ITEM 1. WELCOME BY THE CHAIR

The chairperson welcomed the committee members and observers in attendance.

ITEM 2. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Matthew Wylie, Gordon Harrison, Jim Clements and Marilyn Olliff.

ITEM 3. CONFIRMATION OF THE AGENDA

The Draft Agenda was adopted.

ITEM 4 . BRIEF REPORT FROM AGENCIES AND TERMINALS ON KEY ISSUES.

4.1

Greg reported that a decision on Terminals Works Approval Application was

expected on 2 December 2000.

Public opinion is being considered as part of the assessment process.

The department is monitoring benzene levels in the air (on a 24-hour basis) on Coode Island, and they will put in other air monitoring systems in the near future. The monitoring reports will be made available to the CICCC. The early samples indicate that the levels of benzene in the air are low.

4.2

Trevor reported that various emergency services were meeting to discuss the importance of adequate public communication processes in case of an emergency involving the public. They are assessing the Terminals Fire Safety Study.

Preliminary inter government meetings are being held to determine how these communication efforts with the public can be improved. The results of these meetings will be made available to the CICCC Emergency Management sub committee.

Peter Brotherton said that the inter governmental meetings should allow for direct input from the community. He suggested that it might be worth scoping this topic with HazMAG and the Maribyrnong City Council as much could be gained from asking them quite specifically about their concerns.

Faye asked if the Department of Health’s Emergency Services Sector was involved in the discussions. They manage community Acute Health Care.

Murray said he did not know if this section of the department was involved at this stage in the current discussions mentioned by Trevor.

Greg said that the Acute Health Care Department were already included in this service delivery through the DISPLAN. He said DISPLAN already has a clearly defined process for adequately communicating with the public in case of an emergency of general public concern.

Peter Reddie said Terminals were working with other industrial sites on Coode Island to develop a plan that provides residents with timely and accurate information about the meaning of activated alarms in the area.

Robin said that it is necessary to encourage large numbers of industries to partake in these responsible processes so that community anxiety about alarms going off can be lessened.

Ian Swann said an Altona group of industries are working on this.

4.3

Murray gave a brief update on agency key issues:

- Department of Human Services representatives (ie. Julie Eichner & Murray Franks) attended the emergency exercise de-brief on 18th October 2000.

- DHS met with EPA and TPL (ie. Frank Fleer) on 18th October 2000 to

discuss an appropriate allowance for background levels of benzene in the

area. EPA advised that 3.27 micrograms/metre cubed was appropriate.

This has been determined from 5 months of monitoring data representing car

emissions from Collins Street (ie. in CBD). DHS agreed that this data was

the most appropriate and representative data available at this point in

time.

- DHS attended an intergovernmental technical working group meeting on 25

October 2000.

a) Noted an advertisement for a new apartment development next to the

Lonely Planet.

b) EPA have set up their mobile monitoring stations at Coode Island (on 30

Oct) and the continuous OPSIS monitoring station will be installed on 24

Nov.

c) Bruce Esplin is collecting information on the communication of emergency

issues to the community to discuss further at a future TWG.

- DHS received a copy of the 20b conference report. DHS provided one minor

correction to EPA to pass on to Ian Rae.

Robin stated his concerns about the possible new residential development. Its position (within close proximity to the Terminals facility on Coode Island) makes it clearly unsuitable for residential development as stated by Prof Ian Rae in his recent report.

Greg said that consideration of background levels of benzene must be included as part of the assessment, as outlined in the SEPP (Air Quality Management). It is appropriate to use the Collins Street data, as this was likely to be higher than actual background levels at Coode Island. The combination of background levels and any emissions of benzene from Terminals must comply with the limits in the SEPP.

4.4

Peter Reddie said Terminals have been working with their customers on details for the Works Approval Application.

Negotiations over lease arrangements with Melbourne Ports were concluded during the month.

An early draft of the Fire Safety Case has been submitted to WorkCover.

George said that the Safety Case had been presented previously to CICCC. It contained plans for the development/upgrade over the next 2-year period for the Coode Island and the Geelong Terminals sites.

