Submission: Channel Deepening SEES DSE Planning Panel 8 Nicholson St Melbourne

 

Questions for the SEES Panel that could not be answered from the Supplementary EES.

 

Costs

 

(A) What is the total cost of the Channel Deepening Project a) best case b) worst case?

 

What is the annual cost of maintenance after completion of the project over and above channel maintenance over and above existing annual (or annualised) maintenance costs.

 

What is the likely levy on shipping per standard container/per tonne of weight/other

a) best b) worst case?

 

(B) What is the value of the potential liability of the Port of Melbourne Authority, contractors and or State Government with and without the Port Facilitation Bill minimum and maximum exposure to claims for compensation following further opening of heads of increased tidal flow and change of currents from:

1)   Waterfront/estuary side property

2)   Beach front infra structure/property public and privately owned

3)   Sewerage/industrial waste water - and from prolonged  turbidity and the loss of seagrass beds from 2 years (PoMC consultants) to 10 years (commercial fishermen based on Geelong arm dredging affect experience) on:

4)   The loss of fish production in a) Recreational Fisheries b) Commercial Fisheries c) Aquaculture

5)  Tourism including on beach recreation, yachting and general charter boat operations and diving charter

 

(C) What is the value of the potential exposure for liability to financial claims through litigation of the Port of Melbourne Authority, its contractors, members of the SEES Panel and/or State Government with and without the Port Facilitation Bill due to the impact of dredging Yarra River is if it generates smells and/or toxins that necessitate evacuation or blue green algal blooms 

1)   From the CBD and businesses along the Lower Yarra

2)  The losses to businesses from the cancellation of public events normally staged on the Yarra River e.g. Moomba. - and due to spoilage of toxic spoil during excavation, transport to spoil grounds, at spoil grounds and in the event of the compromise of spoil holding structure of a wide range of toxins that can accumulate in edible marine life from:  

i/ The recreational fishing sector and supporting industries

ii/ The commercial fishing sector and supporting industries

iii/ Tourism operators along the bay including charter fishing and River

iv/ Victorian Tourism operators generally if the bay should become widely known the Port Phillip Bay or its eastern beaches had become contaminated by toxic spoil.

 

(D) What monitoring will there be of:

a)      stocks of commercial and recreational fish species before and after the projects completion, for how long after completion, and who will undertake the monitoring and how will the data be made available to the public?

b)      toxin levels in commercial and recreational fish and molluscan species before, during and after the completion of the project, by whom and how will the results of this testing be made available to the public

 

(E) What will be the net financial benefit of the project to Victorian consumers as measured by standard/average consumption /expenditure patterns?

 

Bob McDonald

Yanakie

7/5/07

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