By Sophie Aubrey and Patrick Hatch
Residents of the inner-west are demanding that pollution filters be installed on the West Gate Tunnel’s enormous vents, which spew toxic truck fumes into the air near homes and sporting fields.
Environmental Justice Australia lawyers have sent a letter on behalf of the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group urging the state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to reconsider its decision to not require the fitting of pollution filters on the $10.1 billion tunnel’s twin vents.
Glen Yates in front of the western-most vent under constuction.Credit: Justin McManus
The two 50-metre tall concrete structures – at Whitehall Street and near Fogarty Avenue in Yarraville – will draw polluted air out of the four-kilometre tunnel and pump it into the atmosphere when the Transurban-operated toll road opens, scheduled by the end of 2025.
Glen Yates lives with his wife and two children less than a kilometre from one of the vents.
“I can see it at the end of my street. People think it’s a car park – if they knew they would be horrified,” he said.
In 2017, the project’s government-appointed advisory committee recommended pollution filters be fitted on the vents during the construction because the area’s air quality was already poor and the project should “take every opportunity to improve [it]”.
But then-planning minister Richard Wynne rejected this, saying he was not convinced the filters were justified or cost-effective. He instead supported retrofitting the vents “if warranted”.
The EPA agreed and approved the works with a requirement that the vents be built to allow for future installation of pollution filters.
Modelling for the project has shown that while some inner-west neighbourhoods are predicted to have better air quality, there will be occasional heightened levels of particulate matter – tiny pieces of dust, dirt, smoke or chemicals that can blow into people’s lungs.
Environmental Justice Australia lawyer Elke Nicholson said the project would soon apply to the EPA for an operating licence for the tunnel.
Nicholson argued that the application should prompt the EPA to conduct new community consultation on vent filtration because the Environment Protection Act has been strengthened since it first assessed the project.
Under the updated act, the EPA must have a “preventative focus” and address harms to human health that may be cumulative and arise from a range of factors, which in the inner west includes existing heavy road traffic and nearby industrial activity.
“If the EPA approves this without listening to the community, it would be a real failure to consider their voices and the fact that they are already overburdened with a significant amount of air pollution,” Nicholson said.
“They’re impacted by air pollution to a degree no one else in the state is. People have been campaigning for decades and seeing no genuine changes.”
An aerial shot of the West Gate Tunnel ventilation structure near Fogarty Avenue in the distance.Credit: Justin McManus
EPA general counsel Greg Elms said extensive public consultation had already been conducted, but any operating licence application would be rigorously assessed according to the newest science and legislation.
Yates – a member of the truck action group – lives near the Fogarty Avenue vent, which is about 200 metres from sporting fields, homes and a new residential development, Bradmill Estate.
He said he had been diagnosed with asthma two years ago. More than 9000 trucks are expected to travel through the tunnel each day, and Yates said he worried about the effects of unfiltered exhaust emissions collecting in just two spots.
The number of trucks using the tunnel will also surge. The Port of Melbourne has forecast container volumes will more than double over the next 30 years. Climate change is also expected to increase the frequency of “inversion layers” that trap airborne pollution at ground level.
“As much as they’re saying it’s great from a traffic flow perspective, as far as extreme concentration of exhaust goes, Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville cop the full brunt,” Yates said.
Martin Wurt, the truck action group’s president, said the cost of filters would be minor compared with the project’s budget, which has already blown out by $3.8 billion.
But it would be difficult to add later because doing so could require Transurban to shut down the tunnel for installation, he said.
“If you’re really committed to doing something for the health of the inner west, you would be putting filtration in now, and EPA should be screaming out for this,” Wurt said.
Maribyrnong City Council declared a health emergency in its municipality in 2023 because of the impacts of air and noise pollution from heavy trucks using local roads.
One study of children in Yarraville, published in Atmosphere in July, found that truck emissions likely made a substantial contribution to childhood asthma.
“If existing statistics on our poor health here aren’t enough for a trigger for filtration, I can’t imagine what ever would be,” Wurt said.
Air pollution filters have been installed on tunnels in Norway, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Austria, Italy, Germany, South Korea and Spain.
However, a spokesman for Transport Minister Danny Pearson said filtration technology was in its infancy and energy intensive.
The spokesman said vents would push exhaust high into the air to be dispersed safely, and air quality would be monitored daily. “The new tunnels will use effective and proven ventilation technology and are being built to strict environmental standards,” he said.
A Transurban spokesperson said the ventilation system had been designed to meet stringent international standards, and that it regularly published air-quality data for its road tunnels.
The West Gate Tunnel’s planning process attracted more than 500 submissions, 460 of which were opposed to the project, citing concerns including air quality and health impacts.
The toll road – which includes 6.8 kilometres of tunnels and 9.2 kilometres of elevated roads and flyovers – is intended to provide an alternative river crossing to the West Gate Bridge, improve access to the Port of Melbourne and remove trucks from local streets in the inner west.
Transurban successfully pitched the project to the newly elected Labor state government in 2015, and is paying $6.1 billion of its construction costs in exchange for operating tolls on the new road, along with a lucrative 10-year extension to its CityLink contract.