Consultants for Walker Corporation are expected to begin their contamination assessment of the Ralphs Bay sediments on Friday 20 June.  The proponent of Tasmania’s first canal housing estate is required to undertake this work under the RPDC Final Scope Guidelines as it prepares its Draft Integrated Impact Statement for assessment.

According to documents lodged by the proponent on the EPBC Act website, the drilling works will be conducted in two phases for an estimated total of eight weeks, concluding in August.  During Phase 1, seventeen boreholes will be drilled to an average depth of ten metres, but up to twenty metres in softer sediments.

A small, but committed group of Save Ralphs Bay members will tomorrow register their silent protest at Walker Corporation’s continued threat to Ralphs Bay, along the roadside at Lauderdale.  We will meet at the Lauderdale Hall at 7.30 am, rugged up, with eyes peeled for a barge-mounted vibrating hammer corer and all terrain vehicles.

Media contact:  Cassy O’Connor 0400 628 939

Useful links:

Resource Planning and Development Commission
Assessment Approvals Process

Derwent Estuary Water Quality Improvement Plan for Heavy Metals, June 2007

State of the Environment Report 2004, Ecological Condition of Coastal, Estuarine and Marine Habitats

State of the Derwent Estuary: A review of environmental quality data to 1997, Coughanowr, C.

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Referrals list page