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Contaminated
Defence Site
by Michael Maskell on behalf of ADI
(Aust Defence Industries)
Residents Action Group
Australian Defence
Industries Land Development
Extracts From A
Speech Given At The Public Meeting Sunday 24 October 1993 at
Cambridge Park Hall in Sydney's outer west.
Re: Australian Defence Industries Land Proposed Development.
Organised By ADI Resident Action Group. (Residents From Communities
Surrounding The Site)
The
residents of the areas surrounding the ADI site between St Marys and
Penrith will not tolerate development without consultation with us
the existing community.
This community has a right
to be heard. The development of the site for housing and industry
has implications far outside the boundaries of the ADI site.
It affects the entire
surrounding community, a community that already has overcrowded and
incomplete roads, a community that has overcrowded peak hour rail
services, and a community that is already subject to unsatisfactory
levels of air and water pollution.
We are concerned
particularly about the existing extensive pollution found on the
site, and in particular the presence of mercury, cadmium and other
heavy metals.
Will the clean
up procedures create a pollution hazard itself, in particular dust
clouds of contaminated soil being created during removal, is there
any possibility that such dust clouds could cause asthma or future
birth defects and if so who accepts the responsibility?
Importantly
where will the contamination be dumped?
A major concern of any
large-scale development in an area such as this must be the impact
on road traffic. our roads are overcrowded, particularly during peak
times.
It is reasonable to expect
that in any additional population, almost all of the workers will
have to commute to their place of employment.
This will obviously have an
adverse affect on our existing local roads as well as an affect on
the two main arterial roads, the great western highway and the M4
tollway.
Air pollution in the Nepean
basin is already too high and with the ADI development, it will
definitely rise, not only from additional road vehicles, but also
from industrial and domestic sources.
We are also concerned about
the fate of the flora and fauna on the ADI site, how many of the
oxygen generating trees will be devastated?
And what
impact will there be on existing surrounding areas with the loss of
trees that form a natural windbreak?
So, we are very concerned
about the impact on our community, we should have the right to at
least be consulted.
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