Dredging plan wins go-ahead

Andrew Mathieson
Dredging remains an environmental hazard despite a report giving the green light to a plan to deepen Port Phillip Bay shipping channels, according to an environmental group fighting the project.
But Port of Melbourne Corporation’s supplementary environment effects statement, released this week, found that damage would be temporary.
Business and industry groups have welcomed the plan, saying it will be an economic boon to the state’s economy and jobs.
Geelong’s Blue Wedge convenor, Catherine Jones, believed the $580 million channel-deepening project was little more than an “experiment”.
“This program is the biggest of its kind in the world,” she said.
“Nowhere else have they done this experiment because we just don’t have a benchmark to go on.”
The port authority wants to dredge the channels to boost the size of vessels capable of entering the bay.
Mrs Jones was concerned authorities would “disturb” heavy metals and contaminant in the bay, affecting the marine food cycle and slashing fish populations.
Dredging tailings would leave a “toxic dump in the middle of the bay”.
Mrs Jones warned that the damage would spread to Corio Bay, where sea grasses would die.
Mrs Jones was one of six community stakeholders in a Port of Melbourne advisory group for 18 months but said her voice had not been heard. She believed vested interests influenced the report.