Save Kendall Bay

Kendall Bay is a small bay on Sydney Harbour about 8km west of the City. It is one of the last unused bays in Sydney Harbour. It adjoins the residential development of Breakfast Point, once the AGL Mortlake Gasworks. Kendall Bay was highly polluted by AGL as it formerly housed a wharf for the unloading of coal boats and was the point of discharge of waste from the gasworks.

An area extending from the entire shoreline of Breakfast Point out 200m into Kendall Bay is highly polluted. The EPA issued Remediation Order No 2032 in June 2007 over this area declaring that “The concentration of total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s which are classified as human carcinogens) and heavy metals are significantly elevated above ANZECC 2000 guidelines; It is likely that further development of the area would increase the risk of harm.”

Breakfast Point Pty Ltd (the developer of Breakfast Point) proposes covering the pollution within part only of the Remediation Order area with a geotextile mat and a layer of rock as a Sediment Protection System (SPS). They then propose constructing a 172 public berth marina over the SPS. Of the remainder of the area covered by the Order only 3 small sections will be remediated under a plan currently being proposed by Jemena (AGL).

The Environmental Impacts have been understated because the proposed SPS will not address the requirements of the Remediation Order. The proposed SPS has never been used under a marina in a contaminated bay (which in this case is particularly shallow) anywhere that we can find worldwide.

The Operational Environmental Management Plan, the Construction Management Plan and The Operational Environmental Management Plan proposed in the application do not address all the potential impacts on the disturbance of contaminated marine sediments. The proposed measures that would be implemented to avoid, minimise, mitigate, offset, manage, and/or monitor the impacts of the project are inadequate and sometimes invalid.

In its present state Kendall Bay is an unencumbered “public asset” but if a commercial marina is constructed on it a significant portion of the bay will be in private hands in contravention of the aims of the Regional Environment Plan. It is certain that the proposed SPS will fail and pollution will be disturbed and distributed by the marina activities.

LEAVE KENDALL BAY ALONE.