So many have asked me what am I on about with this Stop The Tip... So heres a summary of my take on how we are being screwed and dumped on. The residents in Caroline Springs, Deer Park, Burnside and Brimbank Gardens are digging in tooth and nail to fight Boral (who is in bed with the EPA and Liberals) to stop the pending expansion of the Boral tip from becoming the “biggest in the southern hemisphere” smack in the middle of a 100,000 residential region. Self reported data posted on the National Pollution Index (on the Dept of Environments website) by Boral shows their emission levels of 50 toxic substances that we are told are safe but they (Boral and EPA) refuse to back it up with any documentation or analytical findings. Dept of Health is nowhere to be seen/heard from. The health impact advise on that same website contradicts what we are being told as for many of these substances are carcinogenic and long term exposure at any levels can affect blood production and can be harmful to the immune system. EPA is in Borals pocket because it takes multi million$ in levy ($57/tonne x 170,000 tonnes annually) from Boral. And so EPA tells the community that they measure the stinky odour that plague the community using their calibrated noses...We actually have this in writing and it was presented in parliament. In addition there are very real fears that the aquifer that sits directly under the tip, which has been ear marked by Melbourne Water to be the water storage for the whole of Melbourne, has been compromised. Leachate from the tip can escape into our local creeks and rivers that flows directly into Port Philip Bay affecting the habitat of many plants, animals and people that depend and live along on these waterways. There are dozens of children who live with their incarcerated mothers at the Dame Phillis Prison less than 1km from the active tip face. There are workers and prison wardens whose health are impacted, having to breathe in these substances at least 8 hours a day 5 days a week. The Prison Health personnel had raised their concerns but these have fallen on deaf ears because the authorities know that the 3 prisons were accepted by the community as a compromise to the government for not putting a toxic tip in this area…. But silently the quarry was given landfill permit to start filling their gapping holes in the ground with waste. Waste from all sources including commercial, domestic, farm carcass waste… and even asbestos... from as far away as Corio, Geelong, Metro Melbourne and the eastern suburbs are dumped here. Boral themselves admit that they cannot monitor every piece of scrap that is dump off the 600+ trucks they get every day. They can only view via video the top of the trucks if its top is open when it passes the weigh bridge. They “trust” their customers to abide by their regulations… nonetheless, Boral’s permit allows for them to accept wastes such as asbestos. On a daily basis the residents living within the 8km radius of the tip are subjected to the stench of rotten cabbage. Smells are made of particles suspended in the air. Knowing what we know about the toxic substances that are being emitted from the tip, it scares us all to think what we are breathing every day and night. School children have had their outdoor recess and lunch times suspended because the stench was causing them to dry-retch. Many families have stopped their outdoor sports and playground trips because of the stench. Avid gardeners have let their gardens go because they cannot breathe the stench while pottering around. The constant worry about the effects this stench is causing grave mental anguish to the community. Even if the stench is physically harmless, it is definitely harmful to our mental psychology. If this stench does not kill us, the worrying will drive us all insane. Native animals are being displaced by the plague of scavenger birds, rodents and creepy crawlies. Seagulls, crows, ravens, rats the size of kittens, armies of cockroaches have invested the area. Given that there are still hundreds of hectares of paddocks around this area, without any natural predators, these scavengers have a boundless pit of rotting food and wide open space to breed. They scatter the crap that they pick up from the tip and spread disease in their wake. Economically this tip is jeopardizing a multi-billion dollar project (Mt Atkinson) that had promised us 37,000 jobs and another 20,000 new residential homes; 2800 construction jobs for 30 years; a $10-million community and education project ; $8.3 billion economic activity. Another residential project, Woodlea by Mirvac, is just 4km down the road from Caroline Springs is scheduled to be launched in March 2015… well within strike range of the Mt Boral Stink. Even if these projects proceed in spite of the tips existence and expansion, how many businesses would want to invest in such an environment? They would be opening themselves to OH&S complaints from their employees, they will have no customers come visit.... And how many families would want to make their homes in the shadow and stench of Mt Boral? Our community wants the government to put some serious focus on conducting independent (of EPA) investigations on air and water pollution, using very real and proven equipment employed by EPAs in USA, EU and throughout Asia Pacific. Plus we need the government to revisit the very short-sighted Metropolitan Wastes Management Strategy 2013-2043 on the (il)logic behind putting a tip, potentially 106 times the size of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) in the middle of Australias largest growth corridor. Labor MPs tell us they will call in the application for the expansion when Boral re-lodge their tip expansion application in December. Liberals Minister Matthew Guy after having promised us the same, has now back paddled and announced that the Liberals, if in government next year, will not stand in the way of Borals application to expand the tip. Suspiciously this change of heart came after Boral gave testimony in court against the CFMEU. Instead the Liberals advised us the community to dig into our own pockets to lodge a civil court case against Boral and organize blockades to gain attention and cause disruption. Seriously??? So stay tuned for The Uprising of the West. We are fighting back. We will Stop The Tip.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 07:52:29 +0000
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