09/05/2019
It’s even worse than we thought...
Two Cleanaway community meetings attended by almost 200 people heard -
😳 At least one of the monitoring bores on the landfill is showing evidence of PFAS contamination. PFAS is found in fire fighting foam and many other previously abundant sources now languishing in rubbish tips. (You may still have items containing PFAS in your home or garage)
😒 Cleanaway are about to sign a lease on approx 86 hectares adjoining their current site. They insist they have no idea what they are going to do with the land! (An insult to our intelligence??)
😒 Cleanaway say they were advised by the Shire and DWER to withdraw the approval applications that we opposed, and combine the three applications into one application to JDAP (Joint Development Assessment Panel)
The Shire have confirmed to us that they did not advise Cleanaway to do this.
😒 When asked if the application for 24 hour operation and trucking movements is included in the JDAP application, suddenly only two of the approval applications are included. Five minutes later, in discussions there are three mentioned again!
😒 Cleanaway ‘don’t yet have a contract to store the lithium tailings at the site and the quantities involved are commercially sensitive so can’t be revealed at this time.’
(Freely available Albemarle publications state that the tailings from their Kemerton plant WILL be stored at a Class 3 licensed landfilll site at Banksia Rd. Also mentioned is the production of up to 1.1 million tonnes of tailings when fully operational)
😒 ‘There is thick layer of clay under the site which is ideal for the base of a landfill site and will prevent water contamination’. (No mention of the superficial aquifer which sits above the SEMI-CONFINED Leederville aquifer in a layer of silty clay with sandy lenses, and flows directly onto the adjoining Swan Coastal Plain.)
😒 ‘The Waste Precinct was identified in 1999 by the government, as a site suitable for landfill.’
(The Waste Precinct came into existence when at the suggestion of the WAPC, it was identified and adopted in the Dardanup Local Planning Strategy in 2015 - despite continued community opposition, based on local knowledge of the site, dating back to 1997!)
😒 ‘The expansion of the Cleanaway operation will create many jobs at the landfill site and in transport.’
(No matter where the tailings go, there will be transport requirements. Would the eventual extra jobs at the landfill site be a consequence of extended operating hours?)
😒 Cleanaway’s license allows them to construct waste cells 8 metres below natural ground level and extending up to 40 metres above. (A total of approx 160 metres above sea level for the current cells)
😒 Cleanaway have just become aware that the storage of tailings comes under the Mining Act. (Yet they have been accepting titanium tailings from Crystal since the heat became too much at Dalyellup.)
😒 PERTH metropolitan rubbish is coming to Dardanup because the Government won’t allow development of new landfill sites on the Swan Coastal Plain for environmental reasons. (The Banksia Road Waste Precinct directly adjoins the Swan Coastal Plain AND provides recharge to the superficial aquifers!)
😒 Cleanaway is tightly regulated and compliant. (There are breaches known to locals and reported, and some noted in license reviews. Consequences?)
