Sponsorship
The Smelter highly values and nurtures the input of the Pirie community, recognising the importance of this partnership as integral to success of the ten by 10 project. As a result the smelter has increased participation and support for community events to enable wider delivery of the tenby10 lead in blood reduction messages. The smelter provides sponsorship for the Port Pirie Smelters Picnic, a local public holiday and the biggest event on the Port Pirie calendar. Sponsorship from the Smelter has been provided since the 1900s and in recent years has hosted the 'Port Pirie Smelter Kids Zone’ marquee to further spread the tenby10 message.
The smelter through the tenby10 project provide annual donations/sponsorship program supporting a broad range of local sport and community events/projects. These community partnerships have been a great way to promote the tenby10 project and also a way to give the teams, coaches and parents a tenby10 presentation on how they can reduce lead dust in their own environments.
Site Bus Tours
The smelter in conjunction with the Tourism & Arts Centre have been conducting weekly tours of the Smelter for a number of years. The Tours provide participants with an overview of the smelters operations, but also to provide a comprehensive understanding of the tenby10 project and what’s being done on site to assist in reducing emissions. Since the tenby10 project started some months ago, many initiatives have been undertaken across a number of areas. These have included major works to enclose the Blast Furnace and the replacement of the Coal Injection System at the Slag Fumer, both of which will significantly reduce fugitive emissions. Many other initiatives have also occurred which involve site cleanliness and hygiene practices including applying dust suppressants to roadways and unpaved areas and increased road sweeping and wetting down of traffic areas.
Tour participants however will not only just gain an increased understanding of these and other tenby10 initiatives, but they will also be shown operational areas of the smelter and given an outline of the many environmental initiatives that are also undertaken across the site. Regardless of whether you’re a long time resident of the community, a tourist or even a relative of someone who is currently employed on site and you’re interested in learning more about either the Smelter or the tenby10 project and what’s being done on site then why not take the tour.
Tours are conducted each Monday, Wednesday and Friday and depart from the Tourism Centre. For further details or to make a booking you can contact the Tourism and Arts Centre on (08) 8633 8700 or Freecall: 1800 000 424.
Citizens Jury
In late 2005, 23 Port Pirie residents formed a landmark Citizen’s Jury that ranked environmental issues facing the Smelter. It was the first time in Australia a community group was assembled for this purpose. Their prioritized list was handed to the SA EPA and it was taken into consideration when the site negotiated new environmental improvement programs (EIPs).
Grain Growers Committee
Following a CSIRO study ‘Grain Quality and Contamination Around Port Pirie’, conducted over 3 years in the Port Pirie region, along with results from previous studies ‘Heavy Metal Contamination of Soils Around a Lead Smelter at Port Pirie South Australia’ and ‘Contamination of Wheat Crops Around a Lead-Zinc Smelter’, conducted in 1977 and 1981 respectively, a Committee made up of representatives from the local farming community, Port Pirie Smelter, ABB Grain, AWB, SAFF/Grains Council, and PIRSA was formed. The Port Pirie Produce Quality Project Committee aims to seek solutions to the potential of grain grown in the area being compromised due to the minimum residue levels for some of the elements associated with the Port Pirie Smelter being reduced worldwide.
As part of their commitment to this and other environmental projects, Port Pirie Smelter is currently collecting data from specifically located large volume air samplers. There are currently 2 monitors located approximately 12km South and North-East of The Port Pirie Smelter.