Two New Landslides and Bursting of Underground Spring.

Thursday, 2nd October, 2008.

With continuing blasting by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and Abigroup at and near Nerong (which is some 6 to 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah and is not a part of the Bulahdelah 'upgrade' project) there have now been two landslides in one of the Alum Mountain's historic - and heritage listed - mining quarries.

An underground spring has also been caused to burst. This flooded the quarry and created a creek between the quarry and the 'top' car park. Although the water has now been pumped out, this has created a major mudslide hazard.

The following photographs were taken on 25th September, 2008:-

A section of the larger of the two landslides.

A section of the smaller of the two landslides.
The top of this landslide is only a few metres from walking-trail steps leading to the historic boiler site.

Rocks and boulders from the larger landslide now cover the pathway to the quarry.

This boulder came down with the smaller landslide.

Inside the quarry was completely flooded.

The water from the burst underground spring formed a creek which flowed from the quarry.

The creek flooded the 'top' car park and flowed down the mountainside, causing an extreme mudslide hazard.

And the RTA still intends to locate a new section of highway up to 25 metres deep into the western foot of the Alum Mountain - beneath the above!

And beneath cliffs from which boulders have been falling since the commencement of RTA, Abigroup blasting some 6 to 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah!

The Deadly Hazards of the Acid Sulphate Rock Dust the RTA Intends to Inflict on Human Lives and the Myall River and Lakes

NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) bureaucrats are currently conducting what are meant to be monthly meetings with approximately twenty (a relative few) community members who have taken upon themselves the huge responsibility of acting for community interests. Of the non-RTA meeting attendees:

• only two are knowledgeable as to the details of the RTA’s processing of the Option E route; and
  

• only about three (including the abovementioned two) have taken the time to educate themselves regarding any of the life-jeopardising hazards to which the RTA intends to unnecessarily expose Bulahdelah residents, visitors to the township – including children who travel from other areas to Bulahdelah’s mass schooling institutions – and road users.

And those three or so individuals have not only the RTA and their Communo-Fascist tactics to contend with: some of their fellow meeting attendees are so naïve that, through their silence/their outspokenness regarding irrelevant matters, they are unwittingly supporting the RTA objective to endanger human lives – including the lives of children.

At this year’s meetings, RTA bureaucrats continue to play down, including, in some cases, by lying about, hazards involved in the use of Option E. These include the dangers of acid-sulphate dust which would be produced during construction. Facts additional to those at the Pacific Highway - NSW Government's Killer Act blogspot site are:-

In the Alum Mountain section of the ‘Option E’ proposal, there are ‘locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock’ and that rock is ‘acid forming’. (Ref. Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection: PPK – now Parsons Brinkerhoff – 2001)

The acid produced by the rock described by the RTA as ‘acid sulphate rock’ is sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is carcinogenic. Inhalation of sulphuric-acid-producing rock dust can also cause aluminosis.

Dust produced during the removal (including via blasting) of a gargantuan section of the western foot of the Alum Mountain would be acid sulphate. The acid sulphate constituents of the dust would be from: acid sulphate soils, acid sulphate clays and at least two types of acid sulphate rock: rhyolite and alum stone (alunite).

Route-processing tactics employed by the RTA include avoidance and misrepresentation of the actual concerns of citizens. The following is but one of many examples which can be found in the RTA’s own documentation:-

‘Dust would be generated during construction of the proposal, especially during earthworks. The total amount of dust generated during the construction of the proposed Upgrade would depend on the silt and moisture content in the soil and types of operations being carried out’. (Ref. Bulahdelah Upgrade of The [sic] Pacific Highway Submissions Report 2.4 Environmental Impacts of the Proposal 2.4.7 Air Quality.)

The ‘total amount of dust generated during construction’ is irrelevant to the fact that, in addition to other dust-related health issues e.g. asthma, dust which contains a fluid-triggered carcinogen and can cause aluminosis would be generated during construction of the proposal and would be ingested, including via inhalation, by community members.

From the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) document Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Volume 6 Technical Paper 11, page 4-33:-

NOTE: THE WORDS POTENTIAL AND POTENTIALLY WERE USED IN THE EIS AS A MEANS OF UNDERPLAYING ACTUAL HAZARDS.

4.9 Acid Sulphate Rock [bold typeface added for emphasis]

During the Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection (PPK 2001) rock samples were tested for acid producing potential. The test results indicated a range from nonacid to potentially strongly acid producing rock. Samples indicated moderate and strong acid producing potential on the lower slopes of Bulahdelah ([the] Alum) Mountain north of Ann Street/Bombah Point Road, from the Bulahdelah Formation geological unit through which the preferred route would be cut.

A sample from the colluvial area [a landslide area claimed by the RTA to be ‘ancient’ – located above residences and Bulahdelah Central School] was also designated as potentially acid forming. It is likely that mixing resulting from the excavation, haul and placing would reduce the risk of fill containing locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock.

