Year 10 Geography Assessment Task: Geographical Issues in Cronulla and Kurnell

The Cronulla-Kurnell region is a site with historical, cultural, ecological, and scientific significance. It is over 15000 years old, with many great features, such as headlands and beautiful beaches. Once home to the Gweagal Aborigines, it is now being affected by a number of environmental issues. These issues include high-rise development, a golf course/leisure complex, offshore dredging, and an oil refinery. The Caltex refinery is one of the most prominent industrial sites in the Cronulla-Kurnell area, and produces around 6.5 billion litres of oil every year.

The refinery has affected the coastal system in numerous ways, including noise emissions, air emissions, sludge, and soil. It also releases pollutants such as sulphur dioxide into the air, damaging the surrounding environment. This is very harmful to the coastal system. There is also a possibility of oil spills due to the large tankers used to carry the oil, resulting in negatively affecting the environment, damaging an important ecosystem, and killing many animals.

The oil refinery is extremely beneficial to humans- it creates jobs by employing over 700 people, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and helps the Australian economy. But to the local Kurnell residents, the plant is not so good. There have been many complaints against the refinery’s odours, and that the plant is too loud. Therefore, to humans, the plant is both good and bad.

To the environment however, it is very damaging- there is no positive. During large storms, oil sometimes flows into Botany Bay, causing a ‘slick’, harming marine wildlife around Botany Bay and the Kurnell region. The Caltex refinery covers an area of around 400 acres, or 1.6 km2, and once the oil has run out, the land will be useless. The Kurnell area is also home to the endangered Green and Golden Bell frog species, and anything that harms the surrounding environment, or its habitat, will cause it to be even more endangered.

Hence all of these things are caused by the Caltex refinery, and, in addition to the high-rise development, a golf course/leisure complex, and offshore dredging, the Caltex refinery may permanently damage the only major dune system left in Australia.

Because the oil refinery was created in 1954, it is seriously outdated. Although it has undergone a number of upgrades, such as the installation of a biotreater to reduce the impact of organic pollutants going to the environment, it is still nowhere near as efficient as modern oil refineries, making it more likely to cause problems.

The government’s strategy to dead with the oil refinery’s damage is to enforce many regulations to lesson the environmental impact of the refinery, such as a 70-decibel noise limit. And having the company spend over $100 million in the refinery to meet the requirements of a cleaner air policy created in the 1990s. In the event of an oil spill, the company has a Marine Oil Spill Preparedness plan. The Environmental Protection Agency has also set up a monitoring station in the plant. These strategies have reduced the damage done to the coastal system, and have made the refinery more efficient and more ‘green’. Another strategy to reduce the impact of the refinery is to upgrade the facility even more, so that it is less harmful and even more efficient, but unfortunately, this would cost a large amount of money, and the Caltex refinery, being one of the selfish big rich companies that are only interested in earning money, would probably not pay the amount to do so.