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Permalink Reply by Dale Stiller on October 17, 2011 at 10:21am

Mikko, I can sense in this article a frustration of those of you who live locally to have this crisis reported fully and to have a proper investigation & solutions found to the only too real situation before your eyes.

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Permalink Reply by Dale Stiller on October 17, 2011 at 10:31am

From your article above - "so rest assured I’ll still be throwing a punch or two elsewhere."

The paper of course would not allowed you to say that you will now be publishing reasonbly reguarly at The Punch blog site and that they can come across & read your articles there.

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Permalink Reply by John Mikkelsen on October 17, 2011 at 10:37am

Hopefully, Dale. And you are right with your earlier comment that there is a great deal of frustration over the situation here. Can't see that improving any time soon unless something really drastic happens, which seems on the cards. Meanwhile Four Corners has been up here, so look forward to that.

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Permalink Reply by alan mikkelsen on October 17, 2011 at 6:52pm

Bro' john, I am very proud of you. This has been a brave fight and it is very much an on-going one. I realise that many here are pre-occupied with other also very important matters at the moment - Property Rights / TOH, CSG, live cattle exports, other land lock-up issues and more, but I really hope that many members take the time to read this new post of yours, and get behind the campaign which is also being valiantly pushed by Dale and Rob Messenger. Shortly, I'll be off to The Punch again.

Cheers and good luck. bro' al

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Permalink Reply by Dale Stiller on October 17, 2011 at 7:07pm

Found a web site set up by a law firm with the aim to represent the commercial fishers in the Gladstone area. This first link is to the home page and to a quick method of learning what this law firm is hoping to achieve is best gained by viewing the youtbe at the bottom of the page. [click here]

 

There are a fair few maps on this site, when you follow the link above, just click on the MAP tab at the top of the page.

The map that I have copied below is off the home page & gives you an idea of the number of big projects under way in Gladstone at the same time. The ones connected to coal seam gas are the four LNG projects on Curtis Island found towards the top right hand of the map.

Proposed Projects - Port of Gladstone

 

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Permalink Reply by Rob Messenger on October 17, 2011 at 7:46pm

Mikko, sensational article. You're flying on the side of the angels.

 

The fishermen and farmers point out that if you cut down half a mangrove or clear one gum in a coloured zone, you'll have the QLD Government tree police knocking on your door armed with fines worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and jail sentences...

 

But if you destroy an ecosystem on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef ... and you've got $42 B dollars + and QLD owes the rest of the world $85 B...

 

.. Its far easier to politically flogg a few QLD fishers and farmers ... in order to build up the green "bob brownie" points than dealing with the reality of full blown environmental disaster at the southern gate way of one of the world's natural wonders. 

 

Sounds as if the Gladstone local paper has the same courage and commitment to reporting the facts as its sister in Bundaberg

 Rob

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Permalink Reply by Laurel V on October 17, 2011 at 9:59pm

as Rob said, sure appears the papers are being told..

and you mentioned sane Qs re carbon

how dare you:-)

you know thats Not allowed.

and yeah if not dredged heavy metals off boat hulls?

tin poisoning or that other nasty they use to keep limpets off? methyl? whatever?

wonder whats being sumped from the gas sites into the water late at night?

just a thought.

where were samples taken..

and why? no ongoing testing

fishy..smells higher than the dead real ones.

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Permalink Reply by John Mikkelsen on October 18, 2011 at 8:03am

Thanks for the support you lot, but Rob I think I might have jumped in where angels fear to tread up here :-)  Laurel, there are other possible contributing factors such as the ones you mentioned and others but dredging in known acid sulphate soils areas as well as silt in previously undredged locations has to be high on the list of suspects. Gladstone has for many years been home to aluminium refineries, a smelter, chemical plants and a major power station so who knows what residues may now be stirred up?

There is "on going testing" by the GPC and DERM but questions have been raised over the depth and location of sample sites and how missing data at some sites has been recorded. Read the article and comments at The Punch if you want more details. People are still sending me other material relating to acid soils which I will post after having a chance to study it.

Here is a link to a report by a major GPC consultancy, Environmetrics, which an independent scientist sent me. Some interesting comments about missing data on page one.

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Permalink Reply by John Mikkelsen on October 18, 2011 at 9:34am

Cate, Alan Jones is also up on the Gladstone Harbour controversy, I think Dale posted a link to an interview with one of the fishermen recently. It's also a great example of government spin with the Fisheries Minister and health departments claiming there is no risk to humans and the fish market manager taking a stand and not accepting any catches from the harbour or Port Alma, which wasn't reported in our local newspaper. The authorities are placing all the responsibility on the pro fishers and the seafood outlets so I don't think there would be any pros fishing the harbour now.

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Permalink Reply by John Mikkelsen on October 18, 2011 at 2:32pm

Rob, worth getting hold of the DERM report on acid sulphate soils referred to below if you can. I posted this at The Punch:

if a sufficient number of concerned residents joined the calls by fishermen and politicians for independent tests, the authorities could find it difficult to refuse but the fact is many are afraid to speak out. The regional council has accepted the official version that all is well.

Meanwhile I've been sent a PDF version 3.8 of the "Queensland acid sulphate soil technical manual - Soil management guidelines"  which contains highly relevant and concerning material on pages 56 - 60, seeing the presence of acid sulphate in some dredged material has been admitted. It states "Risks associated withoffshore disposal of ASS include: • smothering of marine organisms with sulfidic sediments; • acidification of the marine environment; and • contamination of the marine environment with heavy metals or other toxicants."

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Permalink Reply by Rob Messenger on October 18, 2011 at 3:20pm

Thanks John, I've just down loaded the report. I'm going to be catching up with Pro-fishermen this weekend and I'll see what they have to say. Parliament sits next week and I'm trying to organise a briefing and meeting re current crisis.

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Permalink Reply by John Mikkelsen on October 18, 2011 at 3:30pm

I think Liz Cunningham is pretty concerned about this issue as well, Rob. Not much quoted by the reporters here but she runs some paid columns in the frees which have been interesting.

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