydney’s choking road network.

Greg Killeen,

Secretary, Save Botany Beach.

The Federal Department of Environment and Water Resources has released a new factsheet on Particulate Matter. Small particles as mentioned in this factsheet are found in industrial pollution and diesel exhaust.

Patrick has downplayed suggestions that heavy congestion at its Port Botany container terminal this week is the worst the port has seen in 10 years.Importers and road transporters told Lloyd’s List DCN that turnaround times at the terminal this week, and tracing back as far as August, are worse than ever.

Patrick terminal operations general manager Peter van Duyn said this morning (Wednesday, October 17) that the congestion had been caused by a technical glitch that affected the stevedore’s global positioning system (GPS).

“Yesterday was particularly bad, but that was just an IT issue,” Mr van Duyn said.

“We had network problems that distorted our GPS on the straddles.”

Patrick had been forced to operate its straddles manually, which had slowed the landside process, Mr van Duyn said.

The terminal also had to deal with extra boxes delivered by a vessel that had bypassed Brisbane and had instead unloaded all her Brisbane-bound boxes in Sydney.

But road transporters said the congestion had been evident since August, which some said was worse than anything seen in the last 10 years, including the 1998 waterfront dispute.

Some carriers are reportedly recommending to their clients that they use shipping lines that are serviced by rival DP World, which has faced congestion of its own but not to the same degree.

Statistics sent to Lloyd’s List DCN by the Australian Trucking Association New South Wales suggested that at least one carrier had waited almost three hours on average for daytime slots and almost four hours at night to enter Patrick’s terminal.

The information, reflecting slots used since last Tuesday, showed that one truck had waited seven hours.

Truck companies said the delays meant their drivers were exceeding their allowable shift times, representing a danger to themselves and the public.

Sydney Ports Corporation’s Cargo Facilitation Committee met yesterday, with much of the discussion focusing on the present delays at Patrick.

But Mr van Duyn said Patrick would be back operating smoothly by the weekend.

“We’re whittling it down and we’re very mindful of the pain we caused yesterday, we are really prioritising the road at the moment,” he said.

“We’re trying to honour [vehicle] slots that we missed out yesterday and shipping has levelled off a bit so we’re trying to recover.”

Patrick has extended free storage times until Monday morning and is not cracking down on no-shows by truck companies.

The Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia’s (CBFCA) freight and business operations manager Paul Zalai welcomed the concessions but said he looked forward to meeting New South Wales ports minister Joe Tripodi in two weeks.

Patrick’s congestion woes come as the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) prepares to deliver a draft report on landside issues at the port.

Story from Lloyd’s List

(From Lloyd’s List )

A lack of urgency and the non-use of an integrated freight plan had left many key road, rail and port projects in New South Wales unsynchronised, the state’s opposition leader Barry O’Farrell said yesterday (Monday, September 24).

In an interview with Lloyd’s List DCN, Mr O’Farrell said the state Labor Government had not lived up to its 2007 election slogan “More to do, but heading in the right direction”.

“There’s no shortage of plans, no shortage of ideas, there’s no shortage of knowledge of what needs to be done - what has been lacking has been any sense of either timeliness or urgency in actually making the decision and getting on with the job,” Mr O’Farrell said.

“We’ve seen since the election a couple of decisions, but to quote Labor’s 2007 election strategy, those decisions are heading in the right direction but there is plenty more to be done.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The Save Botany Beach July Newsletter is now available.

Greens MP and ports spokesperson Lee Rhiannon says Premier Iemma’s commitment to an expanded Port Botany will unnecessarily strangle Sydney with an increasing number of trucks and freight trains impacting negatively on Sydney’s traffic, air pollution and health.

“The NSW government will never reach its 40 percent rail freight target without adopting a freight infrastructure charge which would create an incentive to move freight by rail. Its decision to duck this initiative shows it has again caved into the road lobby,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“For the government to claim there will be 300 fewer truck movements a day around the Airport, Port Botany and Marrickville and a reduction in CO2 is pure fantasy. ” Read the rest of this entry »