Mock funeral warns against Badgerys Creek airport
By Gail Lord
SYDNEY — On February 15 a mock funeral cavalcade left the proposed Badgerys Creek airport site and proceeded to Warragamba Dam, to dramatise the dangers of noise and water pollution.
About 300 people arrived for the ceremony on the dam wall to bury the proposed airport's environmental impact statement.
At the free sausage sizzle and entertainment there were speakers from the Greens, Fairfield Residents Against Airport Noise, Friends of the Earth, Sydney West Anti-Airport Alliance and Chris Nash from No Aircraft Noise.
Nash stated that the EIS process is a threat to all Australians and that we need to "bury the politicians who foisted it upon us". The main theme of the day was that the EIS has failed to address real problems and that neither the Liberal nor the Labor Party care about the people of Sydney, inner or outer.
The Sydney West electricity division station is directly in line with proposed runways, and if this facility or the Kemps Creek major substation were to be damaged or destroyed by low level fuel dumping or an aircraft crash, the repercussions would be immense.
Warragamba Dam and Prospect Reservoir lie under the flight path (some planes already fly over this area), so water quality will also be affected. Western Sydney from Badgerys Creek to Castle Hill will suffer noise levels of 70 to 80 decibels. When Luna Park was closed, it was just under 65 decibels.
Another Anti-Badgerys airport demonstration will take place on March 15 at Jameson Park in Penrith.