Hazelwood residents fuming over company ‘cutting corners’ in construction of controversial lead smelter

Residents in the Gippsland farming community of Hazelwood are fuming after the company building a controversial lead battery recycling plant in the town “cut corners”.

Chunxing, the company building the smelter, was required to submit documents to Latrobe City Council and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) before they could commence construction on the secondary lead smelter.

But Maggie Jones from ALiVe Inc, a La Trobe Valley Community Advocacy Group, says the company began works the week just Christmas, before the required reports had been submitted.

“While the works were quite minor and really were quite insignificant in terms of the impact to health and the environment … it does speak to the willingness of the company to cut corners,” she told Seb Costello, filling in for Tom Elliott.

“What we’re seeing through this process is the willingness by the company and also the government to allow a fast-tracking of a secondary lead smelter that’s near homes, near schools, near farmland against the community’s will, and there hasn’t been a great deal of respect for due process. This is just another example of that,” she said.

As of today, the Latrobe City Council has told 3AW Drive the documents have been submitted to both the council and the EPA. The council has endorsed the documents to allow the company to commence works.

Press PLAY below to hear more about the controversial lead smelter

Image: Nine