Stealth storage

Andrew Mathieson
COMMUNITY activists have accused a chemical storage company of forcing another Coode Island onto Geelong people by stealth.
But a Terminals spokesperson labelled claims the company had transported a highly toxic, flammable gas to ageing spheres at its Corio bulk-liquid facility as “outlandish”.
The industrial chemical known as vinyl chloride monomer has been banned in several countries but was used in Australia to make PVC for pipes, toys, baby dummies, cooking utensils and plastic kitchen furniture.
Geelong resident Franceska Dezelak, behind a letter campaign against the chemical, said Terminals sacked activists from its community advisory panel because they wanted the company to be accountable over a number of incidents.
Mrs Dezelak said there were “serious concerns” over shipping the chemical.
“At the top of each sphere of VCM, there is a valve that can leach it into the atmosphere around Geelong,” she said.
“Truck accidents have occurred with VCM on a board while pumping at Terminals and during cleaning and maintenance of spheres.”
She said the facility sat only hundreds of metres from North Shore Primary School and was “close enough” to thousands of Corio and Norlane homes.
“(It) may come as a shock to some residents of Geelong that once again we become the bunnies for shipping toxic chemicals,” she said.
Coode Island was synonymous with a lightning explosion in 1991 at one of its storage tanks when 8.5 million litres of chemicals burned, creating a toxic cloud over nearby residential suburbs.
Environmentalists and community supporters thwarted a proposal to move the petrochemical facility to Point Lillias, near Geelong.
A company spokesman said terminals was storing VCM and also butadiene used to manufacture rubber and latex products.
A community consultative committee had been established to review the storage of butadiene on site.
“Recently it has become involved in peripheral issues away from its original specific charter,” he said.
Other chemicals including bitumen, mono ethylene glycol, caustic soda and chemical solvents make up 42,000 cubic metres of materials in Corio.
Most of the materials were bought in by sea to the wharf beside the facility, the spokesman said.
Terminals claims facilities were maintained at world’s best standard and continually upgraded.
“The risks of spills or accidents are minimised and Terminals’ safety record is among the best in the world,” he said.