Oh the joy of fighting for justice in Kwinana

Well folk it’s Monday and already my week is fully booked with meetings every night with other community/environment groups both locally and as far away as Midland.

Because it once again seems the personal campaign against me may have begun… for example: Claims like Steve has no community support, the most Steve is seen to get at a meeting is 6 people etc.

We are calling for support for the following actions:

Something in the air documentary to go on tour, with public screening, guest speakers, discussion sessions etc.

Rallies, protests and public meetings.

Other direct actions, state, national and international support.

We may all soon learn how much support, not Steve, but the Kwinana Progress Association and Kwinana Watchdog Group have!

Remember the days of the incinerator protests, protest rallies outside the DEC Kwinana and Parliament House?

KPA-Greenpeace protest at Kwinana Council

Want a beautiful drive to work?

Or would you rather be protected from industrial pollution?

from the Sound Telegraph Clic on pic to enlarge

Kwinana Council want to spend $5 million beautifying the Kwinana Industrial Area.

Just think what $5 million could do for those Kwinana Residents affected by industrial pollution. Some of the things I can think of are:

1. A health study to find out why Kwinana has a “17.9% higher cancer rate Perth on average” and a 15.3% higher cancer rate than Australia by average”.

2. Fund the DEC in Kwinana so they can effectively regulate pollution from Kwinana Industry and maybe even enforce the noise regulations.

3. Fund noise protection measures, such as roller shutters, double glazing and wall insulation for residents affected by illegal levels of noise from Kwinana Industry (we have previously requested this by writing to Mark McGowan, Fran Logan and David Templeman but our letters were ignored).

4. Fund noise mitigation in the Kwinana Industrial Area.

And I could go on and on… But no dear readers our council obviously believe that if they make Kwinana Industry look beautiful there will no longer be a problem.

So the pollution problems must be a figment of our imaginations!

And I thought I had seen and heard it all.

It just doesn’t get any better does it.

Shame on our local and state Governments. Shame!

The way life should be

What a wonderful morning in K-Town… The air is crisp and clear, the only noise at levels to note are the birds, the pink and greys and other birds are back. The birds have been absent from my place for some time, for reasons unknown, but today they are back.

What a life it would be in K-Town if it could be like this everyday. I am guessing many of the plants in the bigger industries are now fully shutdown because of the gas explosion and the wind is not blowing from the rest towards us.

Today I am to meet with a lawyer, who is coming to visit in Kwinana. I will also take him on one of out toxic tours of Kwinana industry. There is a story behind this:

A couple of years back Kwinana Industry started to offer tours of industry to journalists etc to show how wonderful they, so we started ‘toxic tours’ to show our side of the story.

So for the moment life is pretty good dear readers, but for a couple of those who don’t seem to realise:


Get the message;

I am not that easy to placate and even less easy to suppress.

Unlike some of our meek media your pathetic threats, coercion, bullying will not intimidate me.

I have dealt with much bigger and scarier that you and have survived.

So either be brave enough to bring it on or get the hint and go away!

And to the rest of you have a wonderful day.

Update:

Fear Not Dear Friends:

Thanks for the support the calls and emails are overwhelming sorry I just can't possibly answer them all, but fear not it is AOK. The lawyer was here today for a couple of reasons, the best of which is; it seems we are getting some support, another is advice on the threats and that’s all I can say at this time, but it is all Good News! I just knew it was going to be a wonderful day.

NW Gas fire hits home

As a result of the gas explosion on Varanus Island, Kwinana Industries that run on gas start having problems and either change their fuels or shutdown, people in local communities around Kwinana are once again impacted on.

The air pollution levels increase as industries such as Alcoa revert to burning dirty diesel fuel rather than the much cleaner natural gas. And when plants are in upset/start-up/shutdown conditions emissions usually increase.

The noise pollution levels also go through the roof as Safety Pressure Relief Valves lift and other problems occur as some industries such as CSBP are forced to shut down for example Cyanide and Ammonia plants. Then during the start-ups we will go through it all again.

