Save Port Phillip Bay from destructive dredging

Sadly, dredging to deepen shipping channels in Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia) has already begun. However, anti-dredging group Blue Wedges will face the Federal Court on Feb 20 to try to put a stop to the project entirely.

Until then, work cannot begin on the more destructive parts of the plan; deepening of the Bay entrance - which will affect tides permanently, and bury reefs full of diverse life, and creatures found nowhere else in the world under tonnes of rock; or dredging of the contaminated silt at the mouth of Yarra River - which will release industrial pollutants into the water which until now have lain dormant - risking human health, wildlife, fish stocks, and the fishing industry.

It's not too late to fight! Enough public outcry and public support for Blue Wedges CAN make a difference.

Further reasons why dredging is a bad idea:

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett (ex lead singer of environmental rock band Midnight Oil), who approved the project in December 2007, has admitted that there will be a permanent rise in water levels in the bay. This will most likely destroy many of Melbourne's much loved beaches and will lead to flooding in low lying areas and wetlands.

If that's not enough already, this project is also likely to result in the following:

* Loss of marine life on a large scale, including over 100 species that occur nowhere else on Earth, including unique and beautiful sponges, corals and seagrasses. Many of these creatures have never even been properly studied.

* Damage to the habitat of penguins, dolphins, seals, sharks, whales and thousands of marine plant and animal species that interactively rely on Port Phillip Bay. 

* The dumping of up to 3 million tonnes of contaminated silt into the water, carrying industrial contaminants and toxicants. Because of this, heavy metals such as Cadmium, Mercury, Zinc, Lead and Arsenic and Ammonia would re-enter the food chain. Who will want to swim in that, and what will this do to the commercial and recreational fishing industries?

* Losses to the many thousands of jobs in tourism, fishing and diving and their support industries by this sustained assault on the health of the bay.

* LESS ECONOMIC BENEFITS than the CURRENT sustainable Bay related industries. The diving industry ALONE provides $70 million per year, the SAME amount as the figure for estimated benefits of channel deepening.

This last point is particularly important, since the Port of Melbourne Corporation has been trumpeting the expected "economic benefits" to soothe public concern about the impacts on the Bay's environment, and human health.

But it's not too late to stop this destructive project. Blue Wedges is still fighting in the courts, and Peter Garrett still has the power to revoke his decision to allow dredging to occur, by implementing the EPBC Act s 146. With enough public pressure, he might get the message that people don't want the Bay destroyed!

Sadly, dredging to deepen shipping channels in Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia) has already begun. However, anti-dredging group Blue Wedges will face the Federal Court on Feb 20 to try to put a stop to the project entirely.

Until then, work cannot begin on the more destructive parts of the plan; deepening of the Bay entrance - which will affect tides permanently, and bury reefs full of diverse life, and creatures found nowhere else in the world under tonnes of rock; or dredging of the contaminated silt at the mouth of Yarra River - which will release industrial pollutants into the water which until now have lain dormant - risking human health, wildlife, fish stocks, and the fishing industry.

It's not too late to fight! Enough public outcry and public support for Blue Wedges CAN make a difference.

Further reasons why dredging is a bad idea:

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett (ex lead singer of environmental rock band Midnight Oil), who approved the project in December 2007, has admitted that there will be a permanent rise in water levels in the bay. This will most likely destroy many of Melbourne's much loved beaches and will lead to flooding in low lying areas and wetlands.

If that's not enough already, this project is also likely to result in the following:

* Loss of marine life on a large scale, including over 100 species that occur nowhere else on Earth, including unique and beautiful sponges, corals and seagrasses. Many of these creatures have never even been properly studied.

* Damage to the habitat of penguins, dolphins, seals, sharks, whales and thousands of marine plant and animal species that interactively rely on Port Phillip Bay. 

* The dumping of up to 3 million tonnes of contaminated silt into the water, carrying industrial contaminants and toxicants. Because of this, heavy metals such as Cadmium, Mercury, Zinc, Lead and Arsenic and Ammonia would re-enter the food chain. Who will want to swim in that, and what will this do to the commercial and recreational fishing industries?

* Losses to the many thousands of jobs in tourism, fishing and diving and their support industries by this sustained assault on the health of the bay.

* LESS ECONOMIC BENEFITS than the CURRENT sustainable Bay related industries. The diving industry ALONE provides $70 million per year, the SAME amount as the figure for estimated benefits of channel deepening.

This last point is particularly important, since the Port of Melbourne Corporation has been trumpeting the expected "economic benefits" to soothe public concern about the impacts on the Bay's environment, and human health.

But it's not too late to stop this destructive project. Blue Wedges is still fighting in the courts, and Peter Garrett still has the power to revoke his decision to allow dredging to occur, by implementing the EPBC Act s 146. With enough public pressure, he might get the message that people don't want the Bay destroyed!

We the undersigned request that the decision to allow the Channel Deepening project to proceed in Port Phillip Bay be overturned immediately.

Your decision to approve this destructive project reflects negatively on the environmental and social credentials of the Rudd government. The long term impacts on the ecosystem of the Bay and its unique organisms, human health, and the economic livelihood of the many industries which rely on the Bay do not appear to have been fully independently investigated before your decision was passed.

Permanent tidal changes, toxic algal blooms, low land flooding, significant wildlife losses (including many species endemic to the area), fish stocks declining, risks to human health from pollutants and dioxins - these are all probable if not certain outcomes of channel deepening and widening of the entrance to the Bay.

In addition, the economic benefit of this project appears negligible: $70 million per annum, which is comparable to the annual value of the Bay's dive industry alone. This industry, plus tourism in general, and the fishing industry will almost certainly be badly affected by the dredging.

We fully support Blue Wedges in their Federal Court hearing on February 20th.

Please take action to revoke your decision under EPBC Act section 146 and put a stop to this pointless assault on Port Phillip Bay.

We thank you for your consideration in this matter.