On behalf of Mountain Districts Association and all those who have been fighting Council and the EPA to get Mangrove Mountain Landfill closed and thus prevent the Central Coast drinking water supply from becoming contaminated in the future, I would be grateful if you could read the following and show your support.
A major project concerning Mangrove Mountain Landfill that the Mountain Districts Association (MDA) has been working on for more than two years was part of a dramatic Four Corners exposé of the waste industry, will be aired on Monday August 7.
This is a major breakthrough, and although we are not sure of the amount of exposure our project will receive, the Four Corners crew have spent weeks interviewing our members, who have been researching the issue, and have had film crews and helicopters on the Mountain.
The Landfill Subcommittee (of MDA) has been researching a landfill site in Central Mangrove.
This site was originally approved to take 80,000 m3 of waste, but now contains an unapproved gigantic mountain of 800,000 tonnes of waste, non-compliant with the development consent and in breach of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.
It was allowed to proceed by both Gosford City Council (GCC) and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
To the community’s absolute astonishment, in August 2014, a Land and Environment Court Order ratified a Heads of Agreement, negotiated by GCC and the landfill operator, without any reference to the Community, specifying that an additional 1,317,503 m3 of waste could be dumped on the site.
An early 2017 GIPA (Government Information Public Access Act 2009) search by the MDA discovered that not only has the former GCC (now amalgamated to become the Central Coast Council) not managed compliance of the original approved limit of 80,000 m3 of waste, but incredibly, it was a major contributor to this non-compliance, transferring in excess of 120,000 tonnes, or approximately 170,000 m3 of waste from its own Woy Woy and Kincumber waste management facilities to Mangrove Mountain.
This landfill sits in a watercourse that supplies fresh water to more than 300,000 people on the Central Coast.
A massive pit on the site has been dug into the ancient aquifer, a major contributor to the Coast’s water supply.
This pit, intended to hold more rubbish, is continually full of water leaking out of the excavated aquifer and, under heavy rain conditions, fills with surface water and leachate from the waste mound, which is forced by hydraulic pressure back into the aquifer.
The MDA would like to maximise the opportunity to put pressure on the Government over the Landfill issue, and you can help.
ABC Central Coast radio will run this story in their news bulletins and on their morning breakfast show, on Tuesday morning, August 8, following the Four Corners program.
MDA would be grateful if readers will ring the ABC on 43671970 and express your: Concern/outrage at the threat/risk to the drinking water posed by Mangrove Mountain Landfill; Outrage at the EPA and Council for causing the problem and not taking action; Ask when is the Government going to close the landfill and prevent the continuation of the risk/threat etc; Show concern for children/grandchildren’s future health if they have to drink this water, which may end up contaminated; and, show condemnation of the EPA and Council for allowing this incredible situation to occur.
Help us to “light up the ABC switchboard” for many days and for them to pass on this message to the NSW Government.
Email, Aug 4
Stephen Goodwin, Mountain Districts Association