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Community Concerns
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Some issues had already been raised by members of the community, prior to the first
meeting of the Committee. These were reported in the Committee’s brief, as follows:
- concern that there
is not enough information about what happens at the facility, and especially independent
information;
- some members
of the community regarded the facility as inherently dangerous, particularly regarding
ship safety and the ship-to-shore transfer of chemicals;
- there was a
widely held view in the community that the facility does not legitimately belong at Coode
Island and that it should be relocated;
- some members
of the community wanted to initiate community monitoring of health, safety and
environmental aspects of the facility, such as the use of emission detection systems and
air monitoring stations;
- some members
of the community wanted to discuss their concerns about the safety of the facility and
emergency planning;
- some members
of the community had expressed concern about the dangers associated with the transport of
hazardous chemicals from the facility through the neighbouring suburbs;
- the
introduction of independent environmental auditing of the facility had also been raised as
a matter which members of the community wished to take up with the facility operator;
- there was concern that there should be community
awareness of, and input into, the State Government’s Coode Island Taskforce
recommendations on Coode Island, expected to be considered by the Government in early
1998;
there was an
expectation that the community should be involved in emergency management and planning
relating to the facility;
members of
the community had expressed their wish to be involved and consulted in proposals for plant
upgrades, expansions and other modifications of the facility;
members of
the community were interested in having a say in the development of information packages
about the facility and its operations which are released to the community; and
there was an opinion in the community that
there should be environmental reporting by Terminals Pty. Ltd.
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Terminals PL's 1997 survey of
community attitudes |
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A 1997 survey of community attitudes about Coode Island indicated that a large
percentage of the community (36%) did not know enough about Coode Island to form an
opinion about the operational performance of the facility; 61% were also concerned about
the Government’s decision to allow the facility to stay at Coode Island.
They
expressed concerns about: the risk of explosions (51%); the facilities proximity to
residential areas (31%); air pollution and emissions (26%); the risk of fires (24%); about
the facility itself (13%); and transport hazards (2%).
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