By Associate Professor Laurie Laurenson

[Dr Laurenson is a retired Deakin University academic with research expertise in fish and fisheries biology. He has published more than 70 scientific research papers since the 1980s on various aspects of shark biology, fish biology and remote sensing.]

I wanted to get a better understanding of where Wannon Water got its idea that discharging partially treated water into Thunder Point was a good idea.

So I did a search on the internet and found the “Wannon Water Warrnambool STP Upgrade Mixing Zone Modelling And Outfall Assessment” document.

It’s really quite a long document but essentially looks at what biological (E. coli, Enterococci) and chemical (forms of phosphorus and nitrogen) contaminants are being discharged into the ocean and whether Wannon Water is following the rules, and will they be able into the future.

The report says “all is good” and that EPA regulations which stipulate that the contaminants should disperse within 300m of the outfall will be met.

I thought, “well that’s good” and I expected to see the three critical things that would influence dispersal of contaminants nicely organised and documented in the report. The three things being swell, winds and currents. Well, one of them was there!

I’ll digress here, because this is important.

Winds are the main driver of swell and have an extremely well documented history of inducing currents.

We all know the effect that a few days of SE winds have on the water temperature in Warrnambool (it’s freezing!). This is caused by wind-induced currents travelling from the SE to the NW and then the Coreolis Effect turning the current left, and offshore, and cold water coming up from the bottom.

Now when we have winds coming from the other directions (NW to SE) the reverse happens, currents follow the wind and the surface water turns in towards the coast, so it stays warm.

Back to the report…

The mixing of contaminants in the report relies on a circular (300m specified by the EPA) radius to disperse contaminants to acceptable levels (50 per cent of the time) based entirely on the capacity of oceanic swells to achieve the dispersal – not wind and currents.

A cursory look at where Warrnambool’s wind comes from across the year shows that they come from the SW quadrant 50 per cent or more of the time across each year.

This means discharge at Shelly Beach will be blown towards the Warrnambool beaches at least one out of every two days.

The impact assessment report says that this is okay, since the closest high use beach in the area is the Flume roughly 3km away.

In fact the closest beach is Stingray Bay which is 1300m.

So here’s the problem.

On page 69 of the Wannon Water Report, it provides an “adopted minimum dilution rate” graphic which tells us how far the contaminants can spread.

This graphic is based on samples collected at a distance from the outfall of 400m (and less) with just a single sample taken at 750m.

Their predictions are based on three samples (presumably a few days in 2009, 2015 and 2016) that are assumed to be representative of the weather conditions across the entire year.

Their predictions are highly extrapolated outside their data range and based on simple linear regressions which are unlikely to be statistically significant (the significance has not been tested).

The science is poor at best.

The problem is that the degree of dispersal of contaminants beyond the 300m radius of the Wannon Water outfall has not been addressed in any meaningful way in that it excludes wind and currents, and further, the data that they have collected extrapolates well beyond the bounds of existing data.

It means that the report simply does not address the impact of the pollutants released from the outfall on the main recreational beaches of Warrnambool.

To be fair, the report states that it essentially focuses on the EPA stipulated boundary of 300m and that the pollutants do not exceed critical levels specified by the EPA for 50 per cent of the time.

However, the pollutant levels really need to be assessed at Stingray Bay and Lady Bay during wind and current conditions that will result in them being transported into these high use areas.

Given the prevailing wind conditions, this will happen at least every second day across every year.

And it’s not just the chemical and biological contaminants that will disperse in this way, it’s also the plastics that have repeatedly been released by the facility over many years.

You can find out more about the proposed treatment plant upgrade here and sign up for the online forum this Wednesday August 5 at 7pm.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

This past week has seen two extremely serious issues arise at Lyndoch Living aged care in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and yet the response from the board is a wall of silence.

First, Lyndoch only issued masks to all of its staff yesterday: 12 days after the Federal health minister declared masks mandatory for staff in all aged care homes in Victoria.

Second, Lyndoch allowed two people from Melbourne into its facility last Thursday and Friday, despite that city being in full lockdown and a declaration from the Victorian Chief Health Officer that, as of last Wednesday night, tightened access to aged care homes even further.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Given Covid-19 is gaining a terrifying grip on aged care homes in Victoria, I sent an email this morning to Lyndoch Living to find out why masks are not yet compulsory for all staff and all visitors.