Ian Thomas asked if the CICCC should be informing the public about the contents of the Terminals Safety Case Report as it is not a statutory requirement that it be publicly scrutinised.

Ian Thomas said he was concerned that Matthew Wylie had not yet worked with him on the Risk Contour Calculations.

Carlo said that an assessment (gap analysis) was made of Terminals safety management systems against the standards required under the new Major Hazard

Facility legislation. As expected the analysis has identified the opportunity for further improvement which would be implemented fully with the redevelopment of the site.

ITEM 5. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING OF 12 OCTOBER 2000.

• Include Cathy as an apology.

• Ian T said his main objection was that his contributions to the meeting had only been recorded on 3 occasions. He suggests that the names of people making comment not be recorded.

Deborah said she liked the inclusion of names in the minutes.

• pp 4 6.3

Remove ‘Many of the tasks….were concerned.’

• pp 4 6.3 Point 1

Delete the words ‘day to day’

• pp 6 8.6 2nd para

change the date to read ‘18 Oct’

• pp 7 Item 10 4th para

delete ‘PO’ and replace with ‘VCM’

• pp 9 second sentence

should read ‘ toxicity, but that he did not present on blast overpressure at all.’

• pp 9 ACTION ITEM

Add this additional sentence ‘Matthew will invite Ian Thomas to be involved in this work.’

The minutes were adopted.

ITEM 6. REPORT FROM EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SUB-COMMITTEE

See Attachment 1

Work is progressing on developing options for informing the public about actions to take when there is an industrial emergency near their homes, and where they may need to take precautionary actions.

Deborah has contacted the MYROSs in 4 local governments and between them little in the form of resources has been developed.

Peter R said that in the event of a large-scale emergency, DISPLAN would swing into action. Under these arrangement the responsibility for communications transfers from Terminals to the emergency agencies. In the case of smaller incident and false alarms Terminals acknowledges their responsibility to advise the community and will respond

through the initiative with local radio station Stereo 974FM 3WRB. In order to satisfy the communication needs of the community it is necessary that :-

1. The majority of companies in the area commit to and implement a community emergency communication plan.

2. In conjunction with members of the community develop a series of announcements to cover the potential range of emergency situations.

3. The existence of the plan should be communicated with the broader community 4.

4. The communications plan should be tested from time to time

Trevor said that 90% of incidents in the Coode Island vicinity that are attended to by the emergency services (with alarms in use while travelling on the local roads) are of a non-industry type.

George said that the regulatory authorities or the councils will have to enforce such a plan as there are no industry bodies that cover all industries who use alarms.

Robin added that there is another issue apart from alarm use and that is the provision of reliable and accessible information to the public about what they should do when they hear alarms. He suggested that this information could be presented in a fridge magnet and it could be promote by CICCC.

Peter R suggested the development of a ‘Safe Haven” concept and a fridge magnet.

Peter B suggested practise drills involving industry, emergency services and the public could be useful in that they enable the community to better understand what they should do if an emergency arises.

Robin suggests the CICCC develop a draft proposal and invite support from councils, community organisations, PACIA and the regulatory bodies for trial and then implementation. The steps would be:

Faye said that saturation advertising was essential so that people will not forget what they should do.

Peter Brotherton said the advertising needs to be reinforced from time to time.

CICCC endorsed the development of

• Advice for the public about company alarms

• Generic advice to residents about what they should do if an emergency occurs, in the period before DISPLAN swings in to action.

ACTION. Deborah will draw up procedures for the development of the generic advice. It will be ready in draft form for the next meeting.

Peter Reddie was asked about the donation made by Terminals to radio station 3WRB.. He explained that the initiative behind the donation was a contribution to enable the station to upgrade their emergency power supply. As this was consistent with Terminals’ emergency communication strategy Terminals along with P&O and Caltex donated $15,000 toward the total of approximately $45,000 for the project.

ITEM 7. REPORT FROM HSE SUB-COMMITTEE

See Attachment 2.

Ian Thomas reported. The sub committee spent considerable time discussing the Worst Case Scenario issue. See attachment 2.1 The sub committee noted a possible 13 worst case scenario incidents. See attachment 2.2

Peter R said scenarios that did directly involve the Terminals site were beyond the scope for consideration by the committee.

