A buffer needed on Le Fevre Peninsula to separate heavy industry from homes: Councillor
A COUNCILLOR in Adelaide’s west wants the State Government to buy houses close to heavy polluting industry, to create sizable buffer zones in the suburbs.
THE State Government should offer to buy houses close to heavy polluting industry so there is a greater “buffer zone”, a Port Adelaide Enfield councillor says.
Semaphore Ward councillor Helen Wright said she wanted the State Government to offer to buy homes close to factories in Birkenhead and Peterhead.
Her comments came after more than 200 residents at a public meeting at the Waterside Worker’s Hall on the long-term health impacts from living on the Le Fevre Peninsula.
The meeting followed the release of a parliamentary select committee report, which showed Le Fevre Peninsula residents were 36 per cent more likely to develop cancer than people living in the rest of SA.
Do you think the State Government should offer to buy up houses near heaving industry on the Le Fevre Peninsula? Leave your comment below.
Marinas, power stations, cement works and a waste and recycling depot operate out of the Le Fevre Peninsula, including Adelaide Brighton Cement’s plant at Birkenhead.
“The houses were built close to the factories because it used to be nice to be close to your work,” Cr Wright said.
“But of course industry has progressed and I personally think there should be a bigger buffer zone for noise and pollution.
“If they relocated the people that are there – there are houses across the road from the trucks – people can move further away.
“People may be happy to move somewhere else.”
The report was released in November after a two-year investigation into how heavy industry next to housing was affecting people’s health.
Residents have complained about dust emissions from Adelaide Brighton Cement for 20 years.
A few of the potential solutions in the report include moving industry or housing and speeding up plans to move the Incitec Pivot fertiliser plant away from the area.
It did not suggest measures which could be taken to move industrial plants out of the area.
Greens MLC Mark Parnell, who chaired the select committee, presented figures which showed pollution from Adelaide Brighton Cement had increased.
The National Pollutant Inventory figures showed dust pollution had increased up to 175 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
The Federal Government-run inventory publishes emission stats information from industry across Australia.
“Everywhere in the world dust pollution has been studied and it is bad for health,” Mr Parnell said.
Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Gary Johanson said residents “loved the area” and did not want to leave.
Lung cancer sufferer Steve Foster, who lives near Adelaide Brighton Cement, said the pollution was impacting on his life.
“When I am upstairs, there are times I can’t use the airconditioner, open the windows or do anything because of that yellow, pinky dust.”
The committee’s findings will be discussed at a Port Adelaide Enfield Council meeting next month.
Mr Johanson said the council would consider an action plan to take to the State Government.
Adelaide Brighton Cement spokeswoman Luba Alexander said the EPA monitored and tested emissions from the Birkenhead plant.
“Adelaide Brighton Cement’s Birkenhead plant emissions are significantly below World Health Organisation health guidelines and National Environmental Protection Measure benchmarks,” Ms Alexander said.
State Labor MP for Lee, Stephen Mullighan, said the idea was “unprecedented”.
“I don’t think it’s genuinely practical for the community to choose between residential land uses and industrial land uses to the exclusion of the other,” Mr Mullighan said.
“The council and the government have committed to working together to work through the issues such as noise, dust and other emissions from local industries, to find improvements for local residents.”
Do you think the State Government should offer to buy up houses near heaving industry on the Le Fevre Peninsula? Leave your comment below.