BROOKLYN residents fear air pollution will continue to exceed national standards despite $1.4 million funding to pave two local dust-producing streets.
Brimbank council will use $900,000 from the state government to seal and improve Brooklyn’s dustiest thoroughfares, Jones and Bunting roads, early next year.
Earlier this month, the Weekly reported that residents were moving out of Victoria’s most-polluted suburb after enduring 100 days of dust levels as high as those experienced during the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
The World Health Organisation warns that people should not be exposed to such high levels of particle pollution for more than five days a year.
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On hot, windy days, Victoria’s Health Department advises Brooklyn residents to stay inside, keep their doors and windows shut and avoid exercise. Brooklyn Residents Action Group secretary Bert Boere believes sealing Bunting and Jones roads will have an impact, but he said air pollution was still likely to exceed the national clean-air standard.
“The EPA had modelling done in the area some years ago,” he said.
“If you seal Bunting Road, it will reduce dust in the area by 38 per cent and in Jones Road, about 15 per cent.
“The material comes off the industrial sites there. In dry weather, it’s thrown up off the sites and off the roads.
“[Sealing the two roads] should make a substantial difference but probably won’t bring it down below the limits.”
Kevin Dunn, who has lived in Almond Avenue almost 20 years, said much of the dust was caused by trucks.
“If you dust the table you can come back an hour later and run your finger across the top of it and see the layer of dust that’s been deposited,” he said.
In Brooklyn last week, Environment and Climate Change Minister Ryan Smith said dust remained a “significant issue”.
EPA research found about 50 per cent of dust in Brooklyn came from industrial activity and the other half from unsealed roads.
