Weston Aluminium Additional Waste Streams

Loxford NSW 2326
6 March 2023

Regarding Weston Aluminium Additional Waste Streams (SSD-24668706)

To whom it may concern,

I strongly object to SSD-24668706.

Weston Aluminium is located less than a kilometre away from where I live with my family. The proximity of Weston Aluminium to myself and the surrounding community means that we are all heavily affected by any smoke or fumes produced by this site. For example, the major fire at Weston Aluminium on 14 November 2021 required that Kurri Kurri High School be shut down. The fumes were disgusting and made it unfeasible for my family to open our windows or sit on the veranda.

If Weston Aluminium is allowed to store hazardous wastes in bulk at this site, including the 100-200 tonnes of PFAS and 100-200 tonnes of PCB indicated in the application, the surrounding communities could become contaminated like the Truegain site in Rutherford and the Williamstown Contamination Red Zone. These materials have well-documented negative impacts on the environment and community health. It would be dangerous to store them in such quantities on a site prone to flooding and at risk of fires.

As demonstrated by the fire of 14 November 2021, the air pollution from any fire event could easily contaminate the surrounding community, in addition to the negative impacts of any fumes and smoke that will be emitted in the normal course of processing the hazardous waste. This area is also prone to flooding (see The Swamp / Fishery Creek Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan conducted by Cessnock City Council). The Weston Aluminium Site is documented to have flooded during the June 2007 flood. I have personally witnessed Swamp Creek flood twice more in the past decade in April 2015 and July 2022. This presents a danger of hazardous waste materials being dispersed into the surrounding area during a flood event.

I strongly object to SSD-24668706 on the basis of the well-documented negative health and environmental impacts of the hazardous waste proposed to be stored in bulk at Weston Aluminium, and the risk of a fire or flood event at this site contaminating the surrounding community with these hazardous materials.

Please see attached document outlining my objection to this proposal.

I object to this project on the basis of not enough investigation has been given to what chemicals, fumes are being omitted into our air

I wish to express my objection to SSD-24668706, Weston Aluminium Additional Waste Streams.
I have an objection to this proposal as my immediate family live within close proximity to Weston Aluminium (WA). I fear that WA will not store or process hazardous materials in a way that will not impact the health of local residents and the surrounding environment.
In the Fire Safety Study Appendix N it is stated that ‘societal risk has not been considered in the assessment’ as there is no significant intensification of the population around the proposed site. Yet there are plans to build more than 2000 homes in the development of the new suburb ‘Loxford Waters’ on the site of Hydro’s Kurri Kurri smelter, less then approximately 5 kilometres from WA. There has been inadequate consideration of the current population in the area, with the closest residents to the site being less than 700m away.
The health of the local community has already been impacted due to a fire at the site of WA in November of 2021 causing Kurri Kurri High School to close for two days due to the smoke produced by the burning of materials stored in WA. The ABC reported that “large quantities of bottle hand sanitiser, paint, rubber, plastics and aluminium dross were involved in the fire”.
I object to the storage and processing of more hazardous materials, as the impact to the residents has not been adequately considered and there is any risk of fire at the site.

I object to the proposal for additional waste streams at Weston Aluminium for the following reasons:
1) It is too close to residential areas;
2) it is too close to Kurri high school;
3) it is too close to natural waterways so that hazardous material could leach into the river system, especially during heavy rainfall. There have been numerous periods recently (i.e. 2007, 2015, 2022) when the site has flooded;
4) previous experience (i.e. the hazardous fire in November 2021) has shown that the company cannot manage the current situation so expanding its remit will make the likelihood of further disasters much more likely;
5) the site is in a high risk bushfire zone. Storing hazardous chemicals in this environment is too dangerous;

Submission to object the project is attached.

We do not need anymore toxic waste to be burned at Weston Aluminium, my son attends Kurri High School and when the westerly blows it blows the toxic smoke straight into the direction of the high school, primary schools, preschools and residential areas.
After the toxic fire from a year or so ago, I never want to experience that again. You couldn’t open doors or windows because of the toxic smoke in the air.

Based on limited information and communication has been provided to our community and lack of transparency re: public Meeting
And details of expansion are limited as we’ll as concerns re: recent fires at the site and health impacts on residents in immediate area

I am concerned about the lack of community consultation on this application. The community needs to be able to have a face-to-face forum where the information is shared more directly to residents as I have worries about how safe the disposal of this waste will be. With the history of a fire at this location last year and the proximity to local homes and schools for odour concerns, we need to ensure that the proper procedures are follow. We NEED a community forum before this application can progress.