Robin said that a potential tanker incident in the suburbs was relevant if the tanker had loaded at Terminals). He said that any potential neighbouring incident that then spreads to Terminals were also relevant for this list.

Carlo said the tonnage of dangerous goods handled by the container terminal was approximately the same as Terminals. In addition to Class 3 Flammable liquids, Class 6 Poisons and Class 8 Corrosives the container terminals also handle Class 2 compressed gases, Class 4 Flammable solids and Class 5 Oxidising agents and organic peroxides that are not handled through the Terminals site. He said that in the current configuration of P&O and Terminals sites there is a potential for an incident at P&O spreading to the Terminals site and visa versa. Peter said that after the upgrade Terminals would no longer share a common boundary with P&O and that a roadway

would separate both sites. This feature of the redevelopment was one of the factors that contributed to improvements in safety of both operations on Coode.

George said a worst case scenario at Terminals would be a toxic vapour release or a fire from which there was a toxic smoke plume.

Trevor said it was difficult to weigh them from an emergency services point of view. He said the following would be potentially the most difficult to mange

• Acrylo nitrile truck incident

• smoke from a large bund fire

• an ethyl acrylate spill because it would have toxic fumes and odours

Peter R said the list was valuable in addressing possible impacts of each scenario on the community. He said it would be important to determine the possible effects and the probability of such incidents occurring. For example a rolled tanker of specialised design like a propylene oxide tanker is unlikely to be a worst case scenario because of the integrity of the tanker. Less hazardous products such as benzene and acrylates are carried in standard “chemical trim” petrol tankers and do not have the same mechanical integrity and as a result are more likely to cause a spill is involved in a incident.

ACTION. The sub-committee will develop a more detailed report on the possible 4 worst case scenarios. The report on each will cover

1. Detailed specification of the chemical involved and the quantity. Descriptions of what might happen if the incident happened now and what would happen if the incident happened after the upgrade.

2. All possible consequences for the community.

3. Consider the consequences for different weather conditions.

The Sub-Committee will also develop a brief for the Independent Reviewer, which will focus on establishing the consequences of each scenario as it may affect the community.

Robin thanked the sub-committee for their work on this presentation.

ITEM 8. MONTHLY REPORT FROM TERMINALS (CARLO)

See Attachment 3

Minor improvements are required at Terminals following the Lloyd’s audits of Terminals quality and environment management system plus a VWA audit.

The benzene readings included in the attachment are taken in the morning and afternoons and are non-shipping readings.

ITEM 9. ACTION ITEMS FROM MEETING OF 12 OCTOBER 2000

9.1 Tools used by industry to communicate with neighbouring communities

Defer to the next meeting.

9.2 Report of Emergency Exercise

Deborah reported that there had been a few communication problems during the emergency exercise because they were not using an Intergraph system. In a real emergency Intergraph systems would be used. Apart from that she said the exercise ran very smoothly.

Michael kindly showed the CICCC a video that he shot on site during the exercise. He commented that the boon used to contain the spill would take a lot longer to have in position for unloading in a real emergency. He also wondered if the petrol driven outboard motor boat would be used when potentially flammable spills occurred.

Ted tabled his written report.

See Attachments 4

Ian T tabled his written report and handed around photos of the exercise.

See Attachments 4.1

9.3 Performance review

See ITEM 12

9.4 Media releases (update and emergency exercise) and web site update

See Attachment 5

Robin tabled the CICCC Press Release for the 12 October 2000 meeting.

Hits on the web site are

90 per week for September

95 per week for October.

9.5 TPL to propose worst case scenario to HSE Sub Committee

See Item 7.

9.6 PO risk assessment (defer until Matthew Wylie is available)

Defer to the next meeting.

ITEM 10. CORRESPONDENCE OUT

No correspondence OUT.

ITEM 11. CORRESPONDENCE IN

1. 20(B) Conference Report by Professor Ian Rae (Previously circulated.) Defer discussion about the CICCC response to this report to the next meeting.

