National Toxics Network, http://www.spirit.net.au/~biomap/hot.htm
PRESS RELEASE - 1 March, 1998
COMMUNITY RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT POLLUTION 'GUTTED'
The announcement on the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI NEPM),
released last Friday (Feb98), has 'gutted' the Australian
community's right to know about pollution and continues to
protect industry's right to secretly pollute.
"The Australian community has waited for over a decade for
the same rights to chemical emissions information as their
American and Canadian counterparts, only to be betrayed at the
last minute by the recently established and little known,
industry mouthpiece, the National Environment Protection Council
(NEPC) 1." said Ms Lloyd-Smith,
coordinator of National Toxics Network.
"The National Environment Protection Council (NEPC) NPI in
its current form will effectively mean that the community will
not have a right to information about pollution from much of
Australia's industry. While the original NPI was to include
emissions and transfers from a wide variety of polluting
industries and activities, the final scheme is a "mickey
mouse" version, which will protect industry's right to
ongoing secret pollution."
1.
The National Environment Protection Council is
made up of State and Federal Ministers and is supported by the
NEPC Corporation established in Adelaide. NEPC has failed to
consult with the community and for example in the make-up of the
eight Technical Working Groups established for the National
Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) on Ambient Air, there was a
heavy bias toward industry groups , with only one representative
from community/environment groups.
Much fewer industries than originally proposed are required to
report, the list of chemicals has been more than halved and much
of current pollution will be exempt from reporting and public
scrutiny. This will include all toxic and hazardous waste being
released into public sewers, dumped into landfills or pumped into
tailing dams. By excluding all transfers this will reduce the
chemical emissions being reported by a significant quantity.
(estimated >50%). Under its Agenda 21 obligations, Australia
had agreed to implement a pollutant emissions and transfer
register.
If you compare data provided under the Responsible Care Program,
one company Australia company reported :
USEPA credits its release inventory, the Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI) with 46% pollution reduction (Carol Browning,
USEPA '96)
"Other failings of the NPI are its lack of compliance with
the NPI NEPM restricting fines for industries who fail to report
due to "the cooperative nature of the NPI." Rather
compliance will consist of 'naming' in Parliament those
industries, which do not report. The lack of any consistency in
third party right's to appeal decisions (e.g., commercial in
confidence claims to information) or freedom of information
provision means that the NPI will not be a national mandatory
system rather a piecemeal measure implemented differently in
eight different states and territories. "
Late last year, community environment groups walked out of NEPC
consultative process for the NPI calling it a "charade"
and the NPI, "pathetic and lowest common denominator
environmental protection".
NTN believes that both a lack of political commitment plus the
'close working relationship' between NEPC and powerful industry
bodies has blinded NEPC to the needs and wishes of much of the
Australian public. This failure to adequately address pollution
inventorying, monitoring and information provision will
eventually lead to increased contamination of the environment.
NTN will be calling on all Australian industry to reject the NPI
as 'lowest common denominator" environmental measure and
commit themselves as good corporate citizens to the 'community's
right to know' or risk being labeled as one of the "The
Great Australian Polluters."
CONTACT : M. LLOYD-SMITH
COORDINATOR NTN
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