Osborne residents claim dust and noise from Semaphore Containers silos is harming their health
DUST and grain from a new export business in Adelaide’s west is allegedly putting people’s health at risk, with at least two children sent to hospital with breathing difficulty. SEE THE VIDEO
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DUST and noise coming from a new grain export business in Osborne is putting the health of neighbouring residents at risk, they claim.
Residents say at least two children have been hospitalised and other locals have suffered breathing difficulties triggered by dust since Semaphore Containers opened new grain silos on the corner of Mersey North and Veitch roads in November.
Noise from the plant’s activities are also interfering with sleep, the residents say.
The business has permission to operate from 6am to 10pm.
And grain dropped on to Victoria Rd from trucks leaving the site is attracting pests to the area, they allege.
Semaphore Containers has rejected the claims, saying it is “complying with everything” asked of it by Port Adelaide Enfield Council and the Environment Protection Authority.
But the residents’ complaints have been backed by Councillor Peter Jamieson, who wants to see the company take action to limit dust and noise coming from its operations.
“The company should be shut down until they get their act together,” Cr Jamieson said.
Bianca Aloisi, who lives near Semaphore Containers with her husband Sam and two-year-old daughter, Sloan, said she knew of at least 20 residents aggrieved by Semaphore Containers’ operation.
She said trucks were leaving “massive plumes of dust” which were “covering our street in dirt”.
“When the trucks get there, they get filled up, so you get fine grain dust coming out and then that gets all over our homes and into our houses,” Mrs Aloisi said.
“The trucks are very noisy, so we are hearing horns and revving of engines and noise from the forklifts.”
Mrs Aloisi said two of her neighbour’s children had been hospitalised after they were struggling to breathe.
Now, she is too afraid to let her own daughter play in the backyard in case she inhaled dust.
“When I take her (Sloan) out, I take her to a playground as far away as possible because I don’t want that sort of thing happening to our daughter,” she said.
“Our next-door neighbour’s son, he went to hospital because of asthma, friends of ours down the road went to hospital for the same thing.
“There’s another child across the street who is getting rashes and a woman down the street is developing adult asthma.
“From what I can understand, none of these people have ever had issues before.”
Tammie Wightman, who lives in nearby Victoria Rd, said she had an asthma attack for the first time in her life in December.
“Mine’s mild but as someone who hasn’t suffered from asthma ever it came as a bit of a shock,” Mrs Wightman said.
She now takes medication up to four times a week to prevent another attack and frequently experiences wheeziness and shortness of breath.
“I don’t want to just blame them, but it does seem odd that when that thing is running and the dust is in the air that these things seem to flare up,” she said.
“I don’t necessarily want them to shut down or to put them out of business, I just want the dust to be contained.
“You get up in the morning and there is a layer of it on your car and on your windows.
“The grain is on the road and you could scoop it up and probably get a couple of buckets worth just in our stretch of gutters weekly.
“Semaphore Container Services – it doesn’t feel like they are containing much at the moment.”
Another nearby resident, Sue Hocking, said her young son’s asthma had recently become worse.
Jamie Dodd, who lives a few streets away, said he was tired of his home and car being coated in dust multiple times each week.
Port Adelaide Enfield acting chief executive Sarah Philpott said the council was working with the business and the residents to address the dust and noise.
“Some immediate measures have been put in place including bitumising the access road and the installation of fogging machines around the perimeter of the facility to capture dust from the air,” Ms Philpott said.
However, Cr Jamieson said the company needed to go further and change its practices so it did not produce dust – rather than try and catch it afterwards.
An EPA spokeswoman said that following several site inspections and meetings with Semaphore Containers, the local port operator and the council, the EPA had formally written to the company and the operators of the port requiring them to improve their dust management measures.
Semaphore Containers manager Michael Raidis said the company was complying with all of the measures asked of it by the council and the EPA.
“The council has full knowledge of every step and every measure we have taken,” he said.