Situated next to residential areas including Riverview, Collingwood Park, Dinmore and Bundamba, Cleanaway's dump at New Chum is on the site of an old coal mine. In 2018, not satisfied with filling the void left by the former coal mine, Cleanaway applied to build a 110m high mountain of waste. Late in 2019, Ipswich City Council refused the application. Almost immediately following this, Cleanaway lodged an appeal in the Planning and Environment Court.

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CLEANAWAY’S MCU application 4502/2018 - THIS IS WHY IT SHOULD BE REFUSED BY THE COURT:

 

This “redesign and rehabilitation” application is nothing more than a bid for a massive expansion solely for profit, including raising the approved height from RL70 metres to RL110 metres (since changed to an incremental RL85m) and two new cells 6 and 7.
Cleanaway want to more than double present approved capacity from 10,121,000m3 to 23,791,000m3 by adding a further 13,670,000m3 of airspace above current levels which have already more than filled the mining voids that once existed on the site.
Therefore for the purposes of this submission, the Cleanaway New Chum landfill (the dump) will hereafter be referred to as “the dump”, in recognition of the fact that any further dumping is just that - dumping not filling.

BACKGROUND
In 2011, Cleanaway (then Transpacific Waste Management) applied to increase the approved height of its New Chum dump from RL70 metres to RL120 metres, in association with an increased rate of disposal to >200,000tpa under ERA 60. This expanded landform which required Council approval,
was subsequently withdrawn by the company following a P&E Court decision in its favour on the increased rate of disposal.

Despite not having obtained Council approval for an expanded landform at that time, Cleanaway proceeded to ignore the approved final landform plan in in the original Town Planning Consent TPC192/1998, and overfill parts of Cells 1 and 5 by over 1,756,600 m3 (Golder Technical Memorandum,
document No. 147635023-002TM-Rev2 dated 28 November 2014).

When the overfilling was discovered, Council did not require redistribution of all the overfiill to unfilled parts of the site but did require the company to submit a reprofiled final landform plan with new contours and a reduced footprint to compensate for the overfilling. The overarching Council requirement of approval for this new landform in 2015 (4629/2013/MA/A) was zero net increase in the volume of waste landfilled (Golder Technical Memorandum, document No. 147635023-002TM-Rev2 dated 28 November 2014).

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Despite declarations to the contrary at (https://www.cleanaway.com.au/media-centre/media-releases/in-response-to-the-abc-four-corners-report-of-7-august-2017/), Cleanaway has greatly profited from filling the New Chum dump at an accelerated pace partly by accepting interstate waste, a trade which has been comprehensively documented by the media and the Lyons Inquiry.

As a result, Cleanaway has submitted this latest Material Change of Use application to prolong the life and profits of the New Chum dump, citing community need.

In a bid to win public support for the dump expansion, the company engaged in a what can only be interpreted as a cyncial exercise in misdirection, tying the expansion to the creation of an elaborate parkland on Lot 227 on SP103913 for community use and made this the focus of its community engagement and public displays. In fact Cleanaway’s consultant GHD cited it as a “key benefit of the redesigned landform and additional operational life of the site”. We now see that Cleanaway has not applied to rehabilitate the green space between Collingwood Park and the dump in accordance with those plans, and has removed rehabilitation of Void 10 (Aqua Lake) from its proposal.

This expansion application by Cleanaway demonstrates the company’s contempt for community desire to see this dump completed and rehabilitated in accordance with its original Town Planning Consent. It ignores Cleanaway’s undertaking of zero net increase in dump volume. It ignores the provision of TLPI-01-2018 that waste activity must not extend beyond the top edge of a mining void.

If approved, it will prolong the life of an already massive dump which would otherwise shortly close. Approval will be at the expense of nearby residents presently living with adverse amenity impacts, exascerbate those impacts through greatly increased height and closer proximity to current and
approved future residential areas. These impacts will be on visual amenity, air quality (raised dust and potentially toxic fires), noise and the truck movements it generates on the nearby road network. It will also hurt local communities economically and financially by degrading property values.

 

SUMMARY OF OBJECTIONS

 CONTRAVENTION OF THE MINISTERIAL TEMPORARY LOCAL PLANNING
INSTRUMENT (TLPI-1-2018) – The development is unsupportable under TLPI-1-2018. This governs filling a hole above the edge of a mining void, visibility of exposed waste, environmental and water quality impacts, nuisance and amenity impacts and harm to public health.

 CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF CONCENTRATING A NOXIOUS INDUSTY IN A NARROW GEOGRAPHIC AREA –

This application for expansion must be seen in the context of the present concentration of waste industries in the New  Chum/Swanbank area, a 10km x 2.5km tract of land on which urban growth areas are steadily converging. This industry, which is sandwiched between two major urban areas of Ipswich is anathema to urban development.