I believe that there has not been sufficient community consultation on this submission and I would call on the department or applicant to prepare a Community Forum. This would allow better engagement with concerned residents. We need to ensure that the communities of Kurri Kurri & Weston can understand the risks or procedures involved in the disposal of waste at this site and how the proposed additional waste will be managed.

I believe there has not been enough community consultation on this submission. There is a great deal of concern about the safety of what is proposed to be disposed of and I would like further consultation through the process of a community forum. Please consider further engagement with residents of Kurri & Weston before progressing this application.

I don't believe approval for additional Dangerous Goods should go ahead, as advertising in the local paper that doesn't go out to the entire community is an adequate way to inform people. I also was unaware that there was this process taking place at the site already hence the lack of community information made available. Before I would consider it I would like to see an air sampling station set up in Kurri Kurri and a proper report done using data from it instead of data from 20klm away. Although they have tried to put forward that this is an industrial zone they are still very close to residential homes and the future development of more residential land proposed for the future expansion of Kurri Kurri.

This project does not have enough evidence of safety data provided to the community. I believe there has not been enough community consultation on this submission and there should be a proper community forum to allow the residents to be best informed.

We don’t want any dangerous materials will be burnt on this site’

We would a transparent and open public meeting where our community concerns can be answered

I am objecting to the development application No SSD-24668706 by Weston Aluminium because of the close proximity to residents living in Weston and Kurri Kurri and other nearby suburbs.
I understand Weston Aluminium already process medical waste, quarantined items and bio-hazards and the foul smells coming from the area at times are already a health risk for many who suffer from respiratory problems including myself with asthma. Many times we have had to close our doors and windows to keep the smell out.
Anybody who lives in the area knows of the fire started by hand sanitizer in November 2021, which spread to include paint, rubber, plastic and aluminium dross. This does not provide the residents of the area with any confidence in the business to adhere to safety measures to protect surrounding residents and the environment.

I would like a town meeting and object because of health concerns

Because of health issues and air quality issues and I want to make a suggestion for a town meeting to be held so more information can be provided.

I do not support this Development Application for additional waste streams.
There has already been a major Fire at this plant that Burnt multiple days. not sure of the cause of this fire but the end result was billowing smoke. over the surrounding communities for days. NSW fire Brigades DID NOT have enough. equipment in the Newcastle area and further equipment was sourced. from Sydney from what we were told at the time. They ran hoses. for many hundreds of meters with inline pumps and even appearing to source water from a concrete drain. The water supply to our area would appear to be lacking possibly due to its age.
The water used to extinguish this fire would have entered the local creek system due to very close proximity to this plant and that is totally unsatisfactory. They should have to have enough storage capacity to store this polluted water on site no matter what the circumstances or cause of fire. water with any contaminant should not be allowed to leave this site (except to be treated at approved facility).
They store and process all sorts of contaminated waste on site we will probably never will know what did actually go down the creek system.
I have looked at their web page and it appears that all the monitoring points are on their own site. They should have monitoring points out in surrounding communities.
I have complained on numerous times about noise from this plant to the EPA and directly to this facility. I never Yous to hear this Air Noise from the Chimney, stack. It would appear the velocity or volume has increased over time and if so any pollutants or residues would travel further out into the surrounding areas. Weston Aluminium always try to blame some else is making this noise. or it's a fan out of balance but the Noise I hear a rushing of air. Their team leader on night shift has also Blamed Sig Node a strapping manufacturing plant further down the road from them. I actually drive around the industrial area and listen for the source of noise before I make a complaint. Sig Node do have a compressor, but it is not the noise that I hear. This compressor is also on the far side of their building shielding me from this noise.
When I call on their community complaints and enquiries number 0249362166 you get an automated message to leave a message or ring their team leader on a mobile phone 0418658746 and when you call this number you will occasionally get the team leader you get a reply he will note it down, but it is not them in so sort of a reply.
The worst part is that you do not get to make contact with the team leader you get a recorded message and last time I called them. the message DISCONNECTED check number before calling again. I checked number I had dialled was correct number re-dialled received the same message their phone was disconnected.
But one of my biggest concerns is whether it is noise, smoke or smell (very occasionally you have a bad smell and seem get a medallic taste in your mouth) it mostly appears to be late at night or in the early hours of the morning.
I have taken many photos of this plant over the years and still have them.
Ps All monitoring should be done independently. and I believe by the EPA with companies having to pay the EPA this would give communities. much more confidence with monitoring results.

We have seen the devastation that pfas has caused and I don’t think this would be appropriate for the community we are in

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