I also wanted to find out why two professionals from Melbourne were allowed into Lyndoch Living last week, for what appears to have been non-essential, non-medical purposes.

Lyndoch has a ban on visitors who are from or have been in Melbourne.

This is the email:

Dear Lyndoch Media Unit,

I am hoping you can assist with the following questions:

I have had a number of people contact me these past four days in regard to the mask-wearing policy for staff and visitors at Lyndoch Living and why masks are not mandatory.

Can you outline why Lyndoch Living has not yet introduced a compulsory mask wearing policy for all staff given the Federal Government directive on 17 July that all aged care workers across Victoria would be required to do so?

(https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/two-million-more-face-masks-for-victorian-aged-care-and-disability-workers)

Is one of the issues that there are not enough masks available to provide to all staff?

Also, concerns have been raised with me about two visitors to Lyndoch Living last week who were apparently from Melbourne and who stayed in the Waterfront Living complex.

I understand these same people had access to Swinton Wing, while wearing hard hats, which suggests they were not visiting Lyndoch for medical or aged care service related purposes, but related to the construction works at Swinton Wing.

Those who contacted me were understandably concerned that it appears people travelling from Melbourne were permitted into Lyndoch and Waterfront Living complex for non-essential purposes and in contravention of the current ban on Melbourne visitors.

I am hoping you can clarify the situation to put these concerns to rest.

Regards,

Carol

I will let you know if I get a response.

In the meantime, as I write this, there are 764 active cases of Covid-19 in aged care homes across Victoria.

According to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, just under one fifth of Victoria’s 430 aged care facilities had been affected by C19.

Given the increase in C19 cases in south-west Victoria, Cobden Health moved in to full lock down eight days ago.

Mercy Place, in Warrnambool, also moved into temporary lockdown this week until at least tomorrow, with no new visitors other than those who already have visitation plans in place.

Moyne Health, Gillin Park, and Opal aged care have made it compulsory for staff to wear masks.

As Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says in his media release from 17 July above, the government has made another two million masks available to aged care and the disability sector.

The last Covid-19 update on the Lyndoch Living website was that same date, 17 July: 11 days ago.

As I said above, I will let you know if I get a response.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Tight knit: I had plans to write today about the W’bool City Council election campaign being in full swing – it started with the knifing of the CEO and has gathered full strength now that Cr Mike “The Real Chief” Neoh starts popping up in the paper with all manner of either un-costed, outlandish or recycled ideas from years ago…..BUT…..

BUT this is too good not to share.

It’s a visual map put together by a reader showing a tiny corner of the spider web that operates in Warrnambool between our public boards, public institutions and authorities.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Your right to know: Two weeks ago, I received a letter from my union-appointed lawyers who informed me Lyndoch Living has been monitoring my two Facebook pages, one being my private page and one being this page.

They attached a number of screenshots provided by Melbourne lawyers K&L Gates on behalf of Lyndoch, showing comments by followers and readers of The Terrier.

Those commenting were Warrnambool people expressing their opinion on how every membership application lodged with Lyndoch Living had been rejected.

These comments related to stories I had published on February 16 and 23.

My lawyers also attached a number of quotes from those stories that were highlighted by K&L Gates on behalf of their client.

The recommendation in response to this legal letter from K&L Gates was that I remove the articles and the comments in the screenshots.

The past two weeks has been a time of enormous worry for so many of us because of a resurgence of Covid-19.

It has been so challenging for our aged care homes and their fabulous staff, including those working so hard on the ground at Lyndoch Living.

What I have also found enormously worrying these past two weeks, however, is the rapid erosion of our right to know. Our right to have a say. Of our right to speak up when we see our public institutions being hijacked by vested interests.

Lyndoch Living belongs to us. The Warrnambool City Council is answerable to us. We must never forget this.

And right now, while we are fighting a pandemic, we are being forced to also fight for our democratic rights which are being pulled out from under us one bit at a time.

Secrecy and silence is becoming the new normal.

I’ll be honest, legal letters scare the shite out of me, but I became a journalist for a reason and I am not going to be scared into silence, and, I hope, neither are you.

So we will keep going. We have to, and I want to thank every single one of you who is helping me to make that happen.

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