We hear nothing of these impacts on the local population in the media, all we hear is how bad it is that industry will lose so much money, how good it is that Alcoa's production will not be affected poor Wesfarmers (yes those responsible for last weeks hell) had to delay the commissioning of its new $138 million LNG plant (yes the commissioning that impacted communities and they failed to inform us of) and domestic supplies to Perth suburbs may or may not be threatened.

Underdogs fight back

Well… Last night… We hit back.

After listening to Cockburn Cement push their environmental improvement plan (and they need to improve because they couldn’t have got much worse), Water Corp tell us how wonderful it is to pump industrial waste into the ocean off Rockingham and the government give us their interpretation of how many chances in a million we have of being blown up by Kwinana Industry it was our turn…

“Up until Saturday – many of us who are unfortunate enough to live alongside Kwinana Industry were kept awake by Industry noise for 3 or 4 nights. Eventually we ourselves were left to track down the source of the noise, we did track it down to Wesfarmers LPG and called in the DEC. Wesfarmers LPG have been commissioning a new plant and purging and/or venting to two flares, the noise at times was nearly twice the legal limit. Also great plumes of black smoke (pollution) were also reported – which were tracked down to NewGen commissioning a new power station. In my view Kwinana Industry seems that busy trying to force down our throats how green and clean they are – which they are not, they have lost the ability to keep the community informed of major events that have the ability to impact on the community and in this case did indeed impact on the health of some of those affected. In the last week we had two major developments start up and the community were not informed”.

Glancing around the room while speaking, industry reps shifting comfortable in their seats – journalists heads down scribbling madly into their note books.

I continued “On behalf of those affected like myself I wish to put forward a motion that the community has lost faith in Kwinana Industry keeping us openly and honestly informed and safe”.

The motion was seconded.

Well the spin doctors came out of the wordwork like termites exposed. The perceived attempts to discredit me started… like Steve does not represent the whole Kwinana community etc.

In the end the motion was not accepted therefore not voted on. I am totally mystified as to why.

We did however get the message across and from the reaction I suspect we hit the required spot.

At the close of the meeting as the spin doctors made a beeline for the journalists, I suspect it maybe a case of how can we convince the media to water this down?

And for now dear readers, unless anything important pops up I will try and give you a rest from out noise issue, so please stay tuned.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog” that matters most. Erin Brockovich

David and Goliath

The good news is that over the past couple of nights, the Kwinana Industrial Noise has been quiet enough to allow us to sleep. The giants that are Kwinana Industry obviously got the message that we had well and truly had enough. Thanks again to the DEC for doing their job and protecting this community.

However the noise issue is far from over, this has simply been the first step, now we face the battle from many other fronts such as; Why does our state government continue to allow big industry in Kwinana to breach laws that were designed to protect the community? Why does our council do the opposite to what it should do, and thus fail its duty of care to this community? Why do the corporate giants that make up Kwinana Industry continue to attempt to divide and conquer this community, by force feeding us propaganda like - the noise has reduced, the air emissions have reduced and making statements about how they are "keeping Green and Clean" and "becoming Green and Clean", while at the same time failing to keep the community informed of major events in industry, that can and did have a detrimental impact on our lives, such as the commissioning of two major plants?

This battle is not about individuals this battle is about how the Corporate Giants of Kwinana treat those in this community that are affected by their operations, those that mostly do not have a voice because they feel too over whelmed and/or intimdated to speak out.

The injustice has to end.

Tonight we have a CIF meeting, a bi-monthly meeting between industry, community and government; we will find our voice and take the battle to the front line.

Threats, Intimidation and Control

The DEC spent their Saturday of the long weekend in "robust discussions" with Wesfarmers LPG to reduce the noise impact on the community.It is a welcome relief to see the DEC standing up to protect the community.

I was lucky enough to leave Kwinana for 2 days.

The way in which industry seems to think it can treat the community continues to be unbelievable. But then again it seems industry has controlled this state and many in it.

Meanwhile the indirect threats or rather attempts at intimadtion and control is here... Sorry to be vague on this, but it seems, the legal egg shells have once again been laid in our path. I expect this week to come will be lively and could get very interesting!

"The ultimate measure of people is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy." - Dr Martin Luther King Jr