COODE
ISLAND COMMUNITY
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
DRAFT MINUTES
Thursday 10th April 2003
PRESENT
| Robin Saunders CICCC / Chairperson Deborah Macfarlane community rep./ committee Paul Haywood Terminals P/L / committee Margaret Donnan Manager Reg. Aff. PACIA / committee George Horman General Man./Terminals P/L / committee Faye Simpson community rep./ CICCC committee |
Ian Thomas community rep./ CICCC committee Michael Isaachsen community rep./ committee Bronwyn Brookman Smith MH Div / WorkSafe/ex off comm Quentin Cooke Env. Protection Authority / ex off comm Ann Murphy Melb University – PhD student Vanessa Richardson minute taker |
ITEM 1. WELCOME BY THE CHAIR
* Robin welcomed the committee members and other people attending the CICCC.
ITEM 2. APOLOGIES
* Apologies were received from Jarrod Edwards, Carlo Fasolino and Peter Brotherton.
ITEM 3. CONFIRMATION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA
* The draft agenda was adopted.
ITEM 4. BRIEF REPORT FROM AGENCIES AND TERMINALS ON KEY ISSUES
* George said Terminals P/L have completed the EIP. It is available on the Terminals web site and on CD. Some of the additional items that Trevor Perkins wanted to include, will be included in post licensing oversight by WorkSafe and MFESB.
* WorkSafe made a routine visit to the site. The constructions on the site are progressing to plan.
ACTION. George and Paul will e-mail the DPF files to Robin after May.* DIIRD are considering the extention of the leases on the East Side sites. Terminals are presently negotiating the following timelines
1. Decommission the site by Dec 2004
2. Complete the clean up by 31 Jan 2005
3. Conclude their lease on 31 Jan 2005George said Neil Edwards has been transferred to oversee the Channel Authority works on channel deepening. The Melbourne Port Corporation and the Channel Authority are combining operations.
* Quentin said from the EPA’s point of view, there has been a marked improvement on the Terminals site in the past 12 months.
The EPA will write to Terminals in the next couple of days to confirm acceptance of the EIP as meeting the conditions of their license. In answer to Robin’s question Quentin confirmed that other communities were also wanting dynamic EIP’s like the Terminals document.
* Last week Mick Bourke (EPA Chair) viewed the Terminals site on Coode Island and several other sites in the west metropolitan area.
Ian asked if Mick Bourke was shown and made aware of Ian’s concerns regarding the future placement of the propylene oxide tanks on the site.
George said that this was not specifically mentioned.
Quentin said Mick was told that the tanks were moving to the Marstel site.
Ian and Michael requested that Ian’s concerns about the future placement of the propylene oxide tanks at least be pointed out to Mick at sometime in the near future.
ACTION. Quentin will write an ‘internal’ note to Mick pointing out Ian’s concerns.
* EPA and DIIRD are discussing with stakeholders the east side lease extension matter on 15 April 2003.* Terminals have submitted a bund assessment report to the EPA, which will be reviewed shortly.
ACTION. The CICCC will discuss the above document at the June meeting.
ACTION. Quentin to provide regular updates about the EPA’s planned future new directions.
* Bronwyn reported that WorkCover made a visit to Terminals on the 18 March to issue an Improvement Notice regarding a forklift incident. This was followed up with a visit on the 27 March.* Paul said a forklift driver was taking a shortcut by leaning forward between the forks of the forklift to remove piece of wood on the tray of the truck in front of him. When doing so, he accidentally knocked the lever on the forklift which resulted in the box (1000 litres) falling and landing on his hand on the truck tray. To avoid any further similar incidents, a barrier has now been installed so that the driver cannot lean through the forks. Staff have also been shown a forklift safety video and manual. This safety procedure initiative will be reinforced with repeats 4 times a year.
In answer to Faye’s question Paul said the same incident could not occur again because the forklift operator cannot lean through the forks to access the truck tray anymore.
* Follow-up on the Improvement Notices issues in relation to working high up without safety rails on the transport tanker tanks was also addressed this month.
Paul said that the isotainers that don’t have safety rails like other trucks, will be accessed by drivers using a cable and safety harness so that any fall will be contained.
See Attachment 1
* Paul said there had been a couple of minor contractor injuries during the month. One was due to poor communications, when the nitrogen-monitoring unit was disconnected and not reconnected.* The outflow measurements from the combustor show almost nothing is coming out of the top of the stack. George said the combustor working very well but they have not loaded it up fully yet. They will be able to test it fully when a load of benzene is unloaded from a ship.
In answer to Quentin’s question, Paul said the combustor was designed to take loads of 825 – 1000 cubic metres per hour. So far it has been tested with a maximum load of about 500 cubic meters per hour during ship unloading.
