How many trucks, laden with hazardous materials, will drive though the town of Sorell?
The debate around the Carlton River Hazadous Materials Waste dump, is squarely focussed on the suitability of this particular site.
The site is within 200metres of the nearest tributary and 600-800metres from the main tributary of the Carlton River proper.
Given that this site is slated to receive anything between 300,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes of the state’s most hazadous waste over the next 100 years, the site chosen needs to have the greatest environmental redundancy possible.
This site sits on the boundary of a ‘tectonic block’ with known and documented seismic activity. This seismic activity has taken the form of ‘seismic clusters’, a phenomenon that preceeded Australia’s most notable recent significant earthquakes in both Tennant Creek and Newcastle. Located adjacent the site is a fault line with a pre-existing vertical displacement of some 300metres. A significant fault in anyone’s language.
The ‘c’ cell that constitutes a suitable recepticle for this hazadous material consists of 2, 2mm layers of High Density Polyethelene (HDPE) with a layer of clay between them. This is the only barrier layers to the cell. Given that heavy metal laden material would remain hazadous insitu for perpetuity, this requires that this HDPE material can also remain insitu undegraded and undamaged for perpetuity.
I ask any relevant scientist to present data that demonstrates that HDPE will outlast toxic heavy metals insitu. If there is damage to the barrier layers once the cell is filled with material, there exists no known way of fixing it.
Furthermore, Hydrological studies of the site are inadequate as they all occurred during below average rainfall years and only account for above average rainfall through questionable extrapolation.
Since 2008 the Carlton River has experienced regular annual flood events. Even though groundwater was studied during dry years, it still came within the 5 metre threshold considered a breach of the 2004 sustainable guidelines for landfill.
The proponents have had to institute plans for a pump-out facility to deal with this obvious flaw in the site. Again this would have to be maintained for perpetuity.
The EPA risk matrix recognised that even a minor failure of the cell represented a high environmental risk, while a moderate to catastrophic failure represented a extreme environmental risk. Why? Because of its proximity to the Carlton River. A river that within 10 kilometres of this site runs into Frederick Henry Bay At the location of the Southern Beaches Communities. This is one of the fastest growing regions in Tasmania and Carlton/Park beach is one of the most popular recreational beaches in Southern Tasmania.
The river is home to a rare and endemic oyster, weedy sea dragons inhabit Carlton Bluff at the mouth of the river, as do fairy penguins. Wedge tail eagles have nesting sites in the area potentially affected.
The EPA neglected to study the aquatic fauna in the river and its watershed into Frederick Henry Bay in its DPEMP. This is not just a debate about the potential need for a hazadous materials waste dump in Tasmania, amongst a raft of other measures to deal with this material, it is a question of the BEST possible site in terms of environmental redundancy for such a facility, not just the most expedient.
Utilising the Carlton River site is simply transferring waste legacy sideways from one location and placing it in a possibly more sensitive location. The legacy that will be left from utilising this site will be a potential environmental catastrophe for the Carlton River catchment and the greater Southern Beaches region.
No other site has been seriously considered. So the next step should be a study of alternate sites and a debate around what constitutes the most suitable site for such a facility.
