By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Pollution hangs in the air…
FEW dare to hang their washing outside at Glenora Way and Rowland Close, Hampton Park.
For several years, residents have fruitlessly complained to authorities about the dark, dirty film that has stained each of their homes’ cement paths, timber decks, window and door sills.
Most worryingly are their eye irritations, coughing, sneezing, hay-fever, severe skin hives and asthma attacks that have reportedly intensified in that time.
Residents believe the silt comes from the visibly swirling dust from industrial yards on O’Grady Road, Hallam, just 400 metres north from their homes.
The yards, with ever-growing pyramids of soil and mulch, seem to kick up with dust during the frequent movements of trucks and heavy machinery.
On days of hot, dry northerly winds, residents say they have to batten themselves inside from the “dust storm”.
Despite frequent complaints, residents felt they had been not been heard by Casey council nor the Environmental Protection Authority Victoria.
They say each authority has handballed responsibility to the other.
“So many people are saying the same thing,” a resident said.
“They started ringing in with complaints years ago and just gave up.”
According to Casey council, the businesses don’t require a planning permit because they are in an industrial zone.
“Therefore they are not in breach of a planning permit,” Casey statutory planning manager Duncan Turner said.
According to the Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA), none of the businesses have required a licence from the pollution watchdog for their emissions.
Victoria has more stringent standards on coarse particle pollution, known as PM10, than national guidelines – but according to residents, the EPA has not conducted air monitoring in Glenora Way and Rowland Close.
The EPA recorded its first complaint about odour in the area in July last year and its first dust complaint three months later.
EPA southern metro acting manager Marleen Mathias said an O’Grady Road business was issued with a Pollution Abatement Notice on 11 August 2015.
It was revoked after an EPA inspection on 13 October 2015 found the business had complied with the authority’s requirements.
Star News understands the requirements include an odour management plan and a $60,000 onsite water tanker to dampen potential flying particles.
Ms Mathias said the EPA was working with the council to confirm the relevant sources of dust from the O’Grady Road industrial area and to resolve the dust issues for residents.
One resident, who doesn’t want to be identified, worries about his young family’s severe hay-fever like symptoms that have regularly flared since 2014.
He’d never had allergies before but now takes hay-fever medication twice a day and breaks out in hives.
His toddler daughter suffers frequent outbreaks of eczema and a running nose.
“I’ve been overseas, in bushland and I’ve never had hives before. But when I come home, I get it,” the man said.
“It’s killing us,” he says, perhaps metaphorically.
A neighbour in his 60s has been similarly afflicted in recent times, again for the first time of his life.
He said he is all too frequently cleaning the “mould” from his roof, and the grit inside and outside his air-conditioning unit.
Casey councillor Damien Rosario said residents want acknowledgment.
“Some say it’s gone on for years, some say it goes back decades.”
“It’s time the EPA stepped up as the higher authority and took responsibility.”
