The words of Peter Anderton of Australian Silicon keep ringing inside my head. "You will not see it, you will not hear, it you will not smell it". I get a giggle at that one, we all know of course that they are going to say all those things and they will keep on saying them until the cows come home. But as for anyone believing it, don’t hold your breath.
Charcoal manufacturing is an industry that to survive must compete directly with and destroy everything that attracting the tourist here, depends on. It will decimate the tourist image by tearing down our trees, polluting our sky, creating massive toxic waste. Timber and Charcoal trucks will wreck our roads, increase the danger and disrupt traffic, it will stink us out, chase away the tourist and jeopardise our jobs.
Traffic alone will be a major headache increasing the danger to our very being whenever we venture out onto the roads. The Australian Roads Association indicate that road crashes cost Australia $15 thousand Million Dollars a year and that over 97% of crashes are attributed to road TRANSPORT accidents. Frightening isn’t it?
ARA also states that a truck compared to a car causes damage to the roads by the power of 4. That’s 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 or each truck causes damage the equivalent of 10,000 cars. That’s right Ten Thousand cars.
Apply that to the treacherous Clyde Mountain, with its rock slides, 130 bends and all those trucks and its easy to see the damage and danger that will apply to our roads. The Company states 20 charcoal and 20 Wood Flux trucks a day. And as operational days per year were not clearly defined, if we take 300 days a year, that’s 12,000 trucks. At the ratio of 10,000 to 1, we have the damage equivalent to 12, Million cars a year.
Of course it is going to be a lot more than that, the logging and sawdust waste trucks are not included, but you get the picture. What cost to the community in accidents and repairs? And who pays for the repairs? Not the Company it seems!
Our concerns are justified, the potential added risk factor to our safety is significant. The cumulative impacts on the community are clear and the inherent dangers are obvious.
And just a quick one for you, compiled by an interested scientist on the amount of emissions the plant will release daily into our air. The total emissions will be the equivalent of 200,000 cars a day, each consuming 3 litres of fuel driving around in circles every day. And we will get that everyday for the next 20 years.
Still think you won’t smell it? Keep that in mind next time you take a breath of fresh air.
The Residents Action Group. (PO Box 1221 Batemans Bay. 2536)
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