Council To Make Environment Agency Correspondence Available To Public
Added by Andy Hargreaves on September 2, 2013.
Islanders will be able to view the correspondence between the Environment Agency and the Council’s Chief Technical Officer, which outline the agency’s concerns over the Moorwell incinerator.
Using a Freedom of Information request, Radio Scilly received around 400 pages of e-mails and letters documenting regular breaches in the safe limits of dioxins and other pollutants from the site, between June 2010 and earlier this year.
During the sample periods, levels of dioxins, which are classified by the World Health Organisation as one of the most toxic chemicals on earth, reached up to 65 times the permitted amounts.
The Environment Agency forced the Council to take action and since consultants SLR have managed the incinerator, levels have returned safe limits.
They found the incinerator was being overfilled and too much plastic was being burnt from un-sorted off-island waste.
Chairman of the General Purposes Committee, Cllr Steve Sims, says the correspondence will be available to view in the Council’s One-Stop Shop. But you won’t be allowed to make any copies.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-06/east-arm-quarantine-incinerator-shut-down/4356552
East Arm quarantine incinerator shut down
Posted Tue 6 Nov 2012, 5:02pm AEDT Australia
The Northern Territory Government has shut down its quarantine incineration facility at East Arm Wharf in Darwin because of pollution concerns.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says there has been an ongoing problem with the incinerator for the past six years.
Transport Minister Adam Giles says the Government decided to shut the facility because it fails to meet new environmental standards.
The incinerator was set up in 2006 to treat waste from commercial shipping and international flights.
EPA chairman Dr Bill Freeland says the incinerator was found to be emitting dioxins into the surrounding soil.
He says alternative arrangements for the waste are being established.
“There will be waste coming in every day and currently it is being stored, and arrangements are being put in place … to actually get that all sealed up and trucked to a proper facility to South Australia,” he said.
Mr Giles says the Territory receives about one shipping container of bio-hazard waste from international aircraft and ships every day.
“I want to make sure that people see Darwin Port as a clean port,” he said.