Greens arc up about health and environmental effects of the Mitchell fire

Something’s askew when we’re told on the one hand that test results have found conclusively that there are no contaminants or toxins from the fire and on the other that the EPA have completely contained the contaminated stretches of waterway around Mitchell and will continue to monitor the site until the waterways have been flushed.

I had the same symptoms as JB – there in the inner north in the morning, subsided all day at work, back in the evening, then a low-level headache the following morning. I have also had slightly swollen glands in my neck and underarms since Saturday.

It sounds from the various reports as though this little outfit in Mitchell were actually importing transmission fluid for processing from interstate. Is this a company taking advantage of lax local enforcement of environment standards? How do we know what their record-keeping standards were? Have the authorities taken at face value their account of what was in their yard?

Who owns the company? Have the directors fled the country?

Inner north and Gungahlin residents should demand blood tests paid for by the government for later billing to the company concerned, and longterm followup.

Folks, these are cancer-causing agents.

On Saturday afternoon I was walking past Gorman House at 4.00 and one of the foodies was tipping cooking oil down the stormwater grate. Grrreat! That reminded me just how tempting it would be for any business to take the easy route and b*gger the environment. And public health.

dungfungus said :

The Greens make me puke. Every day, all over Canberra, the garbage and recycling trucks leak hydraulic and other oils all over our roads (check out the stains where you stand your bins). All this residue goes into out waterways, causes accidents and over time it will degrade the bitumen road surface. But do the Greens care?
No.

What’s with the habit of lurching forward with a big puff of exhaust after picking up the bin and then slamming the brakes on to drop the bin? It must be burning more fuel and wearing out everything from the brakes to the bins faster, but when I once asked about it I was told it saves time. I’ve never gotten the stopwatch out but I’m not sure I’m convinced it has even that “benefit”. That’s just one example of the silly things that continue to go on while we parade around with our token eco-friendly shopping bags.

As for the Greens, I came close to joining many years ago but decided they weren’t really that active in the very area, environmental issues, that prompted me to consider joining. This is one of the rare occasions when I’ve thought good on the Greens. I’ll be watching how they follow it up with interest. A lot of answers are definitely needed.

yellowsnow said :

What? Like 2003 when 500 plus homes burnt down?

My point precisely – in the ACT heads never roll, whereas elsewhere (OK, in my ideal world maybe) they might.

The Bruce stadium grass fiasco may be an exception though. Strange thing to get excited about though when you consider all the debacles since then.

I remember the grass fiasco distinctively!! Could you get any dumber than expecting QLD grass not to die on the frosts of Canberra??
Yep, I dont know how ACT Labor is still in power, especially after this GDE complete sh!tfight. I suppose it’s because the Liberals are terrible and no one will vote for them.

Gungahlin Al said :

There are a stack of questions that need to be answered that have stemmed from this incident.

I’ll bet for a start that none of the neighbouring businesses had any idea there was such a dangerous business next door.

Then there is the issue of residential zoning. When ACTPLA first released the precinct plans for Franklin in 2007 I raised concerns that it was not adequately buffered from the industrial estate. Fell on deaf ears. The land grab meant they pushed the suburb as close to Mitchell as they possibly could. And to make things worse ACTPLA then approved the greenwaste recycling centre on the actual Well Station Drive road reserve, making it even closer to Franklin houses, with the stick that often comes off that.

Later in 2007 I raised concerns that the redrafting of the Territory Plan did not adequately isolate high-level industrial uses from uses more appropriate for light industry/retail. I said they needed a Heavy Industry zone like most local governments have. Again deaf ears. So now we have a General Industry Zone where even Indoor Recreation, Community Use and Craft Workshop can be next door to this sort of place: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/77512/pdf/2008-27.pdf

We have two “industrial” estates (Mitchell and Fyshwick) that have been compromised by inappropriate uses. And only Hume is well-enough segregated from residential incursions – surely this incident will weigh heavily against Tralee?

So much more to say, but lunch time is over…

I happened to catch G-Al on the 666 air today. Great work Al and it’s a shame they didn’t listen to you all that time ago.

What? Like 2003 when 500 plus homes burnt down?

My point precisely – in the ACT heads never roll, whereas elsewhere (OK, in my ideal world maybe) they might.

The Bruce stadium grass fiasco may be an exception though. Strange thing to get excited about though when you consider all the debacles since then.

EvanJames said :

This is why increasing numbers of voters are turning to the Greens. The majors are so entrenched with big business interests and god-knows who else, that governing primarily for the people just doesn’t happen any more. Interestingly, Palerang Council which Rattenbury mentions now has three councillors who are members of the Greens party (and doing a damn fine job too).

Government should be protecting voters, the little guys, from big business and those who don’t want the little guys to interfere with their business of making a buck.

+1

I’d vote for them ahead of the Laberal Party every time.

The Greens make me puke. Every day, all over Canberra, the garbage and recycling trucks leak hydraulic and other oils all over our roads (check out the stains where you stand your bins). All this residue goes into out waterways, causes accidents and over time it will degrade the bitumen road surface. But do the Greens care?
No.

I made the decision to take my small child out of Downer for the day at about 7am. I had to drive my husband to work anyway so it was just as easy to get what we needed for the day and get clear of the smoke. I just wasn’t happy to risk staying within a few km of the fire with his little lungs in my care.

EvanJames said :

This is why increasing numbers of voters are turning to the Greens.

An increasing number of voters are turning to The Greens because an increasing number of voters bring new meaning to the term “uninformed”. The Greens are a sham pure and simple. If they were legit, they would spend less time wining about far left socialist issues and more time pushing for real change. Where is the comprehensive, world class e-waste program Canberra should have?

Another question that needs to be asked is even if the planning authorities allowed the location to be used for this business, why was the volume of materials not restricted.

