Oppose Steel Cement Expansion  in Yarraville

Letter to Maribyrnong City Councillors

Steel Cement have taken this to VCAT. The community campaign continues …

Attention: Mayor & Councillors, City of Maribyrnong. Re: Planning Application by Steel Cement Pty Ltd

We urge Councillors to reject the report 6.1 Planning Application TP53/2023(1) before you at the City Development Delegated Committee, Tuesday December 11, 2024. The report recommends approval of the Planning Application by Steel Cement Pty Ltd at 295 Whitehall Street Yarraville, ostensibly on the basis that it’s a “sizeable investment in manufacturing”, “promotes Council’s efforts in facilitating a circular economy and provides and secures employment”. None of this is substantially quantified, let alone balanced against the pollution and health risks, and the general impact on liveability.

We would like to draw Council’s attention to the recent Open Community Letter to our State Member, Katie Hall, expressing concerns not only about the specific impact of the expansion of Steel Cement, but also the cumulative impact when understood in context.

The expanded Steel Cement facility will import and process cement materials. “At full capacity approximately 1,500,000 tonnes of cement would be produced per year”; with a planned 370 truck movements a day. The factory will be grinding slag 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, all within 1km of residents. The release of Respirable Crystalline Silica PM2.5 ‘dust’ from “fugitive dust emissions” is a real health risk, as is the dust released from trucks as they travel through our streets. Additionally, the unloading of raw materials using heavy fuel oil will produce 5.5 tonnes of PM2.5, which long term exposure associates with a range of major health effects. The gas powered factory will also produce 1.9 tonnes of CO2 per hour, for thousands of hours a year.

The Environment Protection Act 2017 makes specific reference to the fact that “harm may arise as a result of the cumulative effect of harm arising from an activity combined with harm arising from other activities or factors”.

We urge Councillors to look at the bigger picture here.

In addition to the proposed expansion of Steel Cement, the EPA is currently considering a new licence application for the storage of dangerous goods in Coode Island. The proposed facility will store approximately 230 tanks, containing foodstuffs, combustible liquids and dangerous goods, 1.2km from the Yarraville Village. The EPA will be making a decision on this licence application in 2025. This sort of application is of great concern as there has been no transparency about the application and what the potential hazards might be.

Residents in Yarraville and across the inner west will also face undetermined health hazards from the unfiltered West Gate tunnel “stacks”, and may well be subject to additional issues in the event that the hazardous zone associated with the Melbourne Port Authority is expanded. Councillors should refer back to the September 11 meeting of Maribyrnong Council that voted unanimously to oppose the minister’s request to excise from the Maribyrnong planning scheme and incorporate into the Port of Melbourne planning scheme land in Somerville Road (Footscray), Whitehall Street (Footscray) and Whitehall Street (Yarraville). If this is forced through, the inner west will face decades of expanded industrial pollution and increased health hazards.

It would be irresponsible to add to the myriad of longstanding community concerns about PM2.5 ‘dust’, low level vibrations, infrequent pollution checks, road safety and the larger environmental consequences.

We ask Councillors to honour the health emergency declaration resolved by Maribyrnong City Council last year, which noted the impacts of air and noise pollution in the inner west, including the excessive rates of illness and hospitalisation in our municipality due to air pollution. 

Given all these factors, it is incumbent upon council to reject the application by Steel Cement Pty Ltd TP53/2023(1).

In community,

Signatories: Friends of Footscray Park, Friends of McIvor Reserve, Green Guerilla Group, Climate Action Maribyrnong, Justice Action Maribyrnong (JAM!), Martin Wurt (President, Maribyrnong Truck Action Group), Elyse Cunningham (on behalf of Sustainable Citites), Edwin Daughtry, Colleen Hartland, John Chadderton, Terri Soumilas, Miles Parnall-Gilbert, Kim Eastmure, Jenny Larson, David Jones, Paul Handley, Cherry Grimwade, Rhett Warren, Hazel Roberts, Paul Adams, Marie Brennan, Anne Craig, Tom Craig, Declon O’Farrell, Denise Thorpe, Dermot Cullen, Adrian Lee, Robert Jeffs, Brendan Keane, John Symons, Barbara Heggen (Editor, The Westsider), Brimbank Sustainability & Climate Action, Neville Richsteig, Jorge Jorquera … Add your name and/or organisation, contact jorge@borderlands.org.au …