Paul said he trained the combustor operator, who is presently training 3-4 other staff to operate the combustor.
Ian said the CICCC HSE subcommittee went on site to view the combustor operations last month.
George told the committee of a minor and humorous incident where misplaced testing tubes had melted in the 950c temperatures at the top of the stack.
ACTION. Robin asked George to thank Elizabeth for the copies of the media articles. He will ask her to add copies of all future articles to Deborah and Robin’s folders.
ITEM 5. COMMUNICATION WITH THE COMMUNITY
See Attachment 2.
* Deborah said she liked Point 2 on the handout.
ACTION. Robin said in future he will send his press releases to the council for inclusion in their community newsletter.
* Other comments from the CICCC included;
o Robin said that ABC 3LO and the other local radio stations always get the CICCC monthly press releases.
o Make a CICCC newsletter available to people who don’t look at the CICCC website at other local locations. Locations like the local TAB, library, milk bars and pubs.
o Is it worthwhile producing a CICCC newsletter?
o The community seem happy to know that the CICCC are monitoring things on their behalf and therefore they themselves don’t need to access a lot of information personally.
o A CICCC press release could be e-mailed to interested community group members like those in the Kensington Association.
ACTION. Deborah will send Anthony Dare’s (Kensington Association ) e-mail details to Robin so the CICCC press releases can be sent to him each month.
ACTION. Robin to ask Colleen if a similar community group meets in the Footscray area and if so, they too will be sent the press releases on a monthly basis.
o Ann suggested the ‘snowballing technique’ where CICCC members attend lots of local meetings and offer the CICCC information to them and ask them, for ideas we might consider. This way it is possible to contact those who are most interested in the information the CICCC are circulating.
o Those wanting information falls into 2 different needs groups-
1. Representatives that can devote a lot of time to accessing information
2. Others with less time who want the information quickly and in summary. They don’t necessarily want an update of details but they want to be provided with enough information to maintain an awareness of what is happening generally.
o The way information can be accessed can increase or decease the probability that it will in fact be read, i.e brief summaries of topics with added links for further details work well.
ACTION. Ian will e-mail the worldwide Dangerous Goods web site address to Robin for circulation to everyone.
o CICCC press releases can be too long and therefore it is difficult to ‘grab the information’.
o We could advertise ourselves to other groups. Targeting specific groups like ‘The Greens’ RMIT Health and Safety Program, Council Business Interest Groups, etc. Inform them of what it is the CICCC has been able to do for Terminals and the community.
o The first meeting with local schoolteachers will be in June. They will be given a one page information sheet of further information links.
o It is best to do a simple local letterbox drop like Marstel are doing.
o Terminals managers want more feedback information to come back from the community. More community reps on the CICCC would assist with further community feedback.
ACTION. In the coming months Robin will contact 3 possible future community rep members. Advertisements calling for community reps will also be placed in local papers.
ACTION. The CICCC decided to follow up some of the suggestions above and not produce a newsletter.
ITEM 6. FREQUENCY OF MEETINGS
* George made the following main points in regards to CICCC meetings-
o The CICCC and MCG (Marstel P/L Community Group) should have regular contact with the Coode Island Users Group so the CICCC can broaden the influence it has over the users of the island. Just influencing the company that currently fund them i.e. Terminals P/L and Marstel P/L is a waste of its potential.
o As much of the redevelopment planning work for Terminals is now finalising there is a risk that if it does not broaden its focus. Terminals feel that at this stage only quarterly meetings with the CICCC are necessary to keep it informed of its operations.
o The same issues apply to all the users on the island. It is in Terminal’s interest to have all the companies on the island using processes in a way that the community support.
o The Coode Island Users Group (CIUG) have representatives from approximately 12 companies. All of them use Coode Island or are the relevant Government authorities and others who regulate and advise on the use of the island for the chemical industry users and others. They meet quarterly.
o The focus of meetings could be Terminals issues with the option to broaden the discussion to other issues that affect the operations of the whole Island.
* Other comments made during the CICCC discussion of the matter were as follows –
o The main companies on the island that store dangerous goods are Terminals, Marstel, and Pacific Chemicals. Other companies on the island store small amounts of Dangerous Goods eg P&O. All these have soil contamination issues. When the CICCC first started, Terminals were the only company with a dangerous goods license operating on the island.
o As a local resident and member of the CICCC it is the dangerous goods issues that concern me mainly. Hazardous materials are used by companies on Coode Island and on the other banks of the river in the area.
o The companies on CI have lots of other regulations covering their operations apart from DG regs.
o The DoI have suggested there might be a Port Users Group developed in the future.
o The MPC (Melbourne Port Authority) have stated that they want to liase with the local community. They want to do this through the Port Reform measures.
o As chair of the CICCC, Robin said ‘the MPC have not returned any of my 5 phone calls of late’.
o The CICCC has always managed the agenda items for its meetings. The CICCC model is dynamic. There is a risk that a change in the meeting process might negate this important process factor that empowers the community to make decisions and advise with autonomy.
o The CIUG set and maintain their own meeting agendas.
o In the past Government consultative committees have implemented processes that do not best suit the needs of communities.
