CLEANAWAY EXPANSION PLANS FOR NEW CHUM AND COLLINGWOOD PARK

CLEANAWAY EXPANSION PLANS FOR NEW CHUM AND COLLINGWOOD PARK

MATERIAL CHANGE OF USE APPLICATION TO BE SUBMITTED TO COUNCIL IN MAY

IRATE is OPPOSED:

1. To any expansion of the Cleanaway Landfill HEIGHT
2. To any expansion of the Cleanaway FOOTPRINT
3. To any activity involving EXPANSION INTO THE BUFFER ZONE on lot 227 between Cleanaway and Collingwood Park/Riverview
4. To any activity involving FILLING VOID 10 LAKE in Collingwood Park

How we arrived at this point

In 2011 as part of its MCU application 4250/2011, Cleanaway (then Transpacific Industries) tried to increase the Council approved height of its final landform at New Chum landfill from the previously approved RL70 metres to RL120 metres. This part of the application was withdrawn by the company following a P&E Court decision in its favour on rate of disposal.

Nevertheless Cleanaway continued to ignore its Council approved plan (TPC192/1998), overfilling parts of Cells 1 and 5 by over 1 million cubic metres, before the overfilling was discovered.

Council did not make Cleanaway remove the overfill and redistribute it to other cells, but did require the company to submit a re-profiled landform plan with new contours and a reduced footprint to compensate for the overfilling, so there would be no net increase in the volume of waste landfilled.

Over the last 2-3 years, Cleanaway have profited from filling the New Chum landfill at an accelerated pace brought about in part by accepting interstate waste, a trade which has been comprehensively documented by the media and the Lyons Inquiry. As a result Cleanaway has said it will submit another Material Change of Use application in May to prolong the life and profits of the New Chum dump.

This demonstrates contempt for the community and completely ignores its undertaking of no net increase in landfill volume. It means prolonging the life of a dump which would otherwise close in 2-3 years, at the expense of nearby residents living with adverse impacts on visual amenity and air quality (including raised dust and potential for fires) and the truck movements it generates on the nearby road network.

It is disingenuous of Cleanaway to use nebulous statements and words like "rehabilitation and redesign" to describe its bid for expansion.

Cleanaway have told IRATE that they are "in talks" with the State Government about the TLPI.

Relevant Provisions of the Ministerial Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI-01-2018)

On 6 April 2018, a Ministerial Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) came into force to "further regulate applications for new or expanded waste activities to protect existing, approved and planned residential and other sensitive receiving uses from adverse impacts including odour, dust, noise, air quality, and amenity (including visual amenity)" associated with waste activities (2.2.3).Supporting this objective, the TLPI states:
(i) Waste Activity Uses involving “Rehabilitating a mining void” occur only in the Swanbank / New Chum Buffer Area or the Swanbank / New Chum Waste Activity Area;

“Rehabilitating a mining void” means–

(a) the filling of a mining void involving only ‘clean earthen material’. (8.5)

“Clean Earthen Material” means–

(a) bricks, pavers, ceramics or concrete that does not contain embedded steel reinforcing rods, and no piece has any dimension of more than 100mm; or

(b) clean earth that has trace elements and contaminant levels within the interim ecologically based investigation levels for urban land use under the document ‘Schedule B(1) – Guidelines on the Investigation of Soil and Groundwater’, forming part of the National Environment Protection (Assessment of Site Contamination) Measure 1999. (8.1)

No activity other than "rehabilitating a mining void" as defined above, may occur in the BUFFER AREA as shown on the Swanbank / New Chum Waste Activity Area Map.
Attachment B 3(2)(b) of the Swanbank/New Chum Waste Activity Code requires that Waste Activity Uses:

(i) do not have a detrimental impact on the amenity of surrounding area, particularly on existing, approved or planned residential areas or other sensitive receiving uses; and
(ii) do not have a significant impact on visual amenity from residential and other sensitive receiving uses; and
(iii) do not have a detrimental impact on the environment; and
(iv) are designed, operated and maintained to avoid actual or potential nuisance impacts on existing, approved or planned residential and other sensitive receiving uses; and
(v) achieve appropriate rehabilitation outcomes for land affected by former mining activities.

