Kalavasos up in arms over asphalt plant approval

Communities in the Vasiliko area are outraged over the environment department’s approval for the construction of an asphalt plant in their area, it was reported on Wednesday.

The plant, the Prometheas Asphalt Ltd, will also produce concrete, and Kalavasos community leader Eleftherios Sozou said the community will look to ramp up actions against its construction.

Sozou said that a meeting will be held within the week to take further decisions.

He said that since 2022 when the communities first opposed the plant, nothing has changed, but instead some of the many industrial developments in the area are proving problematic.

“I don’t want to prejudge the positions of colleagues, I just wonder, like the residents of the area, why the insistence that all the nuisance and dangerous developments be clustered here,” Sozou added.

He said that all forms of reaction are on the table.

The asphalt plant is currently located in Dali but has been the subject of vehement protests with complaints from residents due to its location near to local schools and the “unbearable” smell of the fumes.

Residents of Dali, including primary school children, have held multiple protests aimed at moving the site away from their town.

Asked by philenews if the fact only one of three plants was approved, Sozou said that it is a matter of principle and not a matter of numbers.

The plant will have a production capacity of 200 tonnes/hour and a maximum production of 200,000 tonnes/year and will be of the continuous production type, i.e. a counter-flow drum mix.

The total area of the lots where the construction of the asphalt plant is planned is 17,000 square metres. The area to be sealed by the construction of the asphalt concrete plant and its associated infrastructure is approximately 11,785 sq.m.

The environmental study also suggested that only one of the plants be constructed, due to the impacts on air quality in the area.

The original plan would result in pollutant emissions from processes carried out at the facility, including the storage of bitumen and from the production, unloading and transport of asphalt/concrete products.

According to the results of the different modelling scenarios run, the dispersion ranges from 0-200 metres for air pollutants and from 0-500 metres for odours in the original plan.

It is for these reasons that the study recommended the construction of only one of the plants.