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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-25 Daily Xml
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Adelaide Brighton Cement

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:37): I rise today to speak about a certain cement factory nestled snugly within our western seaside suburbs, long known as Adelaide Brighton Cement, now known as Adbri, and their Birkenhead kiln. In July, the EPA issued an environment protection order as Adbri had failed to provide an environment protection order to the satisfaction of the EPA. It had not addressed the use of best available technology to mitigate particulate matter. Adbri has until mid-October to submit their new plan.

One of the requirements of the new plan is to do community consultation, requiring access to Adbri's revised plan to inform feedback to Adbri before submitting the final version to the EPA. Working through a PowerPoint presentation and seeking instant feedback in the room on it at one public meeting certainly did not look like genuine community consultation to myself and many other people of the Lefevre Peninsula.

At the two community meetings I have personally attended complaints came thick and fast—multiple broken promises by Adbri; houses, cars, yards and solar panels covered in all sorts of dust; damage done, but a lack of compensation and a lack of response or follow-up; chronic health issues; skin irritations, eye irritations and respiratory illnesses; the unanswered need for a health study; offensive odours and smoke plumes; air pollution; inadequate monitoring; and inadequate precautionary measures.

Last but by no means least are the health and environmental impacts of burning what is called refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which contains plastics to power the plant. There was not enough time in these sessions for all the complaints to be addressed, but certainly it was not lost on me that the residents said, 'We can't burn plastic in our backyard, but you can burn plastic just across the road from us.'

A distinct reluctance occurred in those meetings as well, on behalf of Adbri, to enable the community to truly and properly voice their concerns. Why is this community feedback so important? Of the five cement factories in our nation, Adbri, without a doubt, has the most housing around it. The other four are simply not located in metro areas. Adbri is literally located a stone's throw from housing—literally just across the road—and there is more to come. There are three new large housing developments nearby, one 600 metres away, and the Le Fevre Peninsula Primary School, of course, is within one kilometre.

One burning issue, if you will pardon the pun, is Adbri's combustion, since 2003, of more and more industrial and construction waste, which includes plastic to generate heat. Within their current licence, Adbri is permitted to burn almost 800 tonnes of RDF (refuse derived fuel) every single day, and with allowable contamination by plastic of up to 20 per cent, around 150 tonnes of this can be plastic every single day.

Despite the claim made at one of the community consultation meetings that RDF was better at least than burning coal or gas, there is a growing movement internationally with scientists and doctors right across Europe, in Spain, Italy, Slovenia, and the UK speaking out against the burning of refuse derived fuel by cement factories. Multiple studies have shown that there is an increased link between cancer rates and proximity to incinerator emissions.

My understanding is that there is, in fact, no filter preventing toxic gases from exiting Adbri's Birkenhead plant, and there are only filters attempting to capture the larger dust particles. Airborne emissions from the burning of refuse derived fuel can contain various serious contaminants, such as sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide, furans, dioxins, PAHs and heavy metals. Indeed, skin irritations, eye irritations and respiratory problems are common complaints of the residents locally and these are health issues all consistent with exposure to these pollutants.

Often dismissed as being low SES-related or perhaps related to the residents locally being smokers, it is not good enough that we do not know more. We need SA Health to actually do more work to ensure that the links between Adbri and residents' health are clarified, and that the community, ongoing with the EPA, actually has their voice heard—not only heard but responded to—for their health and safety and for their future on the Lefevre Peninsula.

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