Attachment B 4(4) requires Waste Activity Uses:

(b) do not prejudice or compromise the future rehabilitation, use, repair or maintenance of the land

Attachment B 4(5) requires that filling and earthworks associated with Waste Activity Uses:

(a) do not extend beyond the top of former mining voids, except for approved minor contouring, that improves stormwater management and drainage outcomes; and
(b) are designed, operated and maintained so that exposed waste is not visible from surrounding residential and other sensitive receiving uses at any time

Attachment B 4(6) requires that Waste Activity Uses are developed in a manner that:

(a) establishes and maintains native vegetation buffers to improve amenity or environmental impacts particularly where situated close to residential areas or riparian corridors; and
(b) retains and maintains significant existing vegetation, particularly remnant native vegetation and areas of environmental significance; and
(c) does not adversely affect surface or ground water quality, including through storm water runoff or the dewatering of former mines, and where possible, improves the quality of nearby surface and ground water; and
(d) does not adversely affect stormwater management and where possible, improves the management of the catchment.

Attachment B 4(7) requires that Waste Activity Uses are designed, operated and maintained so that:

(a) no nuisance or disturbance is caused to the amenity of surrounding and nearby residential and other sensitive receiving uses; and
(b) airborne emissions, including odours, dust or substances harmful to public health, do not cause nuisance or harm to surrounding and nearby residential and other sensitive receiving uses; and
(c) the generation of noise or light overspill does not cause nuisance or disturbance to surrounding and nearby residential and other sensitive receiving uses.

How the TLPI applies to Cleanaway's expansion plans

Cleanaway wants to put an estimated 2,000,000 tonnes of fill into a lake in Collingwood Park known as Void 10.

Void 10 is now a lake hydraulically connected to Six Mile Creek which runs to the Brisbane River. Any activity with the potential to do environmental harm to the water table or environment should not be permitted. The closest home to Void 10 is 245 metres away in Burdekin Court Collingwood Park. Any activity involving the dewatering and filling of Void 10 would be too close to housing, with unacceptable impacts on residential amenity. The buffer zone that is Lot 227 should remain a green buffer between Cleanaway's activities and residential areas.

Filling and earthworks associated with waste activity cannot extend beyond the top edge of a mining void and exposed waste must not be visible from surrounding residential areas at any time. Despite a current maximum landfill height of 70m RL, the waste on Cell 4 is already visible to residents in Collingwood Park in contravention of the TLPI provision Attachment B 4(5)(b). Any increase in height of cells above currently approved landform heights would worsen this contravention. A landfill height similar to the Western Borrow at 126m RL or the closed Council dump at 113m RL is unthinkable and unacceptable. Any increase in the dump footprint towards residential areas would likewise contravene several provisions of the TLPI.

Listen to the Community!

Cleanaway claim to be a good corporate citizen "committed to working in partnership with the local community", but actions speak louder than words. Cleanaway's history of non-compliance coupled with this attempt at expansion in contempt of community feeling, speaks for itself.

The community WANT Cleanaway to stick to their current Council approved final landform plan which reflects the natural height of the land pre-mining, complete and cap their 75 hectare wasteland which they have failed to progressively rehabilitate over many years of operation (despite that being a condition of their licence) - and LEAVE.

The community definitely DO NOT WANT many more years of rounding the corner from Collingwood Drive into Eagle Street to be confronted by the vast offensive expanse of cell liners and the spectacle of clouds of rising dust and trucks disgorging waste loads onto a dusty mountain.

We DO NOT WANT any more fires.
We DO NOT WANT more asbestos and other toxic waste.
We DO NOT WANT trucks dumping into a lake only 250 metres from houses! This lake (like other large waterbodies should be a centrepiece of environmental regeneration - not a hole for a waste company to fill!

THE COMMUNITY ARE SICK OF LIVING WITH CLEANAWAY'S DUMP!
We expect our elected representatives to do everything in their power to ensure that this application by Cleanaway is rejected.