Sale of Plants on Community Day 1994?
The nurseryman who has supplied the League with native plants for so many Community Days is now 82 years of age. This means that we should be considering possible alternatives to plant sales as a means of raising funds. What do members think?
Agnew Report
Glenn recommended two books now available :- Marine Molluscs and the 2nd ed. Coastal Invertebrates of Victoria
The EPA has warned of an increase in pink jelly fish at Mordialloc beaches.
We appreciate Glenn’s willingness to attend the Port Phillip Conservation Council general meetings as the League’s delegate. This is a useful means of networking with other Bayside conservation groups.
Leaking Petrol Station, Parkers Road
Leaking petrol from the Parkers Road petrol station has leached under Beach Road and reached the sand before being contained. The petrol company is working to clean up the site before re-opening the station for business.
Guest Speaker – Mr Jim Welch
As a result of the League’s concern about the muddy beach water apparent for some weeks in January and February and the fear that part of the problem may have been caused by leachates from tip sites in Springvale, Jim Welch offered to come and speak at a MBCL meeting.
The group with which Jim is involved was formed in 1973 in opposition to an expansion of the extractive industry into the Heatherton Dingley area which is incidentally, the beginning of the Green Wedge at South Road.
The committee’s work resulted in a $1 million dollar report which took 8 years to produce. The report contained recommendations for a park in the area, better environmental controls in the tipping industry and a requirement that the cost of land restoration must be born by the company.
In 1987 Mr Spyker was asked what money had been set aside for land restoration by the company and the answer was “None! 11 It will cost the community between
$65 and $80 million dollars to have the land restored eventually.
Sand extraction will involve 3500 acres, 1500 acres will be used for tips. A comparison would be to imagine 300 MCGs covered in garbage! Possibly the largest garbage disposal site in the world.
The size of this operation has implications for the Mordialloc Creek catchment area. The EPA won’t guarantee the leachates won’t leach out of the tips. If this does happen and leachates with a reading of 6000 ppm BOD enter drains feeding into the creek, then Mordialloc creek and Bayside beaches will continue to be polluted by activity outside the City of Mordialloc.
An EPA Information Bulletin Landfills WM 90/05 October 1990 states:- “Over the past 10 years the EPA has gradually tightened controls to overcome problems such as………the more subtle contamination of underground and surface waters.
Of these the potential to pollute the underground water known as groundwater is perhaps the worst interms of long term environmental damage. Groundwater is a vital resource: it can be used for drinking, irrigation, garden and stock watering and it is an insurance against drought.”
When it comes to groundwater near landfills, leachate is the “villain”. This is the liquid which starts off as rain, run off or decomposing waste, seeps through and picks up contaminants from other landfill wastes and then carries these into groundwater supplies. Groundwater protection is vital given that its contamination is often difficult to tect and even more difficult to remedy -not to mention expensive.”