Another wetland threatened
By Marg Perrott
WOLLONGONG — The re-opening of the Port Kembla copper smelter continues to cause hardship to Wollongong residents.
On January 23, 100 residents of Primbee, a lakeside suburb five kilometres from the smelter, heard at a rally about how the company plans to dump 1.7 million tonnes of copper slag into Korrongulla swamp at a rate of 200,000 tonnes per year, bringing hundreds of truck movements through this peaceful residential area. The slag is a toxic waste containing copper, silica, vanadium, cadmium and arsenic.
The Korrongulla area has been contentious for many years. Originally considered "just a swamp", it was mined for sand, leaving several large sinkholes. In subsequent years, the untouched areas were recognised as wetlands which had significant ecological significance to the Lake Illawarra area.
The Southern Copper company was granted a licence to dump copper slag there in 1985 and dumping took place until the company was forced to close the copper smelter in 1994 because it failed to meet emission standards.
The two-hectare wetland area was included as part of the Wollongong Botanic Gardens several years ago and is home to the green and gold bell frog, and three species of protected birds: the black bittern, pink robin and Australasian bittern.
Illawarra Residents Against Toxic Environments (IRATE) spokesperson Shirley Shead outlined how the new owners of the copper smelter, Port Kembla Copper, had called only 13 residents in neighbouring properties to a "consultative meeting". Other local residents who attempted to enter the meeting were turned away. The company was well aware that many of the residents have difficulties with English but made no provision for this.
Colin Brown, a lawyer looking into how the dump can be stopped, told the rally that the Korrongulla wetland was like a "mini-Kakadu", hidden from the public behind a cyclone wire fence and mounds of bittu bush. Local Kooris connected to the land spoke about the significance of Korrongulla and Primbee, and the need to consider the land rights issues of the area.
Participants at the rally were strongly opposed to any dumping of copper waste in the area. The conditions of the 1985 agreement on dumping had not been adhered to in the past and efforts to strengthen the agreement were a waste of time, said local resident Mick Fernandez. He called on residents to join the "Willing to be Arrested" committee. John Kantaroski agreed, saying, "This must not happen. We must start a picket line."
Olive Rodwell from IRATE reminded rally participants that the Labor state government had passed special legislation to stop Helen Hamilton from gaining information about the copper smelter and urged people to get involved in the campaign against the dumping. Referring to the current picket line to save the Port Kembla Hospital's emergency department, she said, "They're opening toxic copper smelters, and closing our hospitals!".
There will be a public meeting held to discuss pollution in the Port Kembla area at 9am on February 5, at St Patrick's School, Port Kembla.