Proposed Energy from Waste facility at Eastern Creek

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Blacktown City Council has submitted a long list of concerns and objections to the latest proposal to build an ‘Energy-from-Waste’ plant in Western Sydney.

The waste management company Cleanaway is proposing to build the facility on a site on Wallgrove Road at Eastern Creek. The plant aims to generate electricity by burning up to 500,000 tonnes of waste per year.

In a detailed submission to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, Council stated: “We object to this proposal until all our concerns detailed in Council’s submission are comprehensively addressed.”

Blacktown City Mayor Tony Bleasdale, OAM said; “Council officers have carried out a detailed review of the new incinerator plans and Council also commissioned an independent review of Cleanaway’s environmental impact assessment.

“Council’s submission makes it quite clear that we object to this project in its current form in so many areas.

“Our submission raises serious concerns in the areas of air quality, waste water treatment, human health risk assessment, the exact technology to be used, and the visual impact of the facility.

“The proposed plant is located within the Western Sydney Parklands – famously described by a number of NSW Premiers as ‘the lungs of Western Sydney’ and we fear that this development could be the ‘cancer’ of those lungs.”

The Government has specific planning legislation controlling development and land use in the Western Sydney Parklands (WSP).

Council’s independent review of the environmental impact assessment stated: ‘The applicant has not adequately addressed the provisions of the WSP (planning controls) to enable clear demonstration of the beneficial social and economic outcomes to Western Sydney of the proposed development in this location.

‘.. this also raises questions on the suitability of the site and whether the proposed development in the proposed location, within the Western Sydney Parklands is in the public interest.’

/Public Release. View in full here.