West ward councillor Henry Meskauskas has accused Maitland MP and Environment Minister Robyn Parker of backing away from plans to install an air monitoring station and a promise to address dust-induced health concerns.
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Cr Meskauskas said the Telarah monitoring station was needed more than ever to address those health concerns following the Coal Terminal Action Group report on coal dust.
The CTAG report calls for the state government to cover coal wagons. Its study found dust levels increased 13 times above background levels when trains passed near homes in the Lower Hunter.
“No one is saying ‘what about poor old Maitland’ in all of this,” he said.
“Where the hell is our monitoring station that we [council] approved over a year ago for Coronation Oval?”
The Environmental Protection Authority, which is part of Ms Parker’s portfolio, lodged plans to construct a monitoring station at Telarah sportsground which was approved by Maitland City Council in April last year.
“The Maitland station has been identified in the long term-plan for the Office of Environment and Heritage air quality monitoring network,” Ms Parker said in a statement to the Mercury yesterday.
Plans for the monitoring station were initiated under the previous Labor government which came under sustained attack from Ms Parker as a candidate in the 2011 election.
Ms Parker was elected to Maitland on a clean air platform with the Coalition pledging $400,000 for monitoring and analysis of Rutherford’s air quality.
“Rutherford has a serious odour problem that is affecting the entire town and this (funding) is great news for residents who have repeatedly been told by the Keneally Labor government that nothing can be done,” Ms Parker said in 2011.
Ms Parker announced that $400,000 had been secured to investigate the Rutherford stink in September 2011 following her election. The money was spent to establish the Rutherford Air Quality Liaison Committee and on consultants to track the source of foul odours.
In yesterday’s statement she said a permanent monitoring station, which would also monitor dust, was not necessary at Telarah at this time.
“The air quality monitored at Beresfield station provides a good indication of the levels of air pollution likely to be experienced in the Maitland region,” she said.
