A COMMUNITY activist has slammed a Brooklyn company’s attempts to rehabilitate its old landfill sites.

Bruce Light, from the On the Nose Community Group, has described Transpacific Industries’ proposal to plant a 3 by 200 metre strip of vegetation on their Brooklyn landfill site as “an insult to the community”.

“It’s an insult to talk about a 3m by 200m strip given the size of their operations, which are several hectares,” Mr Light said.

“Every time trucks drive across the land, there’s a huge plume of dust.”

“A 3m by 200m long strip in the centre of the site is nothing. I can plant that in an afternoon myself.”

At a meeting of the Brooklyn Community Reference Group last month, a TPI representative said the company began planting and landscaping part of the upper eastern bank of Kororoit Creek, in an agreement with Melbourne Water during 2009.

The TPI representative said Melbourne Water would supply plants, tree guards and weed matting for the project, while TPI would provide labour.

He said TPI anticipated the project would continue over the next five to seven years until the entire stream frontage adjoining the Brooklyn landfill site was vegetated, subject to further funding.

But Mr Light said this was too far into the future, given that last month the Environment Protection Authority released the results of a Brooklyn study, which showed dust in the suburb’s air was at unsafe levels.

The EPA said the Brooklyn industrial estate seemed to be the main source of the dust, which could cause serious health problems like asthma attacks and heart and respiratory problems in healthy adults and children.

“Given the significance of these findings, it’s imperative that these landfills, which we have been told reached capacity are vegetated or at least grassed immediately, not within the five to seven years they say,” Mr Light said.

A spokeswoman for TPI said the company’s “first and foremost consideration is the safety of the people, communities and environments in which we operate.”

She said Transpacific has also “significantly increased the vegetation buffer at key areas on site at Old Geelong Rd to capture dust and to create a visual screen.”