Mt Coot-tha Quarry History of Significant Events - 2017



2017
9th January
Philip Best writes again to JLTA and King & Co lawyers, to handle our claim for damages from the BCC Quarry Blasting.
Our case is of course a test case and if successful will pave the way for other claims.

14th February
BCC Asphalt Manager provides the first email that says what the previous blast vibration readings were.
They still fail to provide the estimated blast strength for the blast being notified.

27th February
Philip Best advises LM Quirk that his letter to Cr Peter Cumming is incorrect in that the blast vibration company places monitors how and where the quarry manager states. Hence it is not independant.

22nd February
Philip Best writes to LM Quirk asking that the estimated blast strength be provided in the Notice of Blast Email.

4th March
Philip Best creates RTI application to the BCC for their Mt Coot-tha Quarry blast monitoring data 2001-2017.

7th March
Philip Best creates RTI application to the EHP department for their Mt Coot-tha Quarry blast monitoring data 2001-2017.

15th March
Philip Best advises EHP department regarding the residents application to Standards Austraia asking for support.

28th March
LM Quirk writes to us stating that they comply with the conditions of their license.
They have given up saying that they comply with every request by the EHP department, because that one is totally untrue.

5th June
After creating two different RTI requests Philip Best receives and is able to imports all the BCC blast Vibration Data 2001 - 2016 into an excel spreadsheet.
The data is amazing and when visualised with charts some of the trends become clear.
An attempt is made to understand what the blast vibrations might have been like at the closest homes by applying the average difference when they were measured at the closest homes.

23rd August
Philip Best complaint to OIC regarding the BCC not providing all the requested information.

November-December
David Hassall and Philip Best complete the large document covering everything that is relevant to the Mt Coot-tha Quarry and the local residemts.
The document is titled "Mt Coot-tha Quarry Stakeholder Advisory Committee Proposal"
Extensive care is taken to make sure that everything in our report it true, and many items that we were unsure about were omitted.
The research and writing work done in constructing this document was extensive which included.....

20th November
David Hassall &Amp; Philip Best make contact with the Qld Ombudsman regarding the Mt Coot-tha quarry.
The Ombudsman"s office allocates reference number 2017/09747 for the Brisbane Cty Council.

4th December
Following the Qld EHP advice that vibration amplification is possible in tall buildings, Philip Best analyses the possibility of this happening to the local residents homes.
A model was established based on the primary blast monitor frequency, which provides an explanation as to why this is happening.
If the homes at Mt Coot-tha have any resonant frequency which matches any component frequency inside the blast ground vibrational energy, then the building will resonate with vibrations which will exceed those outside on the ground.

1st December
Philip Best sends 15th email request to BCC Ms Julien and Mr Bird asking to be advised of the estimated Mt Coot-tha Quarry Blast strength.
No reply or acknowledgement of any kind was received as a reply, however Email Read Receipts from both parties were returned to us.

6th December
David Hassall receives a reply from LM QUirk regarding our proposal report.
In this report he says "Some of the claims made in your submission are simply not correct and do not reflect the responsible manner that Council has and will continue to operate the quarry."

7th December
Following the Mt Coot-tha Quarry rejection of requests for them to do blast vibration measurements in a private home,
Philip Best begins series of private home blast vibrations using a Saros instantel blast monitor.
A set procedure is established where Saros does the blast monitor setup on the day of the blast.
Philip Best clamps the transducer to the balustrade and presses the record button, all persons & animals must leave the premises.
Saros then obtains the report from the monitor and emails us both the report and the invoice.

11th December
David Hassall wrote to the lord mayor saying that his response failed to address the several impact issues on local residents plus their personal statements due to quarry operations.
DH also asked LM Quirk to confirm what claims his department consider incorrect.

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