<
https://theconversation.com/darwin-residents-are-worried-about-toxic-chemicals-and-gas-leaks-we-need-laws-to-protect-clean-air-268200>
"The federal government is considering enforcement action against oil and gas
company Inpex after it admitted serious reporting errors that significantly
underestimated hazardous emissions released from its liquefied natural gas
(LNG) plant on Darwin Harbour over many years.
The LNG plant is 3 kilometres from residential suburbs and 10km from Darwin
city. It is required to report emissions to the National Pollutant Inventory.
Inpex has now released corrections for 2023–24 that more than double the
previous estimates of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released
into the air in Darwin, from 1,619 to 3,562 tonnes. The reason for the errors
has not been disclosed.
The originally reported levels of very toxic compounds benzene and toluene were
just 4–5 tonnes in 2023–24. However, corrected estimates were 136 and 112 times
higher, respectively, with emissions exceeding 500 tonnes of both chemicals.
Currently there is no legal limit on the amount of VOCs that Inpex is allowed
to emit. These new figures raise questions about the potential harms, given
serious toxicity of benzene and toluene, the large amounts released into the
atmosphere over several years, the closeness to population centres and the lack
of detail in current sampling. As a cancer-causing chemical, there is no known
safe threshold for benzene exposures.
When the news broke, NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro responded with public
statements of faith in Inpex and the NT Environment Protection Authority. She
said the incident illustrated the reliability of industry self-reporting. Inpex
said the revised levels raised no health concerns for Darwin.
As a group of leading scientists aware of the complexities involved in
measuring these chemicals and their health impacts, we strongly disagree. We
view the potential health implications to be significant – they require an
urgent, comprehensive and independent investigation.
Given the size of this correction, it’s imperative that corrections across all
years are made public immediately. Corrected levels of benzene and toluene for
2021–22 could be particularly high, as Inpex has already reported emitting
11,000 tonnes of volatile organic compounds to the National Pollutant
Inventory. That is nearly seven times more than the amount now reported for
2023-24."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
