DUST- UP OVER QUARRY PLAN
RESIDENTS are rallying against plans to expand a concrete crushing and composting operation at Cluden.
Goodsell Earthmoving plans to increase its composting of green waste from 20,000 ton- nes to 320,000 each year, but locals say they are already being suffocated by dust from the facility and more than 100 people have signed a petition against the expansion.
PLANS for a big expansion in a concrete crushing and composting operation at Cluden have residents fearing it will destroy their suburb and leave them covered in dust and shaken by heavy vehicles.
But proponents Goodsell Earthmoving say any impact from their expansion can be managed and the current operation met regulatory obligations. Meanwhile, the State Government is proposing to construct a separate industrial road on Racecourse Rd to minimise “potential impacts of industrial traffic”.
Goodsell Earthmoving operates from a property off Racecourse Rd and has applied for a material change of use from a low- impact industry precinct to high- impact.
Public notification on the proposal closes today.
The issue will be decided by the State’s Co- ordinator- General because it is within the government- regulated Townsville State Development Area.
The application seeks approval for an increase in the scale and intensity of existing screening activities and composting of green waste from 20,000 tonnes to 320,000 tonnes per annum.
Materials such as rubble, building material, quarry product, recovered pavement and concrete are trucked to the site and then crushed and screened to produce landscaping and building products. Green waste is composted in piles.
Cluden resident Pene Norris said dust was already a huge problem.
“You have to have the house locked up because of the dust,” Ms Norris said. “It is unbearable now. Imagine what it will be like with 320,000 tonnes of dust and rubbish being churned out day and night.”
Ms Norris has collected a petition opposing the expansion signed by more than 100 residents.
A spokeswoman for Goodsell Earthmoving said the company had been operating in the area for about 30 years and that it had only been since their application that any issues had been raised.
She said Goodsell had commissioned reports on noise, dust and traffic and all showed any issues from the expansion could be managed with no impact on residents.
Results from dust and noise studies showed the current operation complied with regulatory standards, a spokeswoman said.
“We show there’s no impact on any resident in the locality,” she said.
Townsville’s Cr Les Walker said council officers would lodge a submission and he did not know what it would say.
But he said he could understand residents’ frustrations.
“I encourage any resident to put in their submission,” Cr Walker said.
Burdekin MP Dale Last said the issue had been poorly handled by the Government.