Clean air for NSW consultation paper

Over 120 ships arrive at the White Bay cruise terminal per year. Each burns dirty, dangerous high sulphur fuel emitting harmful air pollutants into the surrounding neighbourhood and beyond.

Yet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air for NSW Consultation Paper fails to deal adequately with pollution from cruise ships at White Bay, and proposes no action to end it. This consultation paper will set the strategic objectives of the NSW government in relation to air quality.

The NSW Government needs to install shore to ship electric power at the White Bay cruise terminal. It’s the long term solution to ensure clean, healthy air for the community of Sydney.

Please fill in your name and address below to make a submission to the Environmental Protection Agency, telling them you want them to take real action to end pollution at White Bay:

To: EPA Air Policy unit

I note with disappointment that the Clean Air for NSW Consultation Paper does not make mention of the significant levels of toxic pollution emitted by cruise vessels burning sulphur fuel at the White Bay Cruise Terminal. This is a significant source of air pollution for the surrounding area, with residents reporting health issues including breathing difficulties and asthma.

The Consultation Paper also makes no mention of the lack of regulation of cruise ships burning high sulphur fuel while travelling through Sydney Harbour, despite the fact that it has 35 times higher levels of sulphur than the fuel they are required to use in Europe and 3,500 times the level required by Australian diesel cars.

I urge you to directly address this significant air pollution issue, and to take action to protect residents both of the area around White Bay, and the broader Sydney Harbour, from the health risk posed by cruise ship pollution.

The only long term solution to address both noise and emissions is shore to ship power and we encourage the EPA to set the installation of this technology as a key goal to enhance air quality.

Yours sincerely,

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Showing 240 reactions

Christopher Henning signed 2016-12-16 17:04:09 +1100

The imposition of this new, cheap and odious facility on long-term residents of Balmain and Rozelle has been a classic lesson in how not to install infrastructure. The failure to address the need of cruise ships for power, which forces them to run their generators and pollute surrounding suburbs with airborne filth, is an utter scandal, and something of which those responsible should be deeply ashamed. The fact that this relatively new facility cannot service the newest cruise ships (which are too big to fit beneath the Harbour Bridge) only compounds the folly of the decision. No attention is paid even to the transport needs of cruise passengers, who are to be found wandering hopelessly around Victoria Road and Robert Street, trundling their wheelie bags behind them at all hours of the day and night. If the facility was built not for the convenience of passengers, and certainly not for those who now live amid clouds of pollutants from these stinking waterborne gin palaces, who was it built for? The answer, one can only assume, is vast foreign cruise companies and those who seek to extract the maximum profit from the deluded clients they serve at the lowest cost. No wonder the public views politicians who spruik development with such suspicion.
John Morris signed 2016-12-16 17:03:33 +1100
Rosie Toth signed 2016-12-16 17:01:51 +1100
Juliette Vujeva signed 2016-12-16 16:58:59 +1100
Craig Jewiss signed 2016-12-16 16:55:51 +1100
judy ebner signed 2016-12-16 16:54:04 +1100

Judy Ebner
John Boyle signed 2016-12-16 16:53:02 +1100
Heath Wilder signed 2016-12-16 16:52:01 +1100

Heath Wilder
Samantha Mannix signed 2016-12-16 16:51:38 +1100
Dione McDonald signed 2016-12-16 16:50:09 +1100
Rosemary Sandow signed 2016-12-16 16:49:50 +1100
Sonia Kennedy signed 2016-12-16 16:49:00 +1100
Fiona Banovic signed 2016-12-16 16:48:25 +1100

Dirty tourist operators require regulation.
Stephen James signed 2016-12-14 15:05:32 +1100
Lola Davidson signed 2016-12-12 11:11:03 +1100
Belinda Cochrane signed 2016-12-10 12:52:44 +1100
Beverley And John Inshaw signed 2016-12-09 18:01:49 +1100

Beverley Inshaw
Michelle Brown signed 2016-12-07 12:07:31 +1100
Mike Arundel signed via Robert Smith 2016-12-05 22:56:00 +1100
Benjamin Talbot signed 2016-12-05 15:46:08 +1100

Ben Talbot
Pierre Leeshaa signed 2016-12-05 12:36:14 +1100
Robert Smith signed 2016-12-05 11:49:27 +1100
Greg Rostron signed 2016-12-05 05:21:59 +1100

We have only one environment. We must start looking after it for the benefit of the whole community.
Jennifer Wang signed 2016-12-04 20:19:33 +1100
Torsten Billing signed 2016-12-04 00:16:56 +1100

Living part time in Sweden and Australia we are much used to the Swedish standard in relation to pollution and are amassed how Sydney allows this cruise ships to impact the Environment. Going through the port and at White Bay. Only sensible solution is shore to ship power and cleaner fuel!!
Rowen Legge posted about this on Facebook 2016-12-03 19:30:34 +1100
Make a submission: Clean air for NSW Consultation Paper
Rowen Legge signed 2016-12-03 19:30:09 +1100

I understand the value of the Cruise Ship business to the Sydney economy.

Constraining the emission content of these vessels into the Sydney air at least to a limit approved by the EU, will not cause the Shipping Lines to bypass Sydney.

The customers, their passengers demand Sydney as a stop-over – because of its beauty.

I am sure many would be horrified if they they were made aware that their visit to Sydney diminished this city’s beauty and livability.

Rowen Legge
Mark Collier signed 2016-12-03 16:27:47 +1100

Enough is enough. Carnival’s disdain for the communities they purport to serve has now been proven to be fact after pleading guilty to multiple criminal charges in a US Court and being fined US$40 million. It’s time Australian politicians and regulators stopped pandering to, and parted company from, the devil we now know them to be instead of ignoring the impassioned pleas of their constituents to save the lungs of our children, our elderly and ourselves.
Annelie Child posted about this on Facebook 2016-12-03 16:10:27 +1100
Make a submission: Clean air for NSW Consultation Paper
Annelie Child signed 2016-12-03 16:10:03 +1100

Shore to ship power is well overdue at White Bay. The terminal should never have been moved here but now that it’s here, the least the government can do is to make our air breathable again.