Coode Island Committee Update
Note: CICCC would appreciate the cooperation of media staff in publicising the CICCC web site (www.ciccc.org) in any story that is run.
Management moves at Terminals
At the CICCC meeting on 12 December, George Horman provided an update to Committee members on changes at Terminals. George has been appointed Managing Director for Terminal’s Australian operations, while Carlo Fasolino has been appointed Victorian Manager. The Head Office of Terminals Australia will be moved to Melbourne. The Committee complimented George and Carlo on their promotions, and looks forward to continuing to work with them both in the New Year.
George noted that the Marstel site was full of P&O Ports containers, and that the “Gap” was widening. He also advised that Terminals was now in a position to consider further acquisitions within the Australian terminaling business.
Terminals has recently had an inspection of all its Australian facilities by Lloyds of London, and have had its environmental management systems accreditation under ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 renewed by Lloyds for a further three years. The Coode Island facility received a particularly healthy report.
OESC Pilot Project
Robyn Betts of the Office of the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner reported progress on the Coode Island Pilot Project, mentioning the three streams of the project: community consultation; operational response; and alerting system design and development. John Luppino, General Manager City Development, Maribyrnong City Council remarked on the Committee’s key role in promoting the need for better community education and alerting. As a result, the Pilot Project was initiated by Government, and the City of Maribyrnong has made significant progress in taking a leading role as the interface between the authorities and the community.
John advised the Committee that the work of Council, and the Pilot Project, had developed the early initiatives of Terminals and the CICCC to include all the hazardous industries in the local area, and made sure that Council was “in the loop” when emergencies occurred, and could provide an information service to the community.
WorkSafe inspections
WorkSafe had five inspectors at Coode Island for four days during the last month, undertaking detailed assessment of the Terminals’ Safety Case. It is anticipated that the Safety case will be approved on 19 December. While the inspectors were on site, they noticed the common practice of tanker drivers working on the roof of tankers during loading and unloading operations, without any safety measures to protect them against falling off. Terminals is now requiring collapsible safety fences on the rooves of tankers wherever practicable, and is looking at further systems to ensure safety.
Ambient benzene monitoring
Terminals presented the results of its ambient benzene monitoring at Coode Island, required under its EPA licence, for the months November 2001 to August 2002. 24-hour samples were taken when ships were unloading benzene (the worst conditions), and the sampling sites were selected to reflect the prevailing weather conditions. EPA advised that the performance was quite good, with only one measurement exceeding the SEPP ambient air quality goal for benzene.
Bentley Chemplax paraffin oil spill
Peter Hinksman, Deputy Harbour Master, Victorian Channels Authority, told the Committee that the “baby oil” spill had presented an unusual clean-up difficulty, in that it was transparent and difficult to see. Nevertheless some 20 to 30 tonnes of the probable 80 tonne spill was collected. No injured wildlife was observed at the time of the incident, and Peter said that EPA is continuing their investigation into the environmental impacts.
Next meeting of the CICCC
Agenda items for the February 2003 meeting of the CICCC include a presentation by the Chairman of EPA, Mr Mick Bourke, advice on the Channel Deepening EES from Lisa Faldon, and further discussion on the Environment Improvement Plan. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting on Thursday 13th February 2003 at the Maribyrnong Town Hall on the corner of Hyde and Napier Streets, Footscray at 6.30 pm.
Robin Saunders,
Chair CICCC,
12 December 2002