Anyone who knows about the Bhopal disaster will know that among the points highlighted was the significant volume of MIC (the toxic chemical released) that was stored in the tanks.

The reports I’ve seen state there was a one very large tank (100,000s of litres) and two smaller tanks (10,000s of litres) at this oil facility. Why were tanks holding this volume and why was there not more compartmentalisation?

This is why increasing numbers of voters are turning to the Greens. The majors are so entrenched with big business interests and god-knows who else, that governing primarily for the people just doesn’t happen any more. Interestingly, Palerang Council which Rattenbury mentions now has three councillors who are members of the Greens party (and doing a damn fine job too).

Government should be protecting voters, the little guys, from big business and those who don’t want the little guys to interfere with their business of making a buck.

A question I’d like to hear answered is WTF they were doing allowing PCBs to be stored in such close proximity to residential areas. I hear that the site had had previous fire callouts and that alarm bells had been ringing about the potential danger more than 12 months ago. I hope to see some heads on pikes along Northbourne Avenue, and soon.

The Greens concerned about health following the Mitchell fire?

I think we should be more concerned about the effect on the mental health of the community from the simplistic, naive and destructive policies being pushed by The Greens

Although i dislike the greens, i agree with what they’ve written. I also think the government needs to re-design this emergency sms system.

Gungahlin Al said :

There are a stack of questions that need to be answered that have stemmed from this incident.

I’ll bet for a start that none of the neighbouring businesses had any idea there was such a dangerous business next door.

Then there is the issue of residential zoning. When ACTPLA first released the precinct plans for Franklin in 2007 I raised concerns that it was not adequately buffered from the industrial estate. Fell on deaf ears. The land grab meant they pushed the suburb as close to Mitchell as they possibly could. And to make things worse ACTPLA then approved the greenwaste recycling centre on the actual Well Station Drive road reserve, making it even closer to Franklin houses, with the stick that often comes off that.

Later in 2007 I raised concerns that the redrafting of the Territory Plan did not adequately isolate high-level industrial uses from uses more appropriate for light industry/retail. I said they needed a Heavy Industry zone like most local governments have. Again deaf ears. So now we have a General Industry Zone where even Indoor Recreation, Community Use and Craft Workshop can be next door to this sort of place: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/77512/pdf/2008-27.pdf

We have two “industrial” estates (Mitchell and Fyshwick) that have been compromised by inappropriate uses. And only Hume is well-enough segregated from residential incursions – surely this incident will weigh heavily against Tralee?

So much more to say, but lunch time is over…

+1.

Hope you keep pushing them on this, Al. You too, ACT Greens if you’re listening.

This is one of those issues that (anywhere other than in the ACT) could bring down a government. Unfortunately here in Canberra we have a hopeless Opposition and a local newspaper that doesn’t know the meaning of investigative journalism or even critical thinking. It’s more interested in printing pro-Gillard puff pieces, regurgitating ACT government media releases and recycling articles from The Guardian.

Bluey said :

Pretty sure if Mitchell is residue free, everywhere will be fine. Stop being such a big girls blouse Shane.

One thing I’ve learnt over past decades is not take anything the government (any government anywhere, not just in ACT) says on matters like this at face value. It’s in their interest not to scare the community too much and expose themselves to legal liability in the future, and at any rate they don’t really know what the hell was released and what the long term health consequences might be.

It’s like Gallagher saying on the radio this morning that when planning Franklin all these issues around siting houses so close to industry were considered, and on balance it was decided that there was not a problem for houses and heavy industry to essentially be colocated. I doubt the process was that rational or informed by evidence (and if it was – epic fail in terms of outcomes). More likely the planning process went a little something like this: ‘well we can’t build over there because these weedy grasslands are protected and off limits from development, but over here we have some semi contaminated land next to dilapidated factories, yes let’s build suburbs here and call them “centrally located”, “close to facilities”, etc’.

There are a stack of questions that need to be answered that have stemmed from this incident.

I’ll bet for a start that none of the neighbouring businesses had any idea there was such a dangerous business next door.

Then there is the issue of residential zoning. When ACTPLA first released the precinct plans for Franklin in 2007 I raised concerns that it was not adequately buffered from the industrial estate. Fell on deaf ears. The land grab meant they pushed the suburb as close to Mitchell as they possibly could. And to make things worse ACTPLA then approved the greenwaste recycling centre on the actual Well Station Drive road reserve, making it even closer to Franklin houses, with the stick that often comes off that.

Later in 2007 I raised concerns that the redrafting of the Territory Plan did not adequately isolate high-level industrial uses from uses more appropriate for light industry/retail. I said they needed a Heavy Industry zone like most local governments have. Again deaf ears. So now we have a General Industry Zone where even Indoor Recreation, Community Use and Craft Workshop can be next door to this sort of place: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/copy/77512/pdf/2008-27.pdf

We have two “industrial” estates (Mitchell and Fyshwick) that have been compromised by inappropriate uses. And only Hume is well-enough segregated from residential incursions – surely this incident will weigh heavily against Tralee?

So much more to say, but lunch time is over…

I had a headache, burning throat and a couple of other issues, so we left home (Mitchell side of Palmerston) for some of the day. When we returned home, the symptoms did too, so we left again, arriving home later that evening. I agree with The Frots. We do need to know what was around.

Pretty sure if Mitchell is residue free, everywhere will be fine. Stop being such a big girls blouse Shane.

I had much the same symptoms as johnboy on Friday after walking home to Braddon from the CBD after 5pm. Nothing requiring medical attention, but it was definitely noticed after getting out into the open air.

As much as the ‘Greens’ irritate me generally (like a dose of Ebola) I have to say we need to know exactly what was in that mess – and also what else is around there.