Blacktown City Council - Mayoral Statement EfW Incinerator Reply Dodges The Questions

Mayoral Statement

Statement by the Mayor of Blacktown City, Stephen Bali MP             15th March 2018

EfW Incinerator reply dodges the questions

The company wanting to build an Energy from Waste (EfW) Incinerator in Western Sydney is still dodging the questions about how it will affect the Sydney metropolitan area.

Garbage disposal company Dial-A-Dump Industries through The Next Generation (NSW) Pty Ltd (TNG) wants to build stage one of a two-stage plant that will eventually burn more than a million tonnes of waste a year – just across the M4 from Minchinbury at Eastern Creek.

The NSW Government’s planning authority gave TNG’s Energy from Waste Incinerator a third chance to meet the state’s mediocre pollution laws yet many issues are overlooked or ignored.

In what is supposed to be TNG’s final attempt to resolve all outstanding issues, there are still many questions and issues raised by Blacktown City Council that have been inadequately addressed or left unanswered.

Just how many times should this student be allowed to re-sit the exam?  When will all the questions be answered?  More than that, surely this is yet again a fail mark?

For example, we asked TNG to outline how foreign objects will be excluded from the waste stream and for an assurance that all waste will undergo some form of validated pre-treatment to prevent toxic material from being burnt.

These issues were not addressed.

TNG completely brushed aside Council’s concerns about air quality monitoring.

We asked them to undertake air quality monitoring for a year before the plant operates to get an accurate baseline data for future monitoring comparison.

TNG responded that because they are “not responsible for the operation of air pollution monitoring systems,” they “cannot comment on the nature or investment in these operations”.

What an appalling side step that shows no desire to seek a proper air quality monitoring regime.

We also asked TNG to:

• appoint a designated officer to monitor the environmental performance for the life of the plant
• establish a Community Liaison Group to discuss concerns and monitor the plant’s performance
• update what we considered to be insufficient flood modelling
• get external certification to ensure the process is industry best practice
• better outline how the plant will comply with the NSW Environment Protection Authority Energy from Waste policy.

There was no response to these and lots of other important issues. This cavalier approach to responsible reporting shows a complete contempt for the issue of public accountability.

For this and many other reasons, Blacktown City Council says this application should be refused.

Background Information

Garbage disposal company Dial a Dump, through The Next Generation (NSW Pty Ltd), wants to build stage one of a two stage plant that will eventually burn more than a million tonnes of waste a year – across the M4 from Minchinbury at Eastern Creek.

This is the fourth time Blacktown City Council has considered and reviewed a variation of the Environmental Impact Statement for the EfWI proposal (the previous being in March 2014, August 2015 and February 2017) and on each occasion the Council found issues of great concern.

TNG’s first Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was knocked back, so they tweaked the modelling for a second EIS and now they have tweaked the modelling again in response to strong criticisms and these are contained in what is termed a Response to Submissions.

One of Blacktown City Council’s concerns is that the base process remains unchanged, but the predictions of its likely effects have been “updated”, based on changes to the modelling.

The Response to Submissions follows the public exhibition of the second, amended EIS for the proposed Energy from Waste incinerator that received nearly 1,000 objections.

Opponents included the Environment Protection Agency, the Western Sydney Local Area Health District, Blacktown City Council and Penrith City Council, as well as environmental groups, large companies and 950 members of the public; who all lodged submissions with the Department of Planning and Environment.

It is clear that placing a giant waste-burning incinerator capable of consuming more than a million tonnes of waste a year has sent shock waves through the community.

In its official submissions to the Department of Planning and Environment, Blacktown City Council has strongly objected to the proposal.

TNG has had at least three formal attempts to get this right, yet a significant number of the issues raised in Blacktown City Council’s most recent submission were overlooked or ignored by the proponent in its Response to Submissions.

Project status – approval process

This State Significant Development is under evaluation and the NSW Government has not placed a date on when a decision will be made.  The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) is currently considering the Response to Submissions lodged following TNG’s second Environmental Impact Statement.  The first EIS was comprehensively rejected because it was inadequate.