 EXTENSION OF / INCREASED IMPACTS –

The existing Cleanaway New Chum dump is already a nuisance. Expansion will extend adverse impacts, potentially for 20+ YEARS.

 TOO CLOSE TO RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES –

The dump is less than 2km from several schools and hundreds of homes. This proposal includes an additional cell 6 and moving noisome leachate ponds further east towards Collingwood Park, at the same time as planned/approved residential development is moving west towards the dump. Planned and
approved urban development will shorten distances further. The record of compliance failures demonstrates that high impact waste industries cannot successfully coexist with Council’s urban development priorities.

 INCREASED TRUCK MOVEMENTS ON LOCAL ROADS AND HIGHWAYS –

The dump generates large numbers of truck movements every day it operates. These truck movements track copious quantities of mud/dust onto State controlled roads including Abedare Street and the Cunningham Hwy. This truck traffic adds to the cost of repairing road
pavements and increases risk to other road users.

 AIR QUALITY IMPACTS, DUST & FIRES –

Cleanaway has demonstrated an inability to fully control dust. The most recent (2017) monitoring report published at https://www.cleanaway.com.au/community/major-project/new-chum-landfill-ipswich-qld/ records dust exceedances on numerous occasions. Additionally, there is no monitoring of the composition of this dust including for silica and asbestos from C&D waste. There have been four significant fires on-site since 2013. Some C&I waste is toxic when burnt. Along with dust, particulates from fires are potentially injurious to the health of nearby communities.

 NOISE POLLUTION –

Noise nuisance from crushing, screening, milling and grinding operations, from trucks and machinery increases with increasing height as the noise travels further. This noise will be at its worst as the dump approaches its proposed height of RL110M (pre-settlement). It is irrelevant whether windows are open or not. People do not stay inside their houses and assumptions based on the degree to which windows are open or shut are ridiculous.

 ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE –

Eastward expansion of waste activities including cell 6, clearing of bushland to relocate leachate ponds and edge effects of a heightened and
expanded dump would disrupt populations of significant and protected native flora and fauna on surrounding land including lot 227, species such as koalas, echidnas, Powerful Owls, the critically endangered Cooneana Olive and the Slender Milkvine. Stormwater flow on a heightened dump will potentially increase scouring/erosion, greatly increase stormwater flow to Void 10 (Aqua Lake) and increase turbidity in Six Mile Creek. Increased
stormwater flow may also exacerbate flooding in Riverview.

 DESTRUCTION OF VISUAL AMENITY BY AN UGLY LANDFORM –

A waste mountain  RL110m (pre-settlement) would be 40 metres higher than currently approved and 49 metres above the original natural landscape. It would be visible from many kilometres away and blot out beneficial views to northern mountain ranges including the D’Aguilar Range from some residential areas. Bunds will add to rather than mitigate this effect as they will be constructed of waste and dirt by heavy machinery, from waste delivered by trucks to the site. Despite bunds, dump activities would be seen from many of the higher areas of Collingwood Park including shopping and residential areas.

 QUESTIONABLE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT –

Cleanaway’s Community Consultation process proposed an extensive landscaping plan on lot 227 including the option of filling Void 10 (Aqua Lake). Void 10 rehabilitation has now been withdrawn from the proposal. Therefore the Community consultation process that used this information to manipulate
public opinion in favour of the expansion shoud also be withdrawn from consideration as its promotion of Void 10 rehabilitation makes the consultation and the conclusions drawn from it invalid.

 UNCERTAIN STABILITY OF UNDERGROUND WORKINGS –

Unreliable mine mapping, uncertain stability and location of mine workings dating back to 1900, known areas of underground heatings, spontaneous combustion and potential subsidence all raise the risk of future environmental damage. Increasing the height of the dump increases this risk.

 CONTRAVENTION OF QLD GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES ON SITING OF LANDFILLS–

Siting landfills over old mine workings contradicts the State Government’s own guidelines which state that landfills should not be sited less than 500 metres from a noise, dust or odour sensitive place or less than 100 metres from an unstable area.

 NOT REHABILITATION, NOT JUST FILLING A VOID –

“Rehabilitation” is defined as the action of restoring something that has been damaged to its former condition. Building a mountain of waste nearly 40 metres above the original topographic levels on which no trees can grow, is NOT rehabilitation.

 NOT IPSWICH’S WASTE –

Cleanaway’s acceptance of waste from other regions including from interstate does not fill ANY need of the Ipswich community.

 “THE WASTE HAS TO GO SOMEWHERE” –

Commentators who claim to be unconcerned about dumps, don’t live near them.

 IPSWICH IS NOT A DUMP –

We wish to reclaim our reputation as a great regional city. We wish to reclaim our lifestyle, environment, health, well-being and property values. Landfilling
near suburbs, including the Cleanaway New Chum dump, creates social inequity and is contrary to this aspiration.

WE ASK THAT CLEANAWAY’S MCU application 4502/2018 BE REFUSED.