THE Anglesea power station is now a pile of rubble and steel but the questions from the community have not stopped, if the latest Alcoa Community Consultation Network meeting is anything to go by.<\/p>\n
About 50 people attended Monday\u2019s meeting at the Anglesea Senior Citizens Centre, where Alcoa site manager Warren Sharp provided details about the demolition and fielded several pointed questions about the smokestack, air monitoring, asbestos, and the Anglesea Bike Park.<\/p>\n
Mr Sharp said Alcoa received \u201cfairly polarising\u201d feedback about the stack during its consultations and \u201cthere was enough in it for us to say it makes sense for us to retain it\u201d for at least the short term.<\/p>\n
He would not agree to provide the raw numbers of people who wanted the stack kept or demolished, saying \u201cIt\u2019s not a vote. It\u2019s our stack, it\u2019s our decision\u201d.<\/p>\n
Andrew Laird read out a long statement on behalf of Surf Coast Air Action that criticised a number of issues surrounding the two demolition attempts and their aftermath.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have this massive pile of toxic material sitting next to Anglesea that will take three to six months to clean up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s reached a point that there\u2019s such a lack of transparency from Alcoa and regulators that the only way we see the truth coming out is in a judicial inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Mr Sharp said \u201cmore sacrosanct to the community\u2019s wellbeing is my wellbeing and that of my team\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo suggest we are generally creating risk and putting the community at harm, you have to accept I am putting myself and my team at risk every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
An audience member said Alcoa bequeathing the land now occupied by the bike park would be \u201cbeing a good corporate citizen\u201d, but Mr Sharp rejected suggestions that Alcoa should do so because the company got the land \u201cat a bargain basement price\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were to sell it, I imagine we would look at it like anybody in this room. I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s a person in this room that would sell their property in Anglesea for the price they paid for it. I\u2019m not sure why people would expect Alcoa to do that, to be frank.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Anglesea power station is now a pile of rubble and steel but the questions from the community have not stopped, if the latest Alcoa Community Consultation Network meeting is anything to go by. About 50 people attended Monday\u2019s meeting at the Anglesea Senior Citizens Centre, where Alcoa site manager Warren Sharp provided details about […]<\/p>\n