Waste incinerator spewing chemical waste: Says worried Brisbane Lord Mayor

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJun 8 2010

Dr Ananya Mandal, MD

A council commissioned study into the Ace Waste incinerator at Willawong showed that the residents and businesses around the facility were at potential risk of exposure to chemical emissions. The incinerator at Willawong is used to dispose of medical and chemical pollutants that can cause cancer when people are exposed to high concentrations. Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman revealed this last night. Premier Anna Bligh however denies that there is such a risk. She has assured that the incinerator is safe and there have been no problems for the past twenty year.

She said in a statement, “There is no evidence of any harm to residents in the area…For those people who do live [within] the buffer zone we will continue to monitor it ... as I said in more than two decades there has not been any concern for any resident's health.”

Cr Newman had said earlier that the reports from the state Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) had warned earlier in February that one kilometer exclusion zone should be kept for safety of the residents. There are more than a dozen homes in the said area.

Newman said, “They also need to then make sure they connect proper monitoring of the facility to ensure that in the future all residents, and indeed business people and employees who work around those areas, can be confident that there isn't any health or safety issue…I stress, nothing to date has said that there is, but the ... study has raised question marks and they now need to be addressed…People who live around that area, need to know that these questions have been raised.” A development of as many as a thousand homes was in the cards. Now Cr. Newman says this proposal had triggered the testing that found that if the incinerator operated 24 hours a day, nearby homes could potentially be exposed to dangerous chemicals above recommended levels. “The trouble is that a huge question mark has been placed over the future development plans, but also there are questions that need to be answered just for the well-being of residents who already live in that area,” he said.

DERMs assistant director-general says the waste company has to operate within strict conditions and there is no reason to suggest there are any health concerns. The development is now put on hold till concrete results are obtained some time in December.