Thursday 10 March 2011

The main reason for a Kwinana Incinerator

This article appeared in our local media, in which the Town of Kwinana and Kwinana Industry make some rather strange claims and admissions.

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Kwinana Council and Kwinana Industry claim our group did not stop a previous incinerator proposal in Kwinana which we fought for 4 years. Just why do they think that no other council would sign contracts to supply waste for this incinerator proposal?

The Mayor of Kwinana then claims "nearly an hour of the presentation time was hijacked by both Ms Bremmer and Mr Hesse". Wait a minute, it was our meeting,
we are entitled to speak at our own meeting. Or is it a case of if anyone has a differing view than the the Town of Kwinana or our Mayor then they should not be heard? I hope not because that sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Interestingly Kwinana Industry made some alarming admissions confirming as we suspected that hazardous/toxic wastes from industry would also be used. This is the reason Kwinana Industry want an incinerator in Kwinana; to use ratepayers funds to provide a way of hiding their toxic wastes.

"Hide the evidence of dirty and unsustainable industries. Incinerators allow dirty industries to get rid of their toxic waste and hide the impacts of their practices. These industries depend on incineration to fuel our continued use of this system of unsustainable production and consumption"

Here is the article on our response to Town of Kwinana and Kwinana Industry claims:

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This is a letter of response from ACE:
Claims made by KIC director Chris Oughton and Kwinana Town Council’s Mayor, Carol Adams, in the Sound Telegraphs recent article 2/3/11, reveals their ignorance about incinerator technologies and shows that they did not understand the presentation by leading world expert on waste Dr Paul Connett at a recent public forum organised by the Alliance for a Clean Environment.
To suggest that our organisation could “hijack” their own forum which ACE provided to inform the community about the health, environment and other financial risks associated with incinerator technology, when the KIC and ToK have not, is a childish remark designed to divide and conquer host communities who have legitimate rights to access information about what might affect their health and their children’s future. To imply that providing community right to know is somehow a terrorist act, is simply gutter politics. ACE was inundated with many congratulations and offers of support from numerous people who attended the Kwinana forum and also the other successful forums that were held in Midland and at the Conservation Council of WA. Successful presentations were also made to the EPA, the DEC and the Waste Authority of WA and to a number of State parliamentarians during Dr Connett’s 10 day speaking tour hosted by ACE in Feb.
Even though there will always be those sections of government and community who do not want to be reminded of the regulatory failures that have happened in this state or of the comparatively poor environmental and health standards we have, it is no less of an interest to the community, especially those that will be hosting such toxic facilities.
Clearly Chris Oughton and Carol Adams, did not understand the science related to combustion and nano-particles as presented by Dr Connett. To suggest that toxic coal fly ash would be a suitable fuel source for MSW incinerators reveals this ignorance and displays a disturbing lack of regard for human health protection in their own community, which is already disproportionately affected by industrial pollution. Combustion processes create dangerous nano-particles that can pass directly into human blood, organs and brain yet are not regulated for environmental or human health protection in Australia.
Fly ash is the concentrated toxic waste gathered from combustion processes. Coal fly ash has been associated with radioactivity (see attached) and will contain hazardous mercury and dioxin wastes. To use this waste as a fuel source immediately makes any such proposal hazardous. Clearly this incinerator proposal is about providing waste disposal options for other toxic industries, such as the coal industry and has nothing to do with addressing the problems of municipal waste in WA, including our appalling recycling rates. Incinerator technologies destroy valuable resources that could be recycled and reused and does not create enough energy to be viable, economically or environmentally.
The KIC and ToK need to come clean on their plans to establish a hazardous waste incinerator in Kwinana. Passing off a hazardous waste incinerator as anything less, is misleading and offensive to the community and is not an honest way of pursuing the necessary government approvals. ACE will be watching closely and ensuring the truth about this proposal is made available to the public and that toxic waste incinerators do not establish here in WA.
WA citizens deserve better waste management than these sort of expensive, out dated, end of pipe, solutions that are known to leave toxic legacies for centuries. While Chris Oughton and Carol Adam’s comments seem nasty and adversarial towards legitimate public interest ngo’s, it is however not surprising that such tactics are being employed at a local government level in a town that is heavily dominated by industry representation.
It is beyond time that the Town of Kwinana and Kwinana Industry came clean with this community.


Other related blog posts:


Kwinana Health Statistics
 

The truth about incineration

Why so many communities reject waste incineration

In the Ghetto

Learn the truth about Incineration

Kwinana Council playing games with its community

Why do Kwinana Industry want MSW Incineration? ***Update: We answer why!

Incineration is not recycling.

Consultation what consultation?

Clean Incineration is a dirty lie.
Why incineration is a very bad idea in the Twenty First Century.

Incinerators: Myths versus Facts

What the US EPA says about incineration (scroll down to municipal solid waste).


Is Kwinana becoming a dictatorship?
 

Something in the air - Kwinana pollution

Kwinana Health Statistics

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