Polluters 1, locals 0

As if South Sydney is not already polluted enough - what with the airport spewing AvGas all over the place, CityRail, StateRail and the Rail Infrastructure Corp all spewing out noise and too often diesel, and cars and trucks spewing exhaust 24/7 - the state government has given Orica the OK to begin pumping a gigantic toxic plume, seeping into Botany Bay as we speak, via a string of wells along the Foreshore Road, extract the ethylene dichloride (EDC) contaminants therein and - get this - burn it off! Release it into the atmosphere!

The go-ahead was given after the US toothless tigers Environmental Protection Agency and some local "expert" reviewed Orica's plan. As wRh mentioned a few weeks back, Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root are principal contractors on the project. The plant is expected to be up by October and, according to this Sydney Yawning Herald piece, will be treating 15 million litres of contaminated water a day. The 8c-a-day news service (which really isn't a straight clone of the BBC) quotes a Greenpeace spokesperson saying what we all already know, that the process is dodgy and will result in locals being blanketed with another layer of toxic crap, this time in the form of dioxin emissions.