Dust still hasn’t settled on issue

Beeliar locals said they were sick of talking of the problem wondered whether the Munster facility should be closed down until the issue was cleaned up.

‘Every second day I’m having my car cleaned. We’re sick of it now,’ local lobbyist Chris Steele said.

‘It’s no different since they put the baghouse filters on lime kilns five and six. It’s very frustrating because we can’t get answers from Cockburn Cement. They’ve taken samples but they won’t let us know the results.’

Keith Lomax was just as annoyed. He believed the company should cease operating until the problem was worked out.

‘Something needs to be done, they need to be shut down,’ he said. ‘It’s a production-first mentality but this has been going on for too long and it needs to stop.’

Michael Williams, general manager for lime and cement, said kilns five and six had been operating well below limits imposed on the company and did not believe that dust the residents were complaining about had come from the two stacks.

‘It is more likely to be a combination of wind-blown fugitive dust from the site and surrounding areas,’ he said.

‘Cockburn Cement has investigated potential sources of fugitive dust during this period and has rectified some leaks of material from storage equipment and also identified some site cleaning activities that may have contributed to wind-blown dust.’

Mr Williams said two reviews were currently under way. One review is focused on the process for site cleaning, while the other is an odour assessment, scheduled for completion by mid next year.

A representative for the Department of Environment Regulation (DER) told the Gazette they were investigating.