Mangrove Mountain landfill affects our drinking water

Letters to the editorLetters to the editor

[Forum] An advertisement placed in other Central Coast newspapers by the Environment Protection Authority calling for public submissions on the proposed extension of Mangrove Mountain Landfill is the latest reminder of the terrible environmental consequences that could threaten our water supply if this disastrous landfill is allowed to continue.

For this reason I will be sending in a submission to the Authority strongly opposing the granting of a variation to the environment protection licence (EPL 11395) that regulates the activities at the landfill.
I don’t want this landfill to continue in the catchment of the Central Coast’s water supply.
The Peninsula, as well as other suburbs in the former Gosford and Wyong local government areas, receives its drinking water from this source.
There is no excuse for the Authority not publishing this advertisement in the Peninsula News as well as the Coast Community News and Wyong Regional Chronicle.
This is yet another example of the NSW Government taking the people of the Peninsula for granted.
I urge all of the readers of this newspaper to go to the Mountain Districts Association website (mountaindistrictsassociation.com.au) to obtain information on making a submission.
I noted in the Authority website there was no such assistance, which I thought was very poor of them.
The Association website explains how to make a submission and they have generously provided reasons that people can choose from to support their objection.
Information provided by the Mountain Districts Association reported that the existing waste mound of 800,000 cubic metres sits without an effective lining so that leachate produced in this mound can run out the bottom and into the sandstone groundwater aquifer.
I am extremely concerned that if this situation is allowed to continue without remediation that I may wake up one day to hear on the news that my drinking water is undrinkable.
This groundwater aquifer supplies almost half of the base stream flow of Ourimbah Creek; Council pumps fresh water from Ourimbah Creek into its Mardi Dam water storage that supplies the former Wyong LGA.
This water is also shared with the Mangrove Creek Dam which supplies fresh water to the former Gosford LGA.
Mangrove Mountain Landfill sits in the catchment that supplies all these water storages.
I think it is very important at this time for Peninsula residents to say NO to this landfill.
The more people who oppose this landfill, the louder the voice, and just maybe this time we will be heard by the Authority and the NSW Government.

Email, 14 Nov 2018, Michael Conroy, Booker Ba