Locals take on the Stacks
Inner city residents will take to the streets this Saturday to protest the state government’s continued refusal to filter pollutants from the Eastern Distributor’s emissions stacks.
The giant chimneys, which sit at either end of the tunnel from Kings Cross to Surry Hills, have not had their emissions levels measured since 2001.
Residents say the stacks are a serious health hazard.
“They release toxic emissions into the air that we all breathe, polluting our neighbourhood and threatening our health,” said Jane Anderson, a Liverpool Street resident of more than 20 years.
“The state government doesn’t seem to want to invest the money necessary to protect people’s health,” Ms Anderson, a member of the East Sydney Neighbourhood Association (ESNA), said.
ESNA is leading the Attack the Stack campaign, along with the Darlinghurst Business Partnership.
Based on the costs of filtering the M5 tunnel, it is estimated that installing filters on the Eastern Distributor would cost between $20-70 million per stack.
Minister for Roads, David Campbell, was not available for comment.
But Dr Kerry Holmes, a consultant with PAE Holmes – the air quality company that tested the tunnel’s emissions for the RTA – said concerns about pollutants were unfounded.
“There has been monitoring done of the Eastern Distributor, particularly around the northern stack. All of that monitoring has shown that it’s virtually impossible to pick up any significant emissions from the stacks at ground level.”
“That tunnel doesn’t have a high percentage of large vehicles using it, so the percentage of the more serious heavy duty diesel particles is really quite low.”
The lack of filtration on the tunnels has been a source of concern for locals since the tunnel opened in 2000.
But local opposition became more vocal recently after the RTA thwarted residents’ efforts to create a community garden on a vacant site adjacent the Stanley Street stack.
ESNA president Douglas Purdie said he had been negotiating with the RTA to get permission for the garden since the middle of last year.
“We finally got it all scheduled, then someone higher up in the RTA just came in and shut the whole thing down, saying the land was going to be used for something else.”
The RTA has requested planning approval to build residential apartments around the stack at the southern end of the tunnel, and residents are concerned it may have similar plans for the Stanley Street stack.
But Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the apartments would not be approved unless the RTA put a filter on the stack.
The City of Sydney has also supported the community garden initiative and voted on May 10 to ask the RTA to reconsider the request.
“The failure to filter the stacks and permit the community garden lies squarely with Minister for Roads and the RTA,” said Sydney Greens councillor Irene Doutney, who introduced the motion.
The rally against the stack will take place this Saturday at 3:30 on the corner of Stanley and Bourke streets following the annual Stanley Street festival.
– By Flint Duxfield
