The struggle continues into 2010

Hello all,

My apologies for the long delay in posting a blog, but due to personal issues I had to slow down, and will be intermittently out of action over the next few months but I am so pleased to see that so many of you still come back so often to check this blog even with the long absence between posts.

I have been working on how we also need to also change the way we do things to match the times and the hot issues. Some of the issues we have been working on and/or I will hopefully soon be blogging about are:

Kwinana Town Council:

Kwinana Council mislead its ratepayers over the latest rate hike - rates increase was closer to THIRTY percent not five percent as stated by the council and reported in the local media.

Kwinana Golf Club (on land owned by Kwinana Council) Plan to destroy huge mature native Tuart Trees (Possibly hundreds of years old) to make way for an unnecessary fairway realignment. (This could turn similar to the Thornlie Tree Man case).

Kwinana Council set to build on Kwinana's Public Open space (Parks and Ovals), In particular Medina, something that we have been until now been successful in fighting for nearly 20 years, and ironically our Mayor was apparently involved in that fight as a member of the Kwinana Watchdog Group. Those leading that fight like my late Mother will be turning over in their graves at what is happening now. It seems divide and conquer tactics and greed could possibly be high on the agenda.

Whilst pleading poverty and claiming it couldn't maintain required community infrastructure Kwinana Council apparently invests and loses somewhere between 8 and 11 million dollars of ratepayers money, and yet Council still have not satisfactorily explained their actions or been held accountable. How can a poverty stricken Council invest $8-11 million when they can't carry out basic infrastructure needs and improvements and for numerous years in a row now have inflicted massive rates hikes on ratepayers.

Industry:

With the liberal government at the helm in WA its even more a case of what industry wants industry gets. Our government does not run this state big corporate industry does... This state is under corporate control. Daylight saving and extended shopping hours are a prime example of how government ignores the wishes of the people and does what industry wants.

This blog was apparently assessed by spooks to assess the level of threat to either Kwinana Industry, National Security or both? Who did the checking? Who hired the security company concerned? and who authorised it?

Water Corporation with, it seems the support of the states premium environmental organisation starts trials of injecting treated sewage into underground aquifers for future use as drinking water. I (and many others) strongly believe that with all the mining and related industry in Western Australia, which are major water users, it is totally unnecessary to take the risk of drinking treated sewage when there are more suitable ways of using that water and conserving our water. Current water treatment does not remove all drugs, chemicals and pathogens.

BP receives massive US fine for Texas Refinery explosion, inquiry exposed a multitude of issues including ways in which BP bought community/government/regulator support.

Poisoned BP workers get $100m payout . - This link also includes many other stories on safety/risk at BP refineries.

How major corporate industry in Kwinana (eg. BP) buys community, including community/environmental group support.

How BP allegedly used the threat of anti-terrorism laws in an attempt to silence a community member from asking questions on ongoing safety safety concerns of the BP Kwinana Refinery.

Safety of BP Refinery Kwinana still under question. As predicted another heat exchanger fails, luckily with no serious consequences this time.

BHP Billiton misleads the community with propaganda that claims visible pollution from its flash tank stacks is only steam/water vapour, but convieniently fails to mention Nickel and Ammonia along with many other pollutants.

BHP Billiton makes the wild claim that its Kwinana Nickel Refinery would have to shutdown in the event a planned extension of Mundijong Road went ahead behind its Baldivis liquid waste effluent ponds. If these ponds only ever contained storm water and not process liquors, like they should, there wouldn't be a problem.

Investigations are incomplete but it has been alleged that contamination of groundwater from BHPBilliton leaks has killed more trees in Baldivis.

We question BHPBilliton Kwinana over the need to pump its liquid waste to evaporation ponds in Baldivis instead of spending the money and installing an effluent treatment plant on the refinery site. Hundreds of ha of land around the Baldivis ponds and the lines to the ponds have been highly contaminated with heavy metals and ammonium sulphate etc from years of ongoing leaks.

It seems Fremantle Ports doesn't need Spin Doctors as some so called community/environmental group reps try and do that job for them. The toxic plume caused by dredging Fremantle Harbour causes more controversy so obviously not everyone has been got at.

The DEC (Department of Environmental Protection) suddenly (but as we expected them to) drop criminal negligence charges against Alcoa, and refuse to say why!

Erin Brockovich v Alcoa legal case continues.

Erin Brockovich's legal team investigates possible legal action against Cockburn Cement for alleged health complaints in the surrounding community.

Cockburn Cement plans to burn contaminated waste oil (they call it recycled oil) at its Munster Plant.

...and much more...

Its a real shame we don't seem to have any politicians showing an interest in these issues.

Interesting times ahead. Please stay tuned.