Local government rather than sate or federal government could set up this new group. The council could chair the meetings. Meetings of the main group could be held bi monthly with separate individual company meetings held during the intervening month. If local government funded the group it would make it easier to have diverse membership and representation.
o Other companies on the island probably don’t want community imput into their operations. They probably think the community don’t know they exist on Coode Island and it’s best left that way! How can we sell ourself as being useful to them? Should we invite reps from other companies to our meetings so we can discuss this with them and so we can demystify what we do. It is good PR for a company to say it has good community liaison processes.
o It would be useful for the CICCC Chair to attend the CIUG meetings especially at the moment while the Emergency Management Plans (Robyn Betts project) are discussed. He could start engaging with other CI company reps.
o As an example of opportunities missed for the community, the CICCC missed out on commenting on the road network plans for the Coode Island and surrounds. The CIUG did make comment on this important matter.
o Amalgamating with the MCG might be a first step to see if the change can be made successfully without loosing our unique process.
o Amalgamate with MCG after its new construction on CI is completed.
o Start an exchange of the MCG and the CICCC members to attend each other’s meetings to get aquatinted, etc.
o The Altona Complex Group presently function on a model like that proposed by George. They have separate and competing companies represented in the meetings.
o The Altona Complex Group are not as dynamic as the CICCC.
o George is now managing Terminals P/L under different management that may have a different focus to the community focus evident with Burns Philp.
o CICCC like to get monthly reports about the Terminals operations and anything less would not be suited to monitoring the facility adequately for the community. Shorter monthly meetings would be better than 2 monthly or quarterly meetings.
ACTION. Invite a representative of Pacific Chemicals P/L to a CICCC meeting.
ACTION. Invite Andrew Clifton (MCG and local resident) to the CICCC meetings. Informal crossing of MCG and CICCC members between meetings to be encouraged.
ACTION. Robin to place advertisements in local newspapers in the next two months for two new community reps on the CICCC.
ITEM 7. CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
13 February 2003.
ACTION. Robin will make changes as requested by WorkCover and Terminals.
The minutes were adopted.
ITEM 8.
CORRESPONDENCE OUT
Letter of thanks to Trevor Perkins
ITEM 9.
CORRESPONDENCE IN
* Sparge Curtain report was e-mailed to everyone.
ACTION. George will e-mail to Robin the changes for Figures 1 and 2 of the report.
* Marstel minutes e-mailed to everyone.
ITEM 10. ACTION ITEMS FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING
10.1 Advice from Lisa Faldon on sea bed contamination with heavy metals
ACTION. Robin to follow up on this.
10.2 Advice from Terminals on bund capacity for 90 minute fire fighting* George said these measures have been met so they do comply with the regulations.
10.3 Advice from ERM on quantification of sparge curtain operations
* There is not a lot that can be quantified apart from blowing out the volatiles and the ongoing biological breakdown of compounds.
* George said that Shell P/L are also using bio piles on many acres of their land.
ITEM 11. ANN MURPHY’S RESEARCH WORK
* Ann’s research work involves examination of public participation in land use planning processes. She will she different consultation processes of two case studies – the Commonwealth Games and the CICCC.
She is in the 2nd year of the study. The current data collection process will involve 12 – 18 months of
in-depth interviews with relevant people including 6-9 CICCC members. In particular she is interested to collect the CICCC members suggestions about how the consultative processes might be improved for the future.Robin said as a result of the research he hopes there will be positive spin offs in the future for the CICCC. He thanked Ann for her presentation.
ITEM 12. OTHER BUSINESS
* George is an apology for the next meeting.
ACTION. Letter of thanks to go to Trevor.
ITEM 13. AGENDA FOR THE NEXT MEETING 8 May 2003
* See the ACTION ITEMS above.
CLOSE.
9.50pm
NEXT MEETINGS
Thursday 8 May 2003
Thursday 12 June 2003
CICCC ATTACHMENTS TO DRAFT MINUTES
10 April 2002
Attachment 1 Terminals P/L Monthly Report – March 2003
Attachment 2 CICCC Community Contact Ideas