Blacktown City Council Rejects Waste-Filled Generator - Media Release

MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1 March, 2017

Blacktown Rejects Waste-fuelled Generator

Blacktown City Council has lodged a stinging critique of the ‘deeply flawed’ waste-fuelled electricity generator proposed for Eastern Creek.

The council has repeated its call for the State Government to reject the proposal outright (submission attached) in its submission to the Department of Planning and Environment.

The Minister for Planning is to decide if the plant will be built and submissions for and against the proposal close today.

“This is the second time they’ve tried to claim that burning more than one million tonnes of waste is not going to harm the local community, and once again they have failed,” the Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali said.

“Their information is deeply flawed and fails to fully answer the simplest question: can you guarantee it is safe for the community?

“They can’t.

“This means they are blatantly experimenting with the health of Western Sydney – by building a waste incinerator to find out if their modelling is accurate.”

Mayor Bali also described as “inexplicable” why the plant would have a cooling system that cannot cope with the Australian climate.

“They are using a European-designed air cooling system that initiates a plant trip at ambient temperatures above 37 degrees.

“You all know the summer we’ve just had; this makes the design even harder to understand.”

In its strongly worded submission, Blacktown City Council says the project will see the “wilful destruction” of local forest and eliminate the habitat of local endangered and threatened species including the Green and Golden Bell Frog.

“There are still gaps in the EIS about which we have significant concerns, including the source of the waste and the inability of the applicant to guarantee procedures and processes that satisfactorily demonstrate how all waste will be satisfactorily sorted,” the Council submission states.

“The EIS has not verified that the predicted emissions are valid and achievable.”

It also points out that electricity generating works are prohibited under local zoning laws except when the zone objectives can be satisfied.

“The proposal is inconsistent with the zoning objectives and is therefore not capable of being approved,” the submission says.

The council also states:

·    The proposal as submitted fails to promote biological diversity.

·    The location and design of the plant fails to encourage a high standard of development.

It says the following issues have not been addressed satisfactorily:

·   The validity of the proposal as a solution to waste disposal.

·   Waste management issues, including validity of the waste sources, inadequate sorting processes, incineration of material that can be recycled, lack of accountability to resource recovery rates and a plan for ash processing.

·   Air quality concerns, including a lack of detail in the EIS about the actual pollutants, and a lack of clarity about emission limits and odour assessments and how these will be monitored.

·   Human health concerns:

o        Council doubts the accuracy of the assessment and whether it is valid and achievable, and whether it has been reviewed and assessed as satisfactory by NSW Health.

·   Noise concerns, including gaps in the acoustic assessment.

·   Soil, water and drainage concerns for the site, including

o        lack of detail to support some of the activities proposed,

o        lack of flood modelling,

o        salinity and stormwater treatment concerns.

·   Plume rise (emissions from chimney stacks) assessment concerns and the potential impacts on aviation airspace.

·   Confirmation that the technology is appropriate to the Australian setting.

·   Concerns about the EPA's licensing fees and its ability to regulate and monitor the plant, its ability to make the operator accountable if it does not meet the predicted emission levels, and requirements to upgrade as technology improves.

·   The appropriateness of the proponent and operator to hold an environmental protection licence.

·   An apparent lack of commitment by the proponent for:

o        Proper environmental certification

o        Establishment of a community liaison group

o        Establishment of a visitor information centre on the site

o        Funding local community improvements and enhancement

o        Hold community forums and holding an annual open day

·   Biodiversity concerns, including the destruction of River-flat Eucalyptus Forest, placing it at risk of extinction in the local area.

·   Proper conservation management to preserve artefacts found on the site and ongoing conservation management.

·   Concerns with road designs.

·   Visual impact of the site and the applicant's minimalist approach to Council's repeated concerns about design

Media Contacts:

mediaunit@blacktown.nsw.gov.au
Alan Gale – (02) 9839 6409
Angela Ranke – (02) 9839 6564
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