By Shelby Brooks and Jamie Salter
Claims that toxic soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project is being dumped in Pakenham has been quashed by the State Government.
The issue was presented by Eastern Victoria MP Cathrine Burnett-Wake on Thursday 10 March in Parliament.
In a constituency question to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allen, Ms Burnett-Wake said some residents on Bald Hill and Five Mile Roads in Pakenham believed trucks were carting toxic soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project and dumping it in the area.
“A landholder on Five Mile Road informed me that trucks go up and back at all hours of the day; one passes every couple of minutes,” Ms Burnett-Wake said.
“Whilst there I observed truck after truck driving down the road with tarps over the trailers.
“These constituents believe the trucks are carting toxic soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project and have expressed real concern over toxic soil being quietly dumped in their locality.”
However, Hi-Quality’s site at Bulla was chosen as the site to manage and dispose of soil excavated by tunnel boring machines building the West Gate Tunnel.
“Soil excavated to build the West Gate Tunnel Project is not being disposed of in Pakenham,“ a West Gate Tunnel Project spokesperson said.
In 2020, Werribee residents protested a controversial plan to use a Wyndham Vale rail yard as a location to dump contaminated soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project.
