Friday 14 March 2008

Trinity Inlet under threat from toxic waste

Trinity Inlet is once again under threat from toxic pollution according to an analysis of water samples taken from the Portsmith Landfill site in February this year and received yesterday.

Cairns 1st have undertaken a sample analysis of a sample taken in a drain that flows directly from the Portsmith Landfill reveals shockingly unacceptable levels of heavy metals are flowing into Trinity Inlet.

DATA REPORT ANALYSIS



“The sample, undertaken by SGS, a NATA accredited laboratory, indicates that the level of zinc is 1000 times greater than the acceptable standard set by ANZECC for a marine water environment,” said Mayoral candidate, Val Schier.

‘It further shows that the level of lead is 400 times higher, copper 1000 times higher and nitrogen 2000 times higher than an acceptable level.

“It is alarming and enormously disturbing that run-off from the landfill, with this level of toxicity is polluting tidal wetlands,” said Ms Schier.

Cairns 1st has been trying to make the general public aware of what has been going on at the Portsmith landfill since we learnt that what the Cairns City Council was saying and what was actually happening were two different things.

Schier announced on 22 January 2008 that she was concerned that untreated household and industrial waste was being diverted from the Bedminster composting system onto the Portsmith Landfill which Cairns City Council had said was only being used for the dumping of building materials and green waste.

Kevin Byrne and his media spokesperson, Gary Schofield, stated that no untreated waste was going onto the landfill and that it was being built up to enable it to be capped and turned into parklands.

Val SChier says this is demonstrably untrue.

"It is clear that the Bedminster system is not able to deal with the volume of waste going into it, the excess waste is not going to the Mareeba landfill, the alternative dumpsite, and instead truck after truck are dumping tonnes of untreated waste a day on the landfill site.”

Cairns 1st Division 5 candidate Richie Bates said that Trinity Inlet is a major fish habitat which has been threatened previously, 20 years ago, by toxic dump leachate flowing into it from the Portsmith dump site.

“The dump was supposed to be closed and now we find out that it is polluting the inlet which is used on a daily basis by fishermen,” Bates says.

“How are they going to feel when they hear this news and what impacts might eating fish from the inlet have on people’s health? This is scandalous.”

The Environment Protection Agency has advised that, following the reporting of concerns by Cairns 1st, they visited the landfill site last week and have taken their own samples for analysis.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

King Boob denies that his castle garbage is polluting the moat ... its all those dirty peasants who take potshots at me with their water pistols he insists