Bureaucratic Incompetence –'It’sa Costa Plenty!' By Dr Ray Kearney,
Chairman, The NSW Department of the Environment and Conservation (DEC) has among its responsibilities under DEC’s Charter, to administer the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997. One of the objects of this Act is to reduce the risks to human health and the environment by *preventing pollution and *reducing the discharge of harmful substances to harmless levels. .In a recent document ‘Fuel Taxation Inquiry: The Air Pollution Costs of Transport in Australia’, submitted to the Federal Government, data shows for the inner parts of Sydney (covering 2.5 million people), the annual health ‘pollution’ cost is $342,000 per tonne of particles and $1750 per tonne for oxides of nitrogen (NOx). When this information is applied to current pollution from the unfiltered M5 East tunnel, the annual health costs are about $6 million. For the Lane Cove Tunnel (LCT) and using under-reported LCT EIS stack-pollution data for 2006, the annual health costs alone are about $5 million Meeting with legal experts On 31 May 2005, representatives of the Lane Cove Tunnel Action Group Inc. (LCTAG), Lane Cove Council, M5-East and Cross-City tunnel action groups together with legal experts in environmental law met with senior executive staff of DEC to discuss our concerns about alleged serious breaches by DEC of its Charter. The following highlight some of our concerns: 1. Recently, Premier Carr boasted that the Cross City Tunnel (CCT) would take 90,000 vehicles off Sydney streets, yet the ventilation design is based on 72,000 vehicles per day. To date, both DEC and the Planning Department (DIPNR) have not acted on recent information from CSIRO that traffic volumes and tunnel pollution levels have been significantly underestimated. An independently commissioned review of the LCT air-quality modelling by Dr Peter Manins (Deputy Chief of CSIRO's Atmospheric Research division) claims the designers of the CCT and LCT have underestimated the emission loading for particulates by between 50% and 100%. In addition, his analysis concluded for the LCT that peak-hour traffic-volumes are underestimated by at least 20% and the hours the tunnel will operate near peak capacity are also underestimated. Dr Manins has advised that if, for whatever reason or combination of reasons, the emission loads increase by 82% (within his 50%-100% underestimation assessment) then a breach of the approval conditions for LCT would occur. DEC and DIPNR need to be very clear about what actions they intend to take if a breach of the Minister’s Conditions of Approval occurs with the LCT emissions. Dr Manins has also revealed that NOx levels are underestimated by 60% and, if realized, this is another potential cause of a breach of the annual emission load limits. This consistent pattern of underestimation and minimization strongly suggests a deliberate attempt to mislead the public about the potential impacts of these projects. We believe that the cumulative effect of underestimates in traffic emission loads and hours the tunnel operates near capacity will result in the annual particulate loading from the tunnel's western stack EXCEEDING the environmental limits set in the Minister's Conditions of Approval and, therefore, at least justifies the installation of particle filtration and potentially gas-detoxification systems. We expect DEC and DIPNR to actively address the potential to breach conditions of approval and not to wash their hands of their responsibility to protect our environment. 2. The current annual mean levels of toxic fine particle matter (PM 2.5) in Sydney are already exceeding the national guidelines and steadily increasing. DEC is yet to respond to our concerns that PM2.5 from the LCT, CCT and M5-East stacks will further add to current background exceedances. Health impacts invalidated The national air-quality guidelines, designed for background atmosphere only, have been incorrectly applied to tunnel stack exhaust-pollution, thereby invalidating the health impacts. Weight for weight, particle pollution from such stacks is up to four-times more toxic than background particulates. DEC must take decisive remedial action, under its Charter, to reduce such harmful emissions. 3. The builders of the LCT, Thiess John Holland (TJH), appear to minimize predicted impacts by lowering their estimates of the peak-hour traffic-volumes by 16% in the westbound tunnel and reducing the % of heavy diesel vehicles in the eastbound tunnel. Again, the LCT Company has refused to provide hourly traffic-volumes and the number of heavy diesel vehicles, light commercial diesel and petrol vehicles used in the ventilation design. This lack of transparency is of significant concern as there is no public scrutiny of the main traffic inputs i.e., the very basis of the quantum of emissions. DEC has been asked to investigate and respond accordingly. 4. After the Minister for Planning approved the LCT, the RTA self-approved a $40 million change to the ventilation design with no scrutiny of the health or environmental effects of the change, no consultation with DEC or DIPNR, let alone the public, by claiming the change was 'minor’! A weak protest letter from DEC seven months later was the only reaction. DEC should have demanded independent reassessment of the new impacts resulting from the unauthorized deletion. DEC has been asked to explain its failure to take definitive actions, other than ineffectual letter-writing. 5. LCTAG were astonished when DEC considered they were “neutral” in their advice that the 50 m³/sec filtration trial by RTA, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, was a waste of time. DEC’s stance of “neutrality” must surely be a dereliction of duty under their Charter. Horrific lack of accountability 6. We were horrified by the lack of accountability by RTA in its internal Consistency Assessment Report into changes to the LCT. There was no input from DEC, NSW Health or DIPNR and the ‘rogue’ RTA refused to make their review available. It took a Parliamentary Order, initiated by LCTAG to have their review tabled publicly. The April 2005 Auditor General’s Report, with input from us into the management of air quality clearly showed that the oversight of these tunnels for the public good has generally failed. No one seems responsible for air quality in NSW. The conditions set for tunnels are inconsistent, they do not reflect best practice standards, and can’t be changed, except by the RTA itself or Cabinet. Changes to the EPA Act are required to take away the ability of a proponent (in this case the RTA) to determine whether or not a change to the approval is significant or not. Certainly, all changes which impact on air quality must be subjected to thorough reassessment by DEC and NSW Health. 7. In the case of the M5 East, actual current traffic volumes are almost double original estimates. For the LCT, traffic predictions for 2016 on the M2 eastbound were reached in 2002! An internal audit by DIPNR in September 2004 found at least nine serious systematic breaches of M5 East air-quality conditions, such as the tunnel operating for months without an approved environmental management plan, illegally pumping pollution from the tunnel exits and failing to accurately monitor, measure or control pollution levels. The DIPNR audit report has been suppressed since last September. However, under a recent Parliamentary Order, the draft report documented appalling disclosures when it was tabled in Parliament. We are concerned also about
a faulty administrative system which appears to require DEC to advise,
make decisions and effectively approve designs and
LCTAG is
aware of many cases where DIPNR has required DEC to provide advice on
issues within a very narrow scope, without providing full information
or appropriate background information. This advice has later been used
inappropriately and without an understanding of the implications of these
actions. The situation could have been avoided if the expertise available
within DEC had been applied correctly. DEC, however, seems unwilling or
unable to act. We are dismayed by the absence of accountability by the regulatory authorities to exercise their monitoring and legislative powers for the public good.
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