Peter Garrett gives Port Phillip Bay dredging go ahead

Peter Mickelburough
February 06, 2008 12:00am
DREDGING is scheduled to start in Port Phillip Bay at 7am tomorrow.
Federal approval for the $1 billion project to deepen the bay's shipping channel was given yesterday. Anti-dredging group Blue Wedges is expected today to seek a court injunction to halt the work.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett said he was confident 16 extra conditions he had demanded in a revised environmental management plan would protect the bay.
"As a result of this extensive monitoring and public reporting, the people of Victoria will know more about the environmental health of Port Phillip Bay than ever before," he said.
Blue Wedges lawyer Michael Morehead said Mr Garrett's decision was outrageous.
"What he has done is approve a toxic aquatic disposal facility 60 times bigger than the abandoned toxic land dump at Nowingi," he said.
The State Government abandoned plans to build a toxic dump site at Nowingi, near Mildura, after protests by locals.
Mr Morehead refused to discuss his next move, preferring to "keep my powder dry".
Port CEO Stephen Bradford said the giant Queen of the Netherlands would begin dredging clay from the channel off St Kilda and Brighton.
The clay will be used to build a 6 sq km underwater containment facility to hold toxin-contaminated sediment dredged from the Yarra mouth.
Mr Bradford said the environmental monitoring program was the most stringent applied to a dredging project anywhere in the world.
"People can have full confidence in the levels of environmental compliance and the significant public review process the Port of Melbourne is obligated to comply with."
The new plan requires:
PUBLIC release of quarterly and annual reports by the Port of Melbourne on the achievement of set standards.
MONITORING of water and tidal currents at the containment area to assure the public that contaminated sediment dredged from the Yarra River mouth remained secure.
THE dredge to operate in non-overflow mode so that no contaminated sediment can escape the dredge hopper.
Mr Garrett said he was satisfied the plan would protect matters of national environmental significance, including Ramsar wetlands and migratory and threatened species.
"If at any time the strict environmental limits required by the EMP are triggered, the port must report to me and dredging must stop," he said.
Opposition environment spokesman and local MP Greg Hunt said channel deepening was inevitable but dumping two million tonnes of toxic waste from the Yarra mouth in the middle of the bay was not.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said quarterly reporting -- up to three months after any environmental breaches -- was inadequate.
A network of fixed monitoring buoys will take turbidity (water clarity) readings at fixed locations around the bay during the two-year project.
Other programs will monitor bay fish stocks, water quality, little penguins, nutrient cycling, plume intensity, contaminants in fish, algal bloom, Ramsar wetlands and seagrass.
The state Greens yesterday moved to refer the project to the new Upper House standing committee on finance and public administration.
The revised environmental management plan is on the Port of Melbourne website at www.channelproject.com