Russel Norman

Holcim’s proposed new cement plant near Oamaru

by Russel Norman

While I was in Oamaru this week I went on a two hour look around the site being proposed for a new Holcim cement plant near Weston in the Waiareka Valley. My guide was Rodney Jones from the Waiareka Valley Preservation Society who are opposing the plant.

It’s really big. The main stack is 100m or 27 stories, which I’ve been told is the highest structure in the South Island. There are other big structures too in theproposed plant. They are planning to quarry in the escarpment behind for limestone and further up the valley for coal and there will be a lot of truck movements up and down the valley.

The issues are the visual impact, the impact on what is a quiet rural valley, the particulates dropping into the local area and the rather large co2 emissions coming out of the process. You’ve also gotta wonder what it will do for the rapidly growing tourism of norht Otago.

 You can get a bit of an idea of the immense size of the thing from the drawings here. The escarpment behind the proposed plant is pretty big and its higher than the escarpment. Rodney also tells me that on a still day the plume from the stack will be visible for a further 300m up – which would make a plume up to 400m which would be visible from all over the region.

Published in Environment & Resource Management by Russel Norman on Fri, May 11th, 2007   

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