Thursday, 5 March 2020

Petitions

Following petition presented to house by Clerk:

West Gate Tunnel

To the Legislative Assembly of Victoria,

The Petition of residents of the greater Bacchus Marsh region draws to the attention of the House the community concerns relating to the proposal to dump contaminated spoil from the Westgate Tunnel Project at the Maddingley Brown Coal site in Maddingley, Victoria.

An estimated 1.5 million cubic metres of spoil will be generated, with confirmation by the tunnel authority that it is contaminated with PFAS, and reports of asbestos.

Parwan Creek flows through the site which then flows into the Werribee River, providing irrigation to farmland from Bacchus Marsh to Werribee. Any contamination of these waterways poses a significant contamination risk to the food bowl of Victoria.

The site sits atop a windy hill, within 500m of Bacchus Marsh Grammar, 1km of Bacchus Marsh College, and 2km of the heart of Bacchus Marsh.

Fit-for-purpose facilities already exist which are ideal for and immediately ready to store and manage these types of contaminated spoil. Transurban’s poor due diligence during the initial stages of the project has put our communities at unacceptable risk.

We request the Minister for Planning does not make ministerial change to the Moorabool Planning Scheme.

Considering the aforementioned risks to the surrounding communities and ecosystems, the petitions therefore request that the Legislative Assembly of Victoria reject all proposals by Transurban and Maddingley Brown Coal to dump any contaminated spoil within the Bacchus March community, and instead work with Transurban to have the spoil sent to existing fit-for purpose facilities away from farmland, schools, waterways and vibrant, growing communities.

By Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (4254 signatures).

Tabled.