Environmental Management of Cockburn Sound Fails

As some of us already knew and have been highlighting for years, the WA Auditor General has found the current management of Cockburn Sound is incapable of maintaining ecosystem health of the Sound.

This must read report can be found on the Auditor Generals website here.

The Cockburn Sound Management Council CSMC - FAILED;

The Department of Environment and Conservation DEC - FAILED, and;

The Environmental Protection Agency EPA - FAILED.

Basically all these Government Departments have been asleep at the wheel. But what is new?

While investigating this issue it is a shame the auditor general didn't ask us what actually goes on we would have informed him of a number of extremely suspect practices such as altering monitoring site locations to improve testing results then completely ignoring community concerns.

As usual one of the biggest problems (and one the Auditor General seems to have totally missed or avoided) is the self regulation and self monitoring of industry pollutants by the company emitting the pollutants.

Another issue the  Auditor General has missed or avoided is the real reason these agencies fail, that is because they are instructed by their political masters to protect industry at any cost.

One now needs to ask why did the CSMC, Kwinana Industries Council (KIC), and even a Government Minister mislead the community on the real health of Cockburn Sound.

You may also wish to read my related blog posts from 2008; Kwinana Industry Care Bears for Cockburn Sound and Polluter Should Pay.