2. Letter from the Premiers Department. See Attachment 6

ITEM 12. TERMINALS RESPONSE TO CICCC QUERIES ABOUT SAFETY IN WAA SUBMISSION (GEORGE)

See Attachment 8

The Coronial inquest was held in June 1994 into the fire that occurred at Coode Island in August 1991. In addition to identify a number of possible causes of the fire the Coroner also made a series of recommendations related to the adequacy of the Australian standards, and emergency response systems

George tabled a draft document showing those recommendations and the

improvements made to date as a result of those recommendations. It also lists the plans to further upgrade the facility in the future.

So far Terminals have spent $18,000,000 on the interim improvements which comprises of

$ 12,000,000 on fire systems

$4,000,000 upgrade rated to storage and handling regulations

$2,000,000 on environmental systems including stormwater drainage systems

They will then spend a further $45,000,000 and another $20,000,000 on redevelopments to the site in the coming years.

Robin requested that further details be included in the document. They are

Costs of each improvement

Dates completed

Relate the issues to the responses

Diagram showing a safety scale for (say) 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000 and after the upgrade.

Faye said that this could become a living document showing the development of Worlds Best Practise in the industry.

Ian T said it was highly commendable of Terminals to release this information to the public.

The CICCC also commended Terminals for the release of this information.

ITEM13. PERFORMANCE REVIEW

See Attachment 9

Robin said that he was suggesting that the 7 objectives could be reduced to 5 to 5. Gordon Harrison provided some very useful comment on the draft, and suggested they could be 3 in number.

The CICCC discussed possible changing meeting formats, involving a normal meeting every second month, and a workshop format meeting every other month, where routine items were dispensed with, and discussion focused on issues on which the CICCC wished to make progress. There was both support and disagreement to this

proposal. It was agreed to defer further discussion of the Future Directions Paper to the next meeting.

Ian Thomas commended Robin and Gordon for this work.

ITEM 14. AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING (14 DECEMBER 2000)

• Decision on the Works Approval Application

• All items deferred from tonight’s meeting. See above minutes for details.

ITEM 15. OTHER BUSINESS

11.1 Potential of Lightning (Ian Thomas)

See Attachment 7

Ian tabled photos that accompany his report.

11.2 Status of the CICCC membership

Community representatives Marg Leser and Frank Fichera have resigned from the CICCC.

ACTION. There was unanimous support for Michael to become a community representative on the CICCC, and this was agreed.

11.3 Xmas Party

CICCC members will meet at the Station Hotel for dinner. Meet at 6pm for dinner at 6.30pm. The CICCC meeting will proceed at 7.30pm.

11.4 Residential Development

Robin suggested that the CICCC write to the Maribyrnong City Council recommending that the residential development near the Lonely Planet does not proceed as it is situated within the Industrial Zone deemed unsuitable for residential development in Professor Ian Rae’s recent report.

Michael said we should state the same about the studio/caretaker apartments.

Faye said there may also be legal indemnity issues for this proposed development.

ACTION. Robin will proceed with the above letter and make enquires about council meeting dates and agendas so that CICCC member/s can attend to contribute to any discussions on this matter at the council meeting.

Meeting Closed 10.50 pm

Next Meetings

Meeting Thursday 14 December 2000

** CANCELLED Jan 2001 Meeting

Meeting Thursday 8 February 2001

CICCC ATTACHMENTS TO DRAFT MINUTES 9 November 2000

Attachment 1 Emergency Management Sub Committee Draft Minutes, Oct 2000

Attachment 2 HS&E Sub Committee Draft Minutes, Oct 2000

Attachment 3 Terminals Monthly operations & Occurrence report

Attachment 4 Emergency Exercise Report, Ted Towson

4.1 Emergency Exercise Report, Ian Thomas

Attachment 5 CICCC Media Release October 2000

Attachment 6 Correspondence from Dept of Premier and Cabinet, 16 Oct 2000

Attachment 7 Ian Thomas & Associates ‘Potential of Lightning - An Example’

Attachment 8 Coroner’s Report Recommendations and Improvements at Coode Island

Attachment 9 Performance Review Document (Robin and Gordon)