Holcim’s proposed cement plant puts quality of life at risk

The notification of Holcim’s application for a cement plant at Weston sets up May and June as a critical two months for the future of the Waiareka Valley and Oamaru.

Holcim’s cement plant will devastate the Waiareka Valley, and have a long-term negative impact on Oamaru itself. This project will have a significant adverse effect on 500 parties in the local area, with the affected parties outnumbering the jobs created by five-to-one.

The residents of the Waiareka Valley, Weston and surrounding areas are being asked to give up their quality of life for a Swiss multinational with no significant New Zealand shareholders. Moreover, the long-term economic prospects of Oamaru as a tourism centre will be endangered. By having such a huge – and visible – industrial complex so near Oamaru, its historic and penguin areas will lose significant attraction and value.

In May and June the community will have an opportunity to prevent this. We cannot stay passive in the face of such a risk. If the plant goes ahead, there will be no going back. The quality of life we have today will be beyond reach.

This proposal comprises four large projects wrapped into one, a one million tonne cement plant, a huge limestone quarry, an open-cast coal mine and a large sand pit. Each of these projects alone would be controversial, but as a package they are devastating to the local environment.

Over the next few weeks, the Society will be releasing more information sheets as well as sheets detailing how to make a submission. Submissions will need to focus on the broader impact on the District, the significant adverse visual impacts, the impact on the Whitstone Bluffs as the significant natural landscape of the area, air emissions and air quality, noise, dust, and traffic/ truck movements.

This proposal carries with it an extraordinary number of adverse effects. While the District Plan allowed for a cement policy area, the scale of the Holcim’s proposed plant goes far beyond what could be reasonably expected (this plant is 3-4 times the size of the plant proposed in the 1980’s). We are not exaggerating when we say that this will be the largest industrial complex in the South Island.

From Weston to Ngapara, a distance of over 20 km, will become an industrial corridor. In their recent information sheets, Holcim projected heavy truck movements reaching a maximum of 108 a day, one every 6 minutes over a 12 hour period. Holcim is proposing to turn the Weston-Ngapara Rd into a company road, paid-for and maintained by local rate payers.

Holcim has a history of operating cement plants, closing them and moving on, leaving a devastated environment behind them. The Burnside Plant was abandoned with no restoration, leaving an eyesore that will exist for the next 200 years, and Holcim are now intending to abandon Westport, leaving behind a devastated community and environment. We cannot let this happen to the Weston and the Waiareka Valley.

Individuals acting alone cannot stop this plant, but if we come together as a community over this two month period this plant can be stopped.

ENDS

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