Surf Coast Times
Tuesday 10 August 2010
VOL 8. No 32
www.surfcoasttimes.com.au
FREE WEEKL WEEKLY
$600,000
for Torquay’s Spring Creek Reserve
Torquay footballers, netballers and cricketers have welcomed the $600,000 election pledge by Member for Corangamite, Darren Cheeseman (third from right). Paris Lewis, Emma Mifsud, Denis Ryan, Stewart Hill, Ross Henderson, Nick Hoskin, Kieran Hodge, Julie Lewis and Megan Mifsud were all at yesterday’s announcement. See page 3 for details. Photo: MICKEY ROOTES.
BREATHE EASY
Community concerns stop controversial trial at Anglesea’s Alcoa power station
BY ELEANOR WOODS ANGLESEA residents are expected to breathe a sigh of relief, with power giant ALCOA abandoning a controversial HiCal 40 fuel trial. The trial proposed to replace 0.5 per cent of the Anglesea Power Station’s annual coal use by burning 5000 tonnes of HiCal 40, a fuel made from treated aluminum waste. Alcoa’s Brendan Foran said the company decided to throw out the idea after the community expressed health concerns about increased levels of fluoride involved in burning HiCal 40 instead of coal. A fierce public outcry was demonstrated when more than 110 community members attended a meeting with ALCOA to address concerns. A petition fighting the trial racked up more than
Surf Forecast
150 signatures in its first two hours of circulation. Anglesea’s Amber Tutton said the community feared what she said were unsubstantiated HiCal 40 tests and refused to be “guinea pigs for a toxic waste trial”. Dale Roberts from the anti-trial community group said members were overjoyed when the message went out that it would not go ahead. “Everyone is just rapt. We got together and overthrew such a power. The question now is where is the waste going to go?” Roberts queried. One of the community’s main concerns was that the site for the new Anglesea Primary School was just a stone’s throw from the ALCOA Power Station. Parents feared the school’s students would bear the brunt of any environmental degradation caused
by HiCal 40 fuel trials. ALCOA said the decision to cancel the trial came not only as a response to community concern but also after finding a data error. Alcoa Anglesea Power Station Manager Stephanie Pearce said Alcoa’s strategic sustainability targets had provided the original business case for the trial but the discovery of the data error, during a management review, meant the project had officially been on-hold for a number of weeks. “Our continuing review into the data error indicated that a range of design modifications would be required for us to deliver Alcoa’s sustainability objectives for this project.” “This essentially meant that our original design is no longer viable and we have made the decision to cancel the proposed trial.”
Ms Pearce said community and stakeholder input had been considered when making the decision. “We have been operating safely in the Anglesea community for over 40 years and encourage questions and informed community debate about our operations.” “People can be assured that the alternative fuel trial - or any change to the power station process - would not have been considered if our robust technical and environmental, health and safety processes had suggested any health risk.” Surf Coast Mayor, Libby Coker welcomed the news. “It’s pleasing that Alcoa has listened to the community on this important issue,” Coker said.
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WED 2-4ft building, S/SW 13° THU 3-4ft choppy, S/SW 13° FRI 2-3ft clean W/SW 14° SAT 1-2ft small N 15°
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