Sam Johnson: We want the truth — not spin — about the Port Augusta power station ash cloud debacle
ACTION has to be taken over the ash at Port Augusta, not political spin. No community, including mine, deserves to be bombarded by airborne particles that potentially threaten lives.
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IT’S thick. You can’t see the horizon. It can’t be fog, is it smoke? Oh ... its fly ash!
This sadly is not a once off. Since the closure of the Port Augusta power station, this has become a regular occurrence.
But, as the EPA says, its “non-toxic”. So how did they conclude that fly ash, a byproduct from burning coal is non-toxic?
It may very well be the case, do we have the information to back this statement? Do we know what samples were taken from the ash piles? when they were taken? And what the results are?
I don’t know? Do you?
Lungs were not designed to inhale ash. Full stop.
I appreciate that site operators have taken steps to prevent this on occasions with some successful, but as soon as there is varying weather conditions that hit the site — we are back to square one. Time for band aid solutions must end.
The EPA, our environmental watch dog is meant to be ensuring that any activities undertaken on this site, particularly now around remediation, are done so in an environmentally friendly way. Is drowning an entire community in fly ash safe?
Let’s compare how this closure is comparing with that of Hazelwood, which is scheduled to be closed next year.
What financial assistance has the government provided? Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has personally decided to head a taskforce to plan for the Latrobe Valley’s future.
There is also now combined with federal assistance funding in the hundreds of millions for Hazelwood.
This illustrates not only are the Victorian government taking notice, they are taking charge of a situation. Demonstrating leadership. Governing for the people. Providing assurity.
Do South Australians feel the same here?
But obviously $20m for three tram stops, and $160m to make a bus three minutes quicker, and $3 billion for a hospital must rate ahead of such an issue as Port Augusta.
The saddest outcome of all is that we now have the best political football I have seen for some time.
I and other mayors from the Spencer Gulf region recently flew to Canberra to meet with Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg.
There we met with senior advisers who were quick to advise “this is a state issue”.
I draw the minister’s attention to comments he made in Federal Parliament on December 1, 2016, when responding to a question about the South Australian electricity market: “Only the Coalition can be trusted to manage this transition”.
So what is the solution?
I am no environmental expert, but I think the EPA and the relevant minsters need to prove their statements.
If it is non-toxic, show us the evidence.
South Australians must be provided with a safe environment.
This means for Port Augusta, particularly, cleaning up the mess in which we (state governments and private enterprise) have created.
It will cost money no doubt, but this was always expected.
It should not cost the local community, either financially or physically.
Action has to be taken. Not political spin.
The site owners are bound by government regulation.
This, the state and federal governments can implement.
No community, be it Port Augusta or anywhere else deserves to be encapsulated by airborne particles that present a risk to their lives.
If the government is so confident that fly ash is not, and has not presented risk in any way, would they be adverse to it being stored on the banks of the River Torrens?
Or it could be used as backfill perhaps at Gillman?
It is no wonder a citizen’s jury concluded what it did in respect to high level nuclear waste.
If this is how the EPA and the government manage the closure of a power station what would the management of a high level nuclear waste facility look like?
If environmental health risks are present, not detected and or administered by the relevant governing parties, the negligence sits with those failing to act.
Time to deliver.
Give all South Australians a clean environment in which they feel safe to live.
Surely that is not too much to ask for?
Sam Johnson is the Mayor of Port Augusta