The Goulburn communities fight against a state solution to landfill.
Waste incinerators in the southern Tablelands
Published in Goulburn Express Issue 10 - October 2021
Goulburn-Mulwaree Council will join with councils from across NSW to ask the State’s Chief Scientist and the Environmental Protection Agency more detailed questions about the health risks posed by waste incinerators.
Last month, the state government released a plan for Waste to Energy Infrastructure that has already knocked over one incinerator in Bungonia proposed by Jerrara Power.
The two-decade strategy decided that up to four Waste to Energy facilities might be needed to deal with the state’s waste problem by 2041 when waste volume is expected to grow to 37 million tonnes.
“There are three other councils that are part of the state government policy,” General Manager, Warwick Bennett told the Goulburn Express, referring to West Lithgow, Parkes and Richmond Valley.
“We’ve agreed that we want to ask the state government a series of environmental and health-based questions to try and get a better understanding of how this will affect communities.”It came as a surprise to councillors and the wider community when the south of Goulburn was listed as one of just four industrial zones across the state set aside for waste incineration technology.
“I am unaware of anyone in this region that was consulted,” Mr Bennett told the councillors at last month’s council meeting.
There were 16 speakers who spoke about the project who spoke about the project during the public forum at the Ordinary Council Meeting held on September 21 – not one spoke in support of the project.
“If industrial waste incinerators are as safe as they’re trying to tell us, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be built in the city where the waste is generated. It’s really that simple,” Tarago resident Paige Davis told the Goulburn Express.
Ms Davis spoke passionately during the public forum about the immense stress that the proposed incinerator has put on her and her young family.
Tarago residents meet with Member for Goulburn, Wendy Tuckerman in Tarago Park.
“How do I explain to my kids that we might have to shut down our honey business?” she asked the forum.
“How do I explain that we can no longer live on our farm?”
— Paige Davis
Council has requested a three-month period of public exhibition to allow enough time to digest the proposal, but are waiting to hear back from DPIE on whether this will be granted.
Veolia has said that the communities’ questions will be answered in the EIS, but this doesn’t appear to be the major concern of the community.
“We can smell the tip now, so I’m sure if that’s the case we will pollutants in the air,” James Reynolds, a cattle farmer whose meat is sold in Coles supermarkets, told the public forum last month.
“When I smell the smell, we talk to the EPA, the EPA fine Veolia, they pay the bill, the smell comes back the same week,” he said.
After over 249 complaints to the EPA this year alone, the environmental regulator has imposed further measures on the current site operations, but the smell lingers.
The Residents Against Tarago Incinerator Facebook group, which sprang up after the development was proposed earlier this year, now has almost 300 members.
“We’re pleased that Goulburn Council is supporting the people that actually live in the area and that they have come out so strongly against an incinerator in our local government area,” said Ms Davis.
“However, the community is very disappointed in the approach that Wendy Tuckerman has taken in not publicly supporting the position of Council and the community.”
Members of the Residents Against Tarago Incinerator Facebook group wrote to Ms Tuckerman expressing concern that she was not demonstrating the same level of support as Goulburn-Mulwaree Council.
Ms Tuckerman maintains that she vigorously advocated to both the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Planning for the policy change.
“Even though Woodlawn is currently in the planning framework I can assure the Tarago community, I made representations that I did not want any Waste to Energy facilities in my electorate if it posed any threat to the health of the community or to the environment,” she wrote in response to the letters.
“The community is becoming more informed of what Veolia is proposing, because previously a lot of people simply did not know, or they weren’t consulted,” said Ms Davis.
Mrs Tuckerman wants the EIS to be put on public exhibition for three months and says that it shouldn’t be submitted until after the local government elections and the new Council has been established in December.
Rod Thiele moved to Tarago ten years ago and appealed to the Council during the public forum saying, “This will decimate our town.
“Those who can afford to move will and those who can’t will stay.”
Councillors took over an hour to compose amendments to their proposed motion summarising the Council’s total opposition to waste incinerators in the region.
Councillor Banfield spoke first on the item proposing a class action to close the Veolia facility, “ due to its continuous breaches of the EPA and the disruption and the discomfort it brings to our community, full stop end of story”.
Mr Bennet jumped in to remind the councillors that the environmental requirements or SEARS process was already in motion and there was no legal recourse to stop it, but that they would strongly oppose the project on its merits.
Representatives at Veolia have said that they were not consulted in the State’s infrastructure plan, but were not surprised that the eco-precinct had been chosen, as jobs and infrastructure in the region are known priorities of the NSW government.
An Environmental Impacts Statement (EIS) has been in the works for some time and should be submitted to the Department of Planning, Infrastructure and Environment (DPIE) next month with a public exhibition set for February 2022.
A waste incinerator proposed for Bungonia has been scrapped marking the end of a six-month fight by the community against a NSW Government infrastructure plan.
“We were in a meeting and received a message from another group opposed to incinerators in Sydney,” said Leisha Cox-Barlow, the Bungonia resident and member of the Jerrara Action Group that has led the fight against the project.
“They said to expect a media release and hope it worked out well for us,” she said.
Bungonia residents: Andy Wood, Leisha Cox-Barlow and Darren Plump protesting the incinerator at Goulburn-Mulwaree Council.
Eventually, they heard that Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman phoned several residents living near the project.
“She phoned the lady who was going to be surrounded by Jerrara Power on her property,” said Ms Cox-Barlow. “She said they would not be impacting Bungonia.”
On the same day that the plan was released, Jerrara Power announced they would bow out.
“As a consequence of this new policy direction, Jerrara Power Pty Ltd will be withdrawing its State significant development application for an energy from waste facility,” a media statement issued on September 10 said.
“Jerrara Power remains committed to the development of an energy from waste facility in NSW.”
Messages were flooding in from 3am the next morning,” Ms Cox Barlow said.
“We were so elated that it was gone but it was a six months of our life.”
She recalled Jerrara Power Managing Director Chris Berkefeld telling her that the project was a ‘sure thing’ and that he was confident of approval for the $600 million project.
“We thought well we can’t fight that kind of money,” she said. “This little town of less than 400 people, we beat them.”
Ms Cox-Barlow is a school teacher and says she, like most other people in the Jerrara Action Group, had never done anything like this before.
“The best thing that came out of all of this is that I met so many people in my neighbourhood,” she said.
“The youngest member of our group is just 20 years old, and I said to her, this is why you don’t let people say no.
“You don’t have to give up.”
The group, which recently became an incorporated body, is now lending its support residents in Tarago who have a fight ahead. Within a couple of days, the signs came down and were taken to Tarago, just 60 km away.
The Jerrara Action Group has brought together people from all walks of life including scientists, teachers and public health academics.
They will lend their months of research to people fighting incinerators across the State.
“These people have come down from Sydney and said we will dump this here, not realising how much they would be impacting us,” she said.
The Facebook page won’t be going anywhere either as it’s become a social outlet for people in the community who have been isolated during the lockdown.
“The incorporation has given us some protection and it makes me feel empowered,” Ms Cox Barlow said. “It’s the community, it’s us”.
By Madeleine Achenza