Mayor Bob Kirk says he still has many questions about a company's plans for a waste to energy plant in the district.
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He and other councillors will have the chance to quiz Jerrara Power when representatives brief them on Tuesday afternoon.
The briefing session, which will be closed to the public, will outline a proposal to incinerate up to 330,000 tonnes of mainly Sydney waste at a facility at 974 Jerrara Road, Bungonia. The pre-sorted residual household, industrial and commercial material would be trucked to the property, burnt at high temperature and converted to 28 megawatts per annum for the grid.
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The briefing follows a series of angry and well attended community meetings at Bungonia and Marulan. At times, the company struggled to keep control of forums, amid yelling and people voicing their concerns.
Cr Kirk, Deputy Mayor Peter Walker and Cr Andrew Banfield attended some of those meetings.
The Mayor said he didn't expect to gain any further detail from Jerrara Power on Tuesday, given it was in the scoping stage of its development application to the state government.
However he shared community concerns.
"People have a million questions which is what the company is looking to bring to the fore," he said.
"People expect them to have the answers now but they haven't yet done the studies, which to the average Joe seems a bit backhanded."
He listed the main issues as smoke stack emissions, water, vegetation, and road impacts of the expected 104 associated truck movements daily. Like residents, councillors also asked Jerrara Power where its water was coming from but was told it was "commercial in confidence." The facility would require 70 million litres a year and would be trucked in on "six to nine vehicles" a day, a company spokesperson said.
Asked whether he was surprised at the level of detail available at this stage, Cr Kirk said the company had purchased the 133-hectare property and had claimed it met all their criteria.
"So where is the water coming from and where is the power going to? The only way the waste will get there is by road and what impact does that have on the community?
"On the limited information I have been able to glean in the past few weeks I can see where people's concerns are coming from. I couldn't support any proposal that didn't address all those issues. At this stage they haven't addressed them at all."
The Mayor said some people didn't understand the planning process. While the term 'state significant' indicated a level of endorsement to some, he pointed out the company's scoping phase informed the Secretary's Environmental Requirements (SEARS) to be released by the state planning department. The SEARS would outline aspects that an environmental impact study would have to address. The EIS would then be placed on public exhibition for comment. Community members and the council will make submissions on this document.
"That could be 18 months to two years away, if it gets off the ground at all, and in the meantime all these people that are directly affected are stressing their lives away and I understand that," he said.
"They'll be in that nowhere land all that time, which is going to be very hard on people."
Cr Kirk defended the closed briefing, saying all such sessions were shut to the public. Further, the forum would include other council matters. The NSW Local Government department encourages councils to have briefing sessions.
Meantime, Cr Andrew Banfield said he too wanted more information on the water source and why Bungonia was chosen at all. He quizzed company managing director Chris Berkefeld about this at the Marulan community meeting.
He said he was told the water source was commercial information at this stage. In addition, all water would be recycled onsite and there would be "no run-off." Mr Berkefeld has also made this statement to The Post.
"I asked him why this wasn't being proposed for Sydney. The community said one of these plants was rejected at Eastern Creek but Jerrara Power claimed theirs was different. My question is, if it's greener and cleaner, why not put it in Sydney," he said.
"...If it ticks all the boxes why would you run trucks down the highway to Bungonia when you can just drive them around the corner?"
However Cr Banfield said at this stage, more facts were needed.
Crs Kirk and Peter Walker, along with general manager Warwick Bennett also met one-on-one with residents last Thursday at Marulan about community issues, including the waste to energy plant. The Mayor said councillors were receiving numerous emails about the proposal.
Mr Berkefeld has defended the site, saying the company looked far and wide for an appropriate location. He said the Jerrara Road property did not require rezoning (a claim the community has challenged), was ideally located near the Hume Highway and enabled connection to the grid.
He told The Post Jerrara Power would address all of the issues raised during community meetings, including fears about toxin emissions.
The company hopes to have the "state-of-the-art" plant operational in three years. It says the facility will employ 300 people during construction and 60 when operational.
Two action groups have formed at Bungonia and a change.org petition against the proposal has been mounted.
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