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News
Update on this issue
Chairman of the EPA refuses any
changes to the ERMP submissions period. Halt the Salt believes
that Straits Resources is being given a 'rails run' from the
EPA regarding public consultation requirements.
See our letter of 2 January 2007 below. |
Tuesday, 2 January 2007
Letter to:
Dr W. Cox
Chair
Environmental Protection Authority
cc: Minister for the Environment
Dear Dr Cox,
ASSESSMENT OF THE YANNARIE SOLAR SALT ERMP
The partners in the Halt the Salt Campaign are somewhat perplexed
by the EPA’s management of this assessment.
The Authority has set 12 weeks for public comment on the ERMP from
4 December to 26 February. This effectively removes about 6 weeks
from respondents given that the public service, universities and
other sources of official or expert assistance are functionally
inoperative through Christmas, New Year and most of the school holiday
period.
The Authority then allows the proponent to delay submitting three
supplementary reports to the first half of 2007 and then allows
a separate 4 weeks public comment specifically on these.
One assumes the supplementary reports contain material supporting
assertions made about environmental impacts in the ERMP, otherwise
there would be no point in having them.
If that is the case these documents should have been provided with
the ERMP at the time of release so that the ERMP could be properly
assessed. These documents apparently don’t relate to a supplementary
project but are reports related to the project being considered
in the ERMP.
One assumes that it would not be efficient for the EPA to assess
the ERMP until it has the supplementary reports it has called for.
Therefore the EPA would not be ready to commence its assessment
until mid-2007. Why then must un-resourced respondents, with families
and day jobs, be required to provide submissions for the 26 February
2007 necessitating having to work on it over the Christmas break.
Indeed this very correspondence has been finalised on Christmas
Eve!
In our view, the practice of allowing unprepared proponents to
provide 'supplementary reports' that are relevant to their assessments
after the main submission periods have commenced is unacceptable
and should be stamped out. The power balance between proponents
and respondents continues to be unfairly skewed in the favor of
proponents more than a year after the State Government was clearly
critical of such an approach in the context of the Gorgon assessment
[1]
The Halt the Salt Alliance requests that current public assessment
period be cancelled and replaced with one of 10 weeks post the release
of the 'supplementary reports' .
[1] See Minister Ravlich’s answer (on behalf
of the then Minister for Environment, Dr Judy Edwards) to Giz Watson
MLC’s Legislative Council question without notice (of which
some notice was given) number 584 of 2005
Yours sincerely
John Baas, Convenor – ‘Halt the Salt’
(Contact: [email protected])
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