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Richardson: The EPA just doesn’t get it

Jul 11, 2014
Former EPA boss Campbell Gemmell

Former EPA boss Campbell Gemmell

In a way, you have to feel a bit sorry for the EPA.

The Government’s statutory environment protection authority doesn’t pay much heed to public relations or media management. As with many a bureaucracy, such trifling distractions are viewed with somewhat lofty disdain, a sad distraction from the real stuff of po-faced scientific boffinry.

They presumably get quite excited by earnest larks such as testing soil samples or indoor air; but like many a government agency, they’re culturally disposed to a lack of transparency. They’re not bad, though; they’re just drawn that way.

But the awkward fact is, their gig involves monitoring and regulating industrial pollution in populated areas, and the population demands to be kept abreast of what’s going on. And that means constantly and thoroughly, not in EPA time, where the job’s not finished until a site has been monitored, tested, checked and cross-checked.

Public relations isn’t a meticulous scientific exercise, it’s a maelstrom of frenetic damage control, and you either get how to do it, or you don’t. And they don’t.

Yesterday, the EPA letterboxed 460 homes in Kilburn to inform them of the presence of trichloroethylene (now fairly universally known as TCE) in the groundwater and soil vapour. Fair enough. They appear to be guided by a philosophy to let residents know before all else. Except plenty of residents we spoke to yesterday hadn’t seen any EPA correspondence. They even checked their letterbox – no letter!

It was a similar deal in the Hendon area, which the agency notified en masse some months back that they were testing for TCE contamination caused by historical industrial pollution. But most residents we spoke to had never heard of any such notification.

I imagine they did receive a letter, but in truth how many residents would be inclined to open and pore over the contents of a random Government missive addressed “To the Householder”? It probably got chucked in the bin along with all that federal election propaganda. Is that the EPA’s fault? No, of course not. But given they’re cognisant of the fact hardly anyone reads their correspondence, maybe they should rethink the way they disseminate their public information.

One thing I can’t fault is that throughout the week following the revelations about Clovelly Park’s toxic groundwater, the EPA’s director of science and assessment Peter Dolan has been generally available on request to talk to media. That’s great.

But yesterday I spoke to him at 3pm, specifically to ask about the various other locations (and there are a few) where TCE has been detected in soil and/or groundwater. In most, the industrial culprit has been identified, which means it’s their responsibility to test the toxicity, overseen by the EPA, which ostensibly keeps residents informed.

While it’s an inexact science (the uncomfortably high TCE levels in Clovelly Park were only picked up in recent months, despite regular testing since 2008), Dolan was confident the issues down south were unique: “Clovelly Park’s the only site we have at the moment where we’re concerned about the soil vapour,” he told me. Well, that’s all right then.

Except that, literally half an hour later, I arrived back in the office to receive an emailed media release from the EPA’s “Assistant Director Strategy & Business Directorate” (whatever that means) informing me the authority has written to Kilburn residents to tell them they’d found TCE in the soil vapour. You what?

Specifically, “the results of testing undertaken in June 2014 showed the levels of TCE in groundwater are stable and there are very low levels of TCE in soil vapour that do not pose an immediate threat to residents”. What does that mean? Does it pose an intermediate threat? It went on to say that “further testing will be undertaken to validate the results”. Which is pretty much exactly what’s been happening at Clovelly Park these past five years, isn’t it?

The release further notified media of a press conference at 4.15 that same afternoon to discuss the matter: in half an hour’s time, and less than two hours from the time most commercial news goes to air.

This was all very curious. Had I fallen into a mini-coma and missed a day or two somewhere? Hadn’t I just been speaking to these guys HALF AN HOUR AGO?! Why the hell hadn’t they mentioned anything about TCE detected at Kilburn, or further testing to be carried out, or a major letterbox effort that same afternoon?

We all know why, of course. For the same reason their operatives cowered in their cars rather than doorknocking concerned Clovelly Park residents while media were present. Because they are an authority not accustomed to full disclosure. Because they’d prefer to deliver their missives on the quiet.

When I rang the Assistant Director Strategy & Business Directorate to question this apparent oversight, it was like some Kafkaesque inquisition; roughly recalled:

Me: Just wondering why you guys didn’t mention this Kilburn business when I spoke to you HALF AN HOUR AGO?

Assistant Director Strategy & Business Directorate: Because we were putting something out later.

Me: Um … ok. Well, why didn’t you just tell me you would be talking later when I arranged the interview time?

ADS&BD: Because we didn’t.

Me: Um … ok.

ADS&BD: Look, we’ve got a lot going on here, you know.

They sure do.

There’s so much going on that they’ve set up a hotline to keep residents informed. One resident left their name and number and still hadn’t heard back two days later. Another says she was told she’d get a call at nine in the morning and didn’t get one till mid-afternoon. If you got this sort of service from your telco, you’d switch providers (or at least, you’d swear you were going to, but then wouldn’t because you know deep down they’re all as bad as each other).

Residents in other areas with TCE detected in the ground want further testing to allay fears of another Clovelly Park. Dolan’s response is to reiterate that Clovelly Park is unique, and that if an independent auditor finds no issue with industry-sponsored testing, it’s not the EPA’s role to step in or even to lean on the polluter to allay community concerns.

“I don’t believe it’s necessary to do additional testing which isn’t warranted,” he says.

Former EPA boss Campbell Gemmell

Former EPA boss Campbell Gemmell

The EPA’s presiding board member, Mia Handshin, made it clear when she was appointed (amid controversy, with no stakeholder consultation and no information on whether other candidates were considered) that she didn’t consider the office needed stronger powers.

Recently-departed EPA chief Campbell Gemmell (so recently-departed, in fact, that he’s still listed as the incumbent on the EPA’s website) told InDaily

this week that intervention and remediation often stalled because of a lack of political will and investment, suggesting the EPA was left carrying the can.

He described “cultural issues” that worked against a coherent response to contamination problems.

Maybe so, but there are evidently cultural issues at the EPA as well; they may understand the science of contamination, but they seem to fail to grasp the desperation and vulnerability of those living with that contamination under their feet.

They may not be able to fully treat the groundwater, but they can at least clear the air.

Tom Richardson is InDaily’s political commentator and Channel Nine’s state political reporter.

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