Letter sent to local papers


Residents tabled a petition to council at their recent meeting which requests that Powercor place underground the proposed 66kV powerlines through Ardeer.

We hope that council will continue to represent the interests of residents by raising their legitimate concerns and cancelling the permit for these works as Powercor have failed to comply with conditions of the permit which required them to consult with our community.

In our view, consultation means discussing Powercor’s aims with our community and being willing to hear our concerns and to negotiate. Consultation does not mean sending a pattern letter to residents saying what Powercor intends to do after the poles have been erected or seeking retrospective approval for the removal of trees.

To date Powercor continue to say they will not pay for the line to be placed underground despite the fact that the Powercor/CitiPower entity, returned a $AU69.5 million profit last year and their parent company Spark Infrastructure reporting an increase in total underlying income of 14.5% to $266.0 million.

Powercor has not supplied any evidence that there will not be adverse health effects as a result of EMF from the 66Kv lines. They have tried to tell us that the exposure of up to 100uT is safe according to 1998 guidelines while more recent (2007) World Health Organisation analysis acknowledges that prolonged EMF (electromagnetic field) exposures above .4uT (microtesla) are associated with childhood leukaemia. The impact study paid for by Pwercor uses computer modelling to predict the EMF from these lines and estimates a figure of .6-.7uT at 10m, however, UK literature on EMF’s under a 66kV line say the EMF varies from .5-40uT. This is especially important given the proximity of the Ridgeway Parade kindergarten, only 10m from the base of these poles.

Powercor continues to try to tell us that this line will improve the reliability of electricity supply to residents in the area. This line is not supplying power to Ardeer residents, it is supplying power to the industrial estate on the other side of the ring road, where ironically the lines will then go underground.

It seems that while we remain a safe Labor seat our community will continue to be taken for granted. Given the Liberals track record of privatisation, defunding of services in the west and antiworker legislation I don’t believe they are the solution either. It is time we demand better for our area and that includes electing genuine, local representatives with a track record.