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GREEN:
CMDR Ross Wendt
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Photo: CPL Cameron Jamieson
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By
LCDR Antony Underwood
How
do you operate ships, submarines aircraft and weapons systems
with minimal impact on the environment?
It’s taken Fleet Environmental Officer CMDR Ross Wendt five
years of hard slog to answer the question but he and his team
of two have done so, shared the information with the Fleet,
and been recognised for the excellence of their work.
Recognition came on June 21 with a presentation by the Secretary
for Defence, Mr Rick Smith, to CMDR Wendt of a CDF and Secretary
Environmental and Heritage Award for 2005.
The award was for development and implementation of the Navy
Off-Shore Exercise Environmental Management Plan. The plan was
described as “... only one of a long list of environmental initiatives,
the success of which can be significantly attributed to CMDR
Wendt’s outstanding commitment to reducing Navy’s environmental
risks”.
It began in 2000 when the Minister for Defence put Navy to the
question: How will you comply with the new Environmental Protection
and Biodiversity Act?
“To do that we came up with a 950- page document,” CMDR Wendt
said. “It took us about 18 months.” CMDR Wendt said the widest
possible consultation was required with civil organisations
- federal, state and local environmental authorities such as
the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — to make sure
what was proposed met their requirements.
“We developed a model which we then put out in Fleet and tested
for about six months and then got feedback,” he said.
“You can’t just throw out a 950-page document and expect people
to react so we were trying to break down the requirements of
the act to the lowest common denominators for the fleet - where
‘the rubber hits the road’.”
The result was a series of 56 environmental procedure cards
which spell out what to do or not to do in simple dotpoint format.
“They list every activity of every user of the maritime environment
- Navy, Army and Air Force,” CMDR Wendt said.
The cards are available in PDF pages zipped as one file at
http://intranet.defence.gov.au/navyweb/sites/MC/.
‘The major aim was to enable fleet units to go about their business
as they have in the past but in an environmentally friendly
and sustainable manner’ — CMDR Wendt They cover every conceivable
activity - ordnance use, impact avoidance measures, refuelling
at anchor and disposal of waste to name a few.
“The measures we have in place now will not only help protect
our own environment but they will reduce our requirement for
environmental certificates when our ships visit other countries.
CMDR Wendt said his section is now working on two further publications
– an exercise planners environmental guide to each major maritime
exercise area for use by all three Services and ship or classspecific
procedures for COs and XOs who plan individual activities.
