MCU15/0095 & REC15/0022 PM Submission Object - Various - Petition Kelly Gerber

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            S9.    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 200S, 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 S 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.



           ,. 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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