Mundaring
Council Votes to sell Red Hill Tip land for possible
Sewage Plant
The owners of the Stoneville and
Parkerville developments have
approached the EMRC to sell them land to build a waste
water treatment plant
at the EMRC Red Hill tip site in the City of Swan.
The EMRC, which is owned
by the Cities of Swan, Bayswater, Belmont, the Shires
of Mundaring,
Kalamunda and the Town of Bassendean, has asked it's
member councils for
their advice.
In an 8-3 vote after a long debate
the Mundaring Council voted at the 23
Sept meeting to advise the EMRC, they did "...not
object to any sale or
lease of a portion of it's land holdings to site a
waste water treatment
plant at the Red Hill Waste Management Facility."
The proposed Red Hill sewage plant
would be located in the City of Swan,
and would process sewage from the Parkerville and
Stoneville developments
located in the Shire of Mundaring . Swan is also a
member of the EMRC, and
voted at it's August '08 Council meeting against the
sale, citing these
reasons:
1.Advise the EMRC that it does not
support the sale or lease of land for
the purpose of constructing a wastewater treatment
plant at Red Hill at this
stage.
2. Further advise the EMRC that the
City's concerns with the proposal
include uncertainty about factors such as the viability
of piping treated
effluent to the Swan Valley in terms of costs to end
users,available volumes
and seasonal variances of the treated effluent; the
practicality of storing
treated effluent in the Herne Hill quarry; the management
of sewage spills;
amenity of surrounding land use; odour issues and
the potential negative
impacts being linked to the EMRC's Red Hill facility.
Despite it's sister city's objections, the Mundaring
Council voted:
For: Cllrs. Lavelle, Jamieson, Johnson, Pilgrim,
Hall, Cuccaro,
Gardhouse, Dullard.
Against : Cllrs. Daw, Davis, Harvey.
Hundreds More Big Trucks on Toodyay
Road
Hanson Quarries, currently under investigation for
mining outside their permitted area in Red Hill, is
applying to expand that Red Hill operation to extract
and ship 1.5 million tonnes of gravel per year. This
will involve doubling the visible scar on the Darling
Range Escarpment which will be visible across the
coastal plain. Other concerns are frequent blasting,
disruption of the delicate eco-system and draining
of the Susannah Brook water catchment by mining below
the water table. Hanson has consistently deceived
the community and government over it’s operations.
The expansion would generate hundreds of large truck
loads per day. Boral Mining proposes to open a quarry
next to it and add another 100 daily truck trips.
Midland Brick also sends hundreds of truck trips onto
that road, as does the EMRC’s Red Hill Waste
Site. All this truck traffic uses Toodyay road.
Toodyay road is a steep 2 lane highway which also
serves the communities of Gidgegannup, Stoneville,
Toodyay, Northam, etc. Besides traffic congestion,
the trucks drop rocks, dust, trash and generate noise
and exhaust fumes. Accidents have occurred by passenger
vehicles attempting to overtake the slow trucks.
No provision is planned for this increased traffic,
other than slip lanes and warning signs. The quarries
are on the north side of the road, so these loaded
trucks will have to cross the road to enter traffic.
The projected life of the quarries is 25-30 years,
therefore there is plenty of cause to increase the
width of the road to 4 lanes and build underpasses
for the trucks to use. It is State Government’s
responsibility to require this before the quarries
are allowed to operate. Better yet, the EPA could
close the quarries entirely and require Hanson and
Boral to ship gravel in by rail to a central terminal
in the city.
Read
the Swan Valley Progress Association submission paper
on Hanson (3mb).
