Noosa Council Submission 18 December 2015 - Final submission with table of submitters

59.    Despite the developer’s claim that it is following “best practice”, other jurisdictions in
       Australia have more stringent requirements. The Western Australian Environmental
       Protection Authority (EPA) in its policy document, Guideline for the Assessment of
       Environmental Factors - Recommended Separation Distances for Industrial Residual
       Air Emissions 2005, at Appendix 116, recommends a separation distance of 200 meters
       between a service station operating 24 hours a day and a sensitive land use, which
       includes a school. “Separation distance” is defined to be the shortest distance
       between the boundary of the area that may potentially be used by an industrial land
       use, and the boundary of the area that may be used by a sensitive land use.

60.    Accordingly, given that the site boundary directly adjoins GSLC, for the purposes of the
       WA EPA policy, there would be NO separation distance, and accordingly, the present
       DA would not meet the recommended criteria and would not be approved in Western
       Australia.


61.    The World Health Organisation in 2010 in its policy document, “Exposure to benzene:
       a major public health concern”17, recommended that benzene exposure be reduced
       by:

       (a)     petrol filling stations, as far as possible, following best practices in location,
               design and extraction; and
       (b)     Separate dwelling spaces from areas where vehicles and benzene-containing
               products are kept. In particular, isolating children from indoor exposure to
               vehicle emissions.

             Precautionary principle

62.    Section 4 of SPA imposes a duty on assessment managers and decision makers
       generally, to advance the purposes of the SPA. Section 5 of the SPA states that
       advancing the "precautionary principle"18 is one of the ways of advancing the SPA's
       statutory purpose.


63.    The precautionary principle is the need to take precautionary measures and is
       triggered by the satisfaction of two conditions precedent:

       (a)     a threat (which must be sustained by scientific evidence)19 of serious or
               irreversible environmental damage (including on human systems); and
       (b)     scientific uncertainty as to the nature and scope of the threat of environmental
               damage.


16
   See http://www.epa.wa.gov.au/EPADocLib/1840_GS3.pdf
17
   See http://www.who.int/ipcs/features/benzene.pdf
18
   Defined in s 5(2) of the SPA.
19
   The level of public concern, and the rationality of and scientific or other evidentiary basis for the public
concern is taken into account.
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