Note: As is the case with already extracted alum, when it is immersed in water the alum content of alum stone hydrolyses and forms sulphuric acid. The up to twenty four metres deep ‘cut’ into the Alum Mountain for the six-lanes-plus width Option E would include the area on the northern side of the bridge. Sulphuric acid is toxic to marine life. The RTA’s response to the fact that the alum stone dust produced during excavation would be carcinogenic and could also cause aluminosis in humans was that the dust would be ‘wet down’. Wetting alum stone dust produces both alum and sulphuric acid.

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The Company Employed by the RTA for the Pacific Highway, Bulahdelah, Project

The company the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) used as ‘consultants’ and for environmental impact ‘studies’ for the Bulahdelah project is currently called Parsons Brinkerhoff Australia Pty. Ltd. (PB). Said company has had various other names: Pak Poy and Kneebone; Rust PPK (‘Rust’); and PPK Environment and Infrastructure (PPK).

In November, 1996, the company, as Rust PPK, was employed as consultants undertaking the development of a draft Environmental Impact Statement on a second airport for Sydney. In a publication titled ‘Sydney’s second airport proposal’, which was in relation to options which were to be looked at in the Environmental Impact Statement and was circulated to the southern Sydney community and other groups, ‘Rust’ put at least three Sydney suburbs in the wrong location. Numerous complaints were made by the public regarding Rust PPK’s performance. These included protests that there was insufficient community consultation by ‘Rust’ and that the company failed to provide the community with enough early information. (Ref.: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s7186224.pdf – accessed 30th June, 2008.)

And, as Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB), the same company was the firm engaged to design the *Lane Cove Tunnel project. (Ref.: page 7 of the WorkCover Report:
http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/C9E17E73-6847-469B-BC10-A4024ED9EFE2/0/lane_cove_tunnel_construction_site_investigation_report_4821.pdf)

From the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement Volume 6 Technical Paper 11: 4.6 Embankments

'4.6.1 Settlement Assessment in Fills

Settlement along the fills can be critical where embankments are constructed on soft compressible soils and there is a risk that primary consolidation settlement would continue beyond the construction period. Combined with secondary (creep) consolidation of the soft soils and internal creep of the fill material itself, settlement has the potential to exceed design criteria, particularly between structures and adjoining embankments.

Critical settlement locations were identified at structures, at maximum fill embankment height and/or at soft soil foundations. In all locations except at the northern interchange, the maximum fill height and critical foundation soils occurred at a structure.

At the northern interchange the maximum approach embankment heights are not located at the overpass bridges.

Settlement is expected to be most critical at the Myall River Bridge where embankments are high and soft soil was encountered to depths of 4.7 metres at borehole locations.

The adopted performance criteria for evaluating settlements have been based on that [sic] adopted for recent Pacific Highway Upgrade Projects such as Yelgun to Chinderah, and [bold, red typeface added for emphasis] *Lane Cove Tunnel.'

*A section of the Lane Cove Tunnel collapsed in the early hours of 2nd November, 2005. According to the Executive Summary (page 4) of the WorkCover Report into the Lane Cove Tunnel Collapse and Subsidence (March, 2006) Contributing Factors included (but were not limited to) the geological conditions at the site.

___________________________________________________

The following information is from just one brief web search (on 23rd July, 2008):-

• Honolulu, 28th November, 2005: [PDF] “… a dark cloud concerning inappropriate behaviour and possible corrupt conduct hangs over the treatment of subcontractors by Parsons Brinkerhoff, the company that won this mass transit contract.” Statement by: Charles K. Djour, Councilmember CITY COUNCIL CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU Honolulu, Hawaii.

• Trinidad & Tobago, 3rd September, 2007: “This country spent $15.5 million for Parsons Brinkerhoff to work here for three years. This country deserves to see the report from Parsons Brinkerhoff that the government has scrapped. We need to see what it is that Parsons Brinkerhoff recommended that was so unworkable.
  
  Because PB has been performing transportation studies in Trinidad and Tobago since the 1960’s. This firm is world renown. Government had the confidence to give them a fresh contract for $37 million in May 2006. Parsons cannot be that incompetent and still be in business! Just last month, PB was awarded a contract to design a 6-mile-long bus rapid transit corridor in Springfield, Oregon.
  
  We need to see whether Parsons was in favour of this rapid rail system and whether it had proposed cheaper alternatives.” Statement by: Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Deputy Political Leader and Leader of the Opposition.

• Panama, October 8 – 21, 2006: “Parsons Brinckerhoff, in a consortium with Bechtel, was hired by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to manage the Big Dig project. And yes, now that the cost has gone up from its original estimate of $2.6 billion to $14.6 billion and still rising, and now that Parsons Brinckerhoff is feeling the heat of bad publicity, civil lawsuits and criminal investigations for cost-cutting on safety that caused the collapse of a huge concrete ceiling panel onto the car of a couple driving through one of the Big Dig tunnels, Parsons Brinckerhoff is pointing fingers in other directions and there are plenty of fools out there who will take anything a big corporation says at face value.” Statement by: The Editor - The Panama News Panama’s English-language Online Newspaper – Volume 12, Number 19.

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.