HORSHAM Rural City Council wants to ensure it retains decision-making authority for a Douglas mine site.
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Iluka Resources has applied for a planning permit to dispose mineral sands waste at the site’s pit 23.
The Environment Protection Authority Victoria ruled a licence or works approval were inessential for Iluka Resources to continue the practice in pit 23 at the mine site.
However the company will still require a planning permit from council and a radiation management licence.
Council is due to make a decision about Iluka’s planning application to continue disposing the waste at a meeting on June 6.
On Tuesday, council met with residents and groups on who made submissions about Iluka’s permit application.
Council’s chief executive Peter Brown said statutory requirements meant council had a limited amount of time to make a decision.
“We've been meeting with parties on a progressive basis and developing a report for the meeting on June 6,” he said.
“We have to make a timely decision, but that has to be balanced against making an informed decision.
“People need to be aware that if the decision is not made in a timely manner, Iluka has the right to go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“That's not a good outcome in my view, and we need to bear that in mind.
“It is important council is able to make the decision, and it’s always disappointing when that ability gets taken away.”
Kanagulk Landcare Group members were among the presenters at Tuesday’s meeting.
The group has opposed Iluka’s practices and wants waste to be returned to its source.
President Margaret Arthur said the company had presented illogical arguments for why this could not happen.
“They have also said they can't separate their Ouyen and Ceduna waste, and therefore can't send waste back to where it came from,” she said.
“They should be able to do some simple year nine maths to determine the proportion to send back to each place.”
Mrs Arthur said the landcare group wanted to have input on any permit conditions if council voted to approve the permit application.
She said if a permit was granted, the group wanted a charge per tonne on material dumped in the pit, and an end date for disposal to cease.
Among other conditions the group has called for include:
- That the land is rated. Once a planning permit is granted, the pit becomes a landfill.
- A landfill site needs to be fully lined and meet other stringent conditions, so there is no chance of material escaping the site in any form.
- No other product, other than the waste from Hamilton, should go into the pit.
- Monitoring the pit needs to involve active monitoring for hundreds of years, and Iluka should have to pay for the cost of this compliance.
- A cap of more than five metres. It also needs to have grasses growing on top, not trees that would send roots down into the waste and therefore risk bringing radioactive particles to the surface through roots and leaves.
