Whyalla residents protest at State Parliament

Friday the 7th of Augsut marked the last day that Whyalla residents could put in submissions to object to the proposed BHP Billiton desalination plant on the Point Lowly Peninsula. The Save Point Lowly Group organised a bus charter to take Whyalla Residents to Parliament house in Adelaide to join the Green protest against the proposed desalination plant.

Tom Cheesman of the Save Point Lowly group said that according to the last poll conducted by the Whyalla city council, 87% of Whyalla residents objected to industrial development on the Point Lowly peninsula.

“The Point Lowly peninsula is Whyalla’s recreation area and tourist destination. It is all we’ve got, and we have a clear message for Mr Rann and BHP Billiton: you can’t have it. Hands off Point Lowly!”

Mr Cheesman went on to say the group is not anti-development, but anti-stupidity. “The idea of putting more industry on the Point Lowly peninsula is plain stupid” he said. “The idea that this would be a good industrial site was made by my grandparents’ generation and it was a bad decision” commenting that we now have a lot more information about the Upper Spencer Gulf “We need to say, our grandparents made a mistake, and we need to correct it.” He said

Greens MLC, Mark parnell addresses protest rally on the steps of Parliament House, Adelaide. Friday 7th August 2009.

“The tragedy is that there are better alternatives” Cheesman said. “The desalination plant should be at Elliston where it can have a deep ocean outfall and it can be run with on-site wind power.” “The port should be built south of Whyalla at Malaquana where the water channel is deep and wide and the environmental impact is low.” Suggesting that these are alternatives that we would be proud to leave our children and grandchildren. “At the end of the day, we have to remember the planet is entrusted in our care for future generations.”

Mark Parnell, Greens MLC, also spoke to the residents of Whyalla as they held up banners t save Point Lowly “Projects like this are entirely the wrong way to go” he said “Especially given that there is no commitment by BHP Billiton to power this project with renewable energy” which was greeted by cheers from the protestors. “If we were to go through the thousands of pages of the EIS with all the issues that are raised we would be here all day”

Mark said he was very please to see residents from Whyalla in Adelaide protesting and telling the people of Adelaide how this project will impact on their local environment. He was fortunate to be able to go swimming with the Cuttlefish last Thursday “The are a magnificent and possibly unique species” he said “There is no margin for error and one misjudged error and you could find the entire species wiped out”

David Noonan from the Australian Conservation Foundation told Whyalla residents “It is Premier Rann’s responsibility to protect the environment in South Australia” he said “The government has a complete right to refuse this project”. He stated that there should be no desalination plant in the Upper Spencer Gulf “We should protect the Cuttlefish” he said “But there is no acceptable site in the Upper Spencer Gulf for such a large scale desal plant” The Government should tell BHP to go back to the drawing board and come up with an EIS that doesn’t impact on the Upper Spencer Gulf.

Lights back on

The Whyalla Council has turn the Point Lowly Lighthouse light back on with a dimmer yellow light