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The Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has set the level of assessment for the proposed explosives plant by Burrup Nitrates Joint Venture (Yara International and Burrup Holdings). Appeals will close on 15 December 2008. The proposed plant is to be built immediately east of the existing plant of Burrup Fertilisers, on Site D, and will significantly add to the acidic emissions destroying the Dampier rock art.
The product of this plant will be technical ammonium nitrate (TAN), which is the main raw material for ANFO (Porous Ammonium Nitrate + Fuel Oil), the most used and most economical civil explosive currently on the market. The total quantities of highly flammable, volatile and explosive substances already stored in the immediate vicinity, including the currently built Pluto plant, are over four million tonnes of TNT equivalent, which represents the energy of 267 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. This plant will add significant quantities of explosives to a very small area on one island of the Dampier Archipelago, adding to the already greatest concentration of non-military volatile installations in the world. In addition, the installation will add massive gaseous emissions of NOx, which form nitric acid with water that attacks the dark-brown patina on which the Dampier rock art depends for its continued existence. Between the 1960s and 2004, the ambient precipitation pH has fallen from pH 7.0 - 7.2 to the present range of pH 4.3 - 5.3, i.e. already well within the range of acid rain (according to CSIRO). Some researchers have reported values as low as pH 1.0 - 2.0 directly from rock surfaces. To help save the rock art of Dampier, and perhaps even prevent the second-greatest industrial disaster in history (after the Bhopal disaster), please send your appeals to the EPA. Reasons for the appeal need to be set out and accompanied by the payment of $A10.00 to be made to the office of the Appeals Convenor. Appeals Convenor, Office of the Appeals Convenor 13th Floor, Allendale Square 77 St Georges Terrace PERTH WA 6000 Australia Tel. No. (61) 08-9221 8711 http://portal.appealsconvenor.wa.gov.au/portal/page?_pageid=1258,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL Please download and complete the appeal form and send it to the Appeals Convenor, together with the prescribed fee. Alternatively, a letter is acceptable. Preferably the appeal form would be accompanied by a letter setting out detailed objections. For relevant information please refer to the Dampier Fact Sheets. Thank you for helping to save the Dampier rock art, Australia's largest cultural monument. |
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