Last night, the Association hosted a community information meeting in lieu of its normal General Meeting. It was extremely well attended. The presence of A Current Affair made the evening a little more interesting than a typical General Meeting.
Notes of what transpired at the meeting will be posted soon.
Showing posts with label asphalt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asphalt. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Petitions
It had come to the attention of the Association that the proposal may come before Council for development approval as early as the 10th March 2009. The item was removed from the agenda until a later date. Potentially the 24th March 2009.
We are planning on circulating and getting signatures on petitions to the City of Gosnells, the Minister for the Environment, and the Parliament. This may have to come forward significantly. Attached are the three petitions. If you can print them out and get your family, friends, and neighbours to sign them. The City of Gosnells petition is the more important and time critical petition, and needs to be returned to the Association as soon as possible.
Minister for the Environment Petition
The petitions will then need to be sent to the following address, your help will be appreciated.
Bickley Ward Progress and Ratepayers Association
c/o 156 Lacey St
Beckenham WA 6107
Monday, March 2, 2009
Toxic asphalt plants built next to homes - Perthnow article 02/03/09
March 02, 2009 01:06pm
PLANS are being made for an asphalt plant just 100m from Maddington homes, despite Baldivis residents preparing to flee from a similar site built illegally last September.
The Maddington plant would be just 850m from East Kenwick Primary School.
Road construction company Downer EDi Works is waiting on the Department of Environment and Conservation to approve a building application.
Like the Baldivis site, which is 100m from the nearest residential property, the proposal cuts across environmental guidelines that recommend asphalt plants must be a full kilometre from homes.
The plant, 41km south of Perth, was built without government approval. It was fired up this week after a retrospective planning licence was granted.
The plant is needed to provide bitumen for the Perth to Bunbury Highway over the next nine months.
But residents say they are choking on diesel fumes that cause headaches, sore throats and stinging eyes.
The plant operator, the Southern Gateway Alliance, has offered to relocate affected families.
Residents say that while a relocation plan will provide temporary relief, they will have to return to contaminated land and water tanks.
Concerned Maddington residents have appealed to Environment Minister Donna Faragher to formally assess Downer EDi Works's application rather than leaving it in the hands of the DEC.
A spokesman for Maddington community group, Bickley Ward Progress and Ratepayers Association David Munut said the DEC had failed the people of Baldivis.
"The Maddington proposal has the capacity to adversely affect our air quality, and our quality of life,'' Mr Munut said.
"Unfortunately, recent events in Baldivis do not provide any confidence that our community will be looked after.''
"Anything less than a formal EPA assessment isn't only just an insult to our community, it's just blatantly stupid,'' he said.
The DEC maintain the Baldivis plant is safe.
In a statement it said: "The DEC only issued the works approval after it was satisfied that the environmental impact from the plant would be acceptable, as determined by odour modelling and air dispersion modelling.''
Baldivis plant operators, the Southern Gateway Alliance, were not fined or penalised for constructing their plant without government approval, the WA Planning Commission (WAPC) said.
City of Rockingham major Barry Sammels said he has written to the WAPC criticising their handling of the matter.
Dr Talbot says Environment Minister Donna Faragher has the power to move the Baldivis plant away from housing. She said she will be raising the issue in Parliament next month.
Residents say they will be pushing for a parliamentary inquiry into the matter.
Downer EDi did not return calls from The Sunday Times.
mailto:towien@sundaytimes.newsltd.com.au
Perthnow story link here.
Homes hit by fumes
The Sunday Times carried an article yesterday (1/3/09) that included information about the proposed asphalt plant in Maddington. Pertinent quotes from the article include “the proposal cuts across environmental guidelines that recommend asphalt plants must be a full kilometre from homes” and that the proposal is only 850 metres from East Kenwick Primary School.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Baldivis Asphalt Plant on ACA
On Wednesday 25th Feb 2009, A Current Affair covered the Asphalt Plant in Baldivis and the problems that surround it.
The plant, which even though it has already been built and has operated, only received planning approval from the WA Planning Commission last week.
Prominent Environmental and Toxicological expert, Dr Peter Dingle, commented that “the concerns I have, so once we’ve got those concerns about trusting companies and trusting Governments out of the way, the next issue is: Is the Plant Toxic ? and the answer is, Yes it is !” Following on from that, Dr Dingle described some of the possible toxic concerns as “and it’s going to be producing dozens of carcinogens, chemicals that cause cancer, no doubt about that”.
The Department of Environment and Conservation have apparently committed to monitoring the plants emission during operation. If history is any guide to what this monitoring will consist of, it may be something like sniffing the air from an upwind position.
The Baldivis plant will operate for the next ten months or so, which is a travesty for the local residents. The proposed plant for Maddington is permanent.
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