Aticles/Letters
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Time to take local responsibility for our own car pollution? Nik Smulian Ten years ago you could drive into any town in the Shire and park in front of the shop you were visiting. Today our towns are parked out by 7am; they are congested and polluted, and our roads are literally falling apart under the strain of too many cars. So what can we do? I had some thoughts but realised that making them work would require a level of co-operation between local and state government, the RMS and the police never before witnessed. But on the chance they may inspire some ideas that would work I’m offering them for dissection.
Pollution reduction First some basics: cars pollute. In order to minimise this, vehicles manufactured today use three-way catalysts that convert carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons into less damaging carbon dioxide and water, and nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and oxygen.
▶ Continued from page 12 denied us, and countless others, this simple pleasure in the future. David Dixon Byron Bay
Tourist charge Venice will start charging tourists to enter the city to help with funds to keep city clean etc – oh if only! Len Bates Mullumbimby
Deja vu Thank you, Councillor Basil Cameron, for organising
CHESS
by Ian Rogers When Daniil Dubov, 22, won the World Rapid Championship last week in Saint Petersburg, he was congratulated by Vladimir Putin – a rare chance for the Russian President to praise a Russian World Champion. Dubov had edged out Magnus Carlsen for the rapid world title, and the Norwegian revealed that Dubov had been part of his team before and during Carlsen’s successful World Championship title defence against Fabiano Caruana. After Dubov’s title win, the Russian gave a number of interviews, one of which has led to calls for him to be charged with an offence which could land him in jail for up to five years. In a wide-ranging chat with fearless Russian journalist Evgeny Surov, Dubov criticised players, who had competed in the previous World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Saudi Arabia despite not needing the money. Dubov then explained to Surov that competing in Russia, despite its sins and despite the tournament he had won being sponsored by Saudi Arabia, was ethically acceptable because of the cultural
The thing is catalysts don’t last forever or maintain their original efficiency over their lifecycle. After 100,000km their performance starts to drop off; by 300,000km most are failing to work within their design parameters. This is just for well maintained cars. Poor or irregular servicing, dirty air filters, fouled plugs, bad oxygen sensor readings, worn valves or pistons and a number of other variables can cause internal catalyst failure at much lower mileages. In many developed countries including North America, Northern Europe and Japan, cars undergo emissions testing every year. If they fail the cars have to be repaired before they’re allowed back on the road.
Car pollution. Photo Simone Ramella flickr.com
All NSW garages are required to have emissiontesting equipment but ironically there is no regular mandatory emissions testing in Australia. From personal experience running a garage,
most car owners prefer not to spend a couple of thousand bucks to reduce their emissions when there is no incentive or enforcement. You can even buy little gadgets that cheat the computers on cars with pollution warning lights and turn them off. So cars can pump out unchecked quantities of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide. All are bad for our health if we breathe them in and all contribute to global warming. When the carbon monoxide is converted into carbon dioxide it does nothing to diminish its contribution
So here’s the kernel of an idea. We develop an incentive for locals to maintain
Permits would be issued free to emissions-compliant cars that are registered in the Shire. An annual permit fee, quite a hefty one so as to encourage the owners to repair their smog buckets, for locally registered cars whose owners choose not to provide a certificate. The money raised could go to planting trees and biobanking. Exceptions could be worked out for commuting workers, delivery drivers, family visitors etc.
the information session on the inflow/infiltration issue in Mullumbimby and the strategy the current council have adopted. This gave people the opportunity to voice their opinions and experiences concerning the Mullumbimby gravity sewer mains. It was disappointing that only one member of the Waste Water Sewer Advisory Committee (WWSAC) attended. It was bemusing that the handout basically revisited the 2006 methodology
supplied by then-director of water and recycling; again blaming faulty and illegal house connections for the infiltration problem. For the record the WWSAC was supplied with a spreadsheet in 2018 outlining all the identified faulty house connections. This included the 740 houses in Mullumbimby where repairs had been carried out. The print did not mention the condition of the sewer gravity mains or that this may be the source of the infiltration problem.
I asked about videoing the gravity mains to assure they are not in a state of disrepair. The council staffer, Jason Stanley, reluctantly said they may video the sewer gravity mains in March 2019. This is illogical. I believe the right approach would be to determine that the system conveying the sewage was in a fit state before commencing any other investigation – at substantial cost to ratepayers. Mr Stanley also informed the people who attended
that water and recycling (W&R) had been authorised, on the recommendation of the WWSAC; they had $2.5m to spend investigating the infiltration problem over five years. A resident was told there are six maintenance staff to maintain the stormwater and sewer system. The director of infrastructure must believe in miracles if they think only six people can maintain Byron’s system. Mullumbimby residents are being blamed for this infiltration problem again.
Why bother?
position of chess in Russia, which, Dubov said, would outlast any particular government. Then Dubov moved into areas where few Russians would dare to tread. He stated that he fully supported the Ukrainian position on Crimea (annexed by Russia since 2014) and that he would have to think hard about accepting an invitation to visit the Kremlin if invited. ‘Honestly I do not know,’ he said. ‘As a person, I would rather not go. I don’t like Putin but indeed there is a majority for him, and if we respect democracy we must respect the choice of our people. So if Putin invites you, well then you have to go.’ ‘Is this a Ukrainian or Russian World Champion?’ asked a member of the Russian parliament’s media council, who also suggested that Dubov could be charged under a law passed immediately after the annexation of Crimea, which bans ‘public calls for the violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation’. With the former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkadij Dvorkovich now running the world body, Dubov is probably safe, although no invitation to the Kremlin is likely any time soon.
14 The Byron Shire Echo `ëŕƖëſƷ ǰǽ ǩǧǨǰ
to global warming. But on the bright side it is much less harmful to us and other mammals – at least in the short term! I’m led to believe that a large percentage of the wear and tear of our community infrastructure is from tourist traffic and that we seem to be blocked by state government every time we come up with a plan in which the tourists contribute to the cost of infrastructure maintenance.
their cars’ emissions standards and for tourists to leave their cars at home. We could base it on a two-tier voluntary vehicle emissions testing. Tier 1: Cheaper annual parking meter exemption permits for vehicles that test and pass. Tier 2: Introduce a shirewide parking permit scheme. You can’t park on any public road or car park in the Shire without one. This is in addition to the meter exemption permits in tier 1.
Local responsibility
Residents
Visitors Non-Shire-registered cars would pay a daily/weekly fee for the permit, which would only be issued against an emissions certificate. The money raised would be used to maintain infrastructure. The price of the permit could be related to engine size/ vehicle weight and set to encourage tourists to carpool or leave their cars at home. There would be an increased demand for good public transport. More local jobs. More bicycles. The cars that continue to come will be low polluting and contribute financially to the wear and tear they cause. Maybe even a train running between Billinudgel and Bangalow could be supported? And you never know, it may help to get all the out-of-state-registered smoke bombs off our roads.
Free testing RMS NSW do free emissions testing, but the closest centre is in Penrith so we may need to petition them to set up something closer! Not the earthenware gravity mains system that was laid in 1963 in clay up to six metres deep. Well-respected design engineers will tell you that the longevity of those mains is approximately 26 years. After that the system will start to structurally break down. Why are the elected council funding a five-year investigation of the surface water without having any evidence that these old earthenware mains are still sound. Alan Dickens Brunswick Heads
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