SANTOS leak: Wake Up Call for Whyalla
The Save Point Lowly group says the on-going Santos oil leak at Point Lowly is a wake up call for Whyalla.
Save Point Lowly group project officer,
Tom Cheesman said, “The Mining Tax debate has shown that Whyalla needs options other than just mining and industry. For decades Whyalla has been at the mercy of commodity prices, currency, stock markets, tax changes and the boom/bust cycle. When is the city going to wake up to the need to diversify?”
Some like Mayor Pollock have said the Mining tax will make Whyalla a ‘Ghost-Town’ even though the full details are not yet known.
Mr Cheesman said, “It is an unfortunate irony that those such as the Mayor, the State and Federal representative who are going to Canberra to discuss the Mining Tax asking for a special exemption, are the same people that have done little to diversify Whyalla’s jobs base.”
He said, “Whyalla has many sustainable options for tourism, recreation and fishing, but that involves safeguarding the Point Lowly Peninsula.”Point Lowly is often proposed as an ideal location for industry because it is considered to be a cheap location. Tom said, “Yet if we scratch below the surface we will find that it is fraught with risks and is far from the ‘cheap’ option.”
He said, “The Point Lowly Peninsula has the potential to cause huge problems for unsuspecting industry, in terms of damage to the marine environment. Santos’ bottom line has already suffered a massive hit because of the complexities they are facing with fractured bedrock and a tank maintenance program that failed to prevent several leaks.”
“And of course, it is the Santos shareholders who have to foot the bill for bad planning and a lack of foresight.”
He said, “Now the Government wants to add diesel Storage and Desalination to the industry on the Point Lowly Peninsula”.
“BP Shareholders would be among the many who have been horrified by the Gulf of Mexico disaster, and the $23-Billion repair fund is just the tip of the iceberg for them. BP’s quarterly dividend to shareholders has been suspended, and is likely to become a common occurrence.”
“When you invite oil in, it is all about risk. This Council prides themselves that all their documentation are about minimizing risk.”
“Yet we know from the 1992 Era spill at Point Lowly and the current Santos spill there, that the risk is very real. Even when the likely hood is low, if the outcome terrible then the total risk is not acceptable.”
The group says that protecting our city and community, the Whyalla Council should be assessing the risk and forming an opinion whether the risk is acceptable for our community. They say that the State Government and industry need to play their part as well as the Whyalla Council.
Tom said it was interesting that Section 81 of the Stony Point Ratification Act 1981 calls for the establishment of an Environment Consultative Group. Whyalla Council records show the Group was put suspended in 1993 and would remain so until ‘There is a major development proposed for Port Bonython (Point Lowly), or there was a major incident’ that required the restart of that group.
Mr Cheesman said, “The Santos leak has been going since mid 2008, the BHP Desalination plant was proposed May 2009 and Diesel Storage approved Jan 2010.
“Essentially the terms of Santos’ indenture act say this group should have been restarted back in 2008, and residents have a right to know why this has not happened.”
“I suspect the answer is that the group would get in the way of the State Government and Industries plans to put industry on the Point Lowly Peninsula regardless of the cost to the Whyalla Community”