At Who's Cost

Former PICL site and BP contaminated land


It was noted with interest an article "Back to drawing board on P.I.C.L site" it referred to the Court government and how they purchased a 76 ha block of land from a Petrochemical Industries' Company LTD for $4.9 million in 1994 with tax payers money.


P.I.C.L was at the centre of the notorious WA Inc era in the 1980's which involved purchasing the ill fated block in an attempt to bail out the late Laurie Connell and Dallas Dempster it was estimated to cost tax payers $413 million, so in total $418 so the money train goes on .


BP and Rio Tinto who were joint partners in a 500 megawatt power station and were in negotiations with Land Corp to take a long term lease, well surprise surprise it all fell in a heap. It was found Carbon Dioxide cannot be buried successfully beneath the seabed between Fremantle and Rottenest,it appears now tax payers are to be slugged to the tune of approximately $1 million per year.


This particular site is contaminated, from BP using it as a dumping ground for various hazardous wastes, so who is responsible for the remediation? Seeing BP has used this site as a dumping ground for years, surely BP should be held responsible for the clean up not the tax payers.

This site is still not listed on the contaminated sites register, so the Government is breaking it's own rules.