Question On Notice No. 1788 asked in the Legislative Council on 20 November 2018 by Hon Robin Chapple
Question Directed to the: Minister for Environment
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
Tabled Paper No: 2384-
View tabled paper
Question
I refer to the Environmental Compliance Report from the Pilbara
Ports Authority for the 12 months ended 2 June 2018, and ask:
(a) is the Minister aware that on
20 September 2018, the Pilbara Ports Authority submitted to your department its
Annual Audit Compliance Report Form for the period ended 30 June 2018, in which
the Chief Executive Officer of the Pilbara Ports Authority declared that the
Authority did not comply with all of its licence conditions during the
reporting period;
(b) is the Minister aware that Section E of the Form, which was required to be
filled out, listing “Details of Non-Compliance with Licence Condition” was
omitted from the form as displayed to the public on the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation website;
(c) is
the Minister aware that the measurement of air quality required under the
Pilbara Ports Authority’s Environmental Licence No. L4432/1989/14 is undertaken
at the Taplin Street dust monitor, and that provision of this data to Pilbara
Ports Authority is via the Port Hedland Industries Council;
(d) is
the Minister aware that the Taplin Street monitor is located 2.6 km away from
the Pilbara Ports Authority’s port loading facility boundary where emissions
may impact on the local residents;
(e) is the Minister aware that, based on the Bureau of
Meteorology wind direction diagrams, the Taplin Street dust monitor is located
in a position that gets the absolute minimum wind that would carry dust from
port operations;
(f) will the Minister now take action to ensure that new
dust monitors are placed on the Pilbara Ports Authority boundary and not
several kilometres away, so that any dust emissions that may impact local
residents can be detected immediately at the boundary; and
(g) if no to (f), why not?
Answered on 12 February 2019
(a) Yes
(b) The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has advised me that the omission of non-compliances detailed in 4 pages of the published Annual Audit Compliance Report for Pilbara Ports Authority’s (PPA) Eastern Operations was an administrative error. Once the Department became aware of the omission, on 23 November 2018 the Annual Audit Compliance Report for PPA was republished in full on the Department’s website. See tabled paper no. #
(c) Yes
(d) Yes
(e) The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has advised me that this statement is not correct based on its review of meteorological data. The Taplin Street monitor receives a consistent amount of wind from the direction of the Pilbara Port Authority (PPA) when compared to other directions.
(f)-(g) No. Air quality monitors are already located on the boundary of the PPA’s Eastern Operations premises at Nelson Point. The Licence (L4432/1989/14) issued by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation includes conditions requiring PPA to report on measures taken in the event of exceedances to air quality criteria set for these monitors.
There is a large network of strategically located air quality monitors throughout Port Hedland including on the boundaries of all the other main Port Hedland port users.