Interview with Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison has been agitating politicians for years now. He does it because he loves and understands our coast and can't sit by when people are making ridiculous decisions that will impact upon it. I talked to him today about his response to the Port Authority and Grange Resources wanting to dump the dredging spoils at the entrance to King George Sound.

Tony has been collecting signatures to petition against the proposed dump site, (see the photograph on the previous post) by standing out the front of maritime festivals, farmers markets and post offices for several months now. He has educated people, garnered support and ended up with nearly 1, 200 signatures. He presented the petition to Peter Watson MLA on Monday and it was in turn presented to state parliament yesterday.

He said that all kinds of people signed the petition; a broad demographic of Albanians. "A lot of young people (voters) signed it, amateur fishers, older people - a lot of older people who signed the petition remember what we have already lost and know the coastal dynamics around here, who know of all the coastal problems from Albany to Esperence that have been caused by these interventions. Some are visual problems and some are not," he said.

As well as collecting signatures, Tony has written letters to the main players; Albany Port Authority, Grange Resources, the Minister for Environment and asked them to guarantee him that the sand dumped from the dredging will not shift. In their replies, not one body was able to commit to this. The Port Authority and Grange evaded the question altogether and Ecologia, the company that wrote the PER have not even answered yet.

Tony Harrison's fears that the dump site will spread with current and wave actions are well founded and based on his past experience and observation. "The evidence is there to prove the massive strength of waves and currents. In 1985, they dumped sand just off Middleton Beach and the currents and tides are not that strong just off the tideline there, but there's been sand and coal just washing in for the last 25 years. Since 2005, even though Whale World is further inside King George sound (than the proposed dump site), the ocean has been strong enough to fill the groyne with sand and that's only in 5 years. And Emu Point? Well, DPI just can't fix that, they're ignoring it. With those examples, then the currents in King George Sound are definitely strong enough to move a pile of sand."

"Last august the Belchers broke. (The Belchers is a reef situated between the proposed spoil dump site and another proposed site further out to sea.) That reef is 12 metres below the surface. If all the experts tell us that there is no energy or power in the ocean at 12, 20 or even 40 metres, well then ... they shouldn't be in the jobs they are in."

So why is the Albany Port Authority so intent on dumping the spoil inside the Sound?
"Because it's the cheapest. It's at the last point of Albany Port Authority jurisdiction. After that it is out of state waters and under federal control. That's why they want it inside."

"The Port, Grange and the politicians are all thinking of economics first and the environment is right down the bottom somewhere. They don't realise that, if you look after the environment first, everything follows - jobs, infrastructure, money. No damage, everything keeps going."

Dump Site

This is photograph was taken from Breaksea Island, looking towards Bald Head. These waters are where the Albany Port Authority is proposing to dump the spoils from the dredging of King George Sound and the channel into Princess Royal Harbour.

Thankyou to the City

A good piece of news for the Sound this week was the City of Albany voting to oppose the dumping of the dredging spoil in King George Sound. Although the city has no jurisdiction on this issue, they can have a say - and they did.
Originally, councillor Dot Price put forward the motion to oppose the dredging site but her recent resignation meant that the motion was not discussed until this week. Councillor Dennis Wellington put forward the motion and the Mayor Milton Evans seconded it.

In the Albany Advertiser this week, Councillor Wellington was quoted as saying that he was not 100 percent convinced that dumping the dredging spoils in the Sound was a viable option. He said that if it were approved and it ended up being the wrong site, there was no turning back. "I would hate to think that I had a part in stuffing up our coastline, so I have to oppose the proposed dumping site," he said.
The Mayor Evans said, "We can't just sit back and let the Environment Minister tick off on this."

The City of Albany had previously attempted to lodge an appeal to the Environment Protection Authority but it was rejected because they didn't get their act together on time. This was not too big a crime, considering that the EPA released the Albany Port Expansion Report as a public document on the 18th of January and shut down appeals to this document after February 1st!

Item No. 18.4, Minutes:
"The grounds of the appeal related to the acknowledged impact of dredging on local recreational and commercial operators, as well as shortcomings in the hydrographical analysis identified in the peer reviews of the environmental management plan."

Those peer reviews sound like interesting reading ... Anyway, some suggestions were raised for the dumping of the dredging spoils. It was put forward that the sand dug out of the Sound be used to rectify previous disasters created by meddlesome groyne builders - at Emu Point and the site of the new entertainment centre. Ahem. I'll leave that be for now.

The media liaison officer at the City of Albany wrote that it was unclear whether lobbying of the State government will influence or add to the process that the Minister for the Environment is required to undertake by statute. But lobbying for the Sound could be Albany's version of the Hippocratic oath - it may heal heal and will definitely not harm. The Council, in a week that has probably been quite trying for them in other areas, have done something rather marvellous here. They deserve a bit of commendation, a letter of thanks from the people in the community that they represent, a beer perhaps, a bunch of flowers.

There was one other person whose name constantly popped up in the minutes; bringing the EPA report to the attentions of the councillors, writing an appeal in sheaves of longhand and pleading with the council to help save King George Sound from dredging spoils; right after the Albany Port Authority's slick power point presentation. It was the dogged Tony Harrison. He's always there. Good onya Tony and thank you.

Albany Advertiser, April 22, 2010, p. 6.

A WineDark Sound

Searching for King George whiting in the King George Sound, on a big swell, as the sun goes down. The Albany Port Authority has conceded that fishing, whale watching and leisure activities will all be affected by the dredging plume.