Kay Davies owns a bio-dynamic farm, running sheep, cattle and grain just outside the historic town of York.
Her property’s boundary is approximately 600 metres from a proposed 50 hectare landfill site to take rubbish from Perth.
Waste management company SITA has bought an option over the 1,500 hectare Allawuna Farm, approximately 18 kilometres west of York.
The site will take between 150,000 and 250,000 tonnes general municipal (wheelie bin), commercial, industrial, construction and asbestos waste, with a nominal life expectancy of 37 years.
It is not the only such site planned with a similar proposal for landfill on Chitty Road at Toodyay.
Ms Davies and other residents from York and Toodyay have delivered a petition to Parliament containing 4,500 signatures, opposed to the set up of multiple landfills near rural towns for the disposal of Perth waste.
The York site will not undergo a formal assessment after the Environmental Protection Agency ruled the “potential environmental impacts are not so significant as to warrant formal environmental impact assessment.”
Nial Stock, who is SITA’s WA general manager, says the EPA decision was as expected.
“Environmentally it is entirely safe, it is an excellent site for a landfill and we expected them not to assess it,” he said.
“Geologically, it is in thick clay so the water is protected and it has such big buffers, so we are using a very small site inside a big farm.
“There is some digging to be done, but it essentially fills a depression in the land.”
Locals propose trucking waste to old mine sites
Mr Stock says he does not see the reason for the community opposition.
“It’s a long way from York, invisible from the road - there won’t be any signs on the road - the traffic is relatively light,” he said.
“And, while there has been great resistance from some people, there has also been great support from the commercial community because [there] will be a substantial economic benefit in terms of direct employment, direct spend and indirect commercial benefit to the entire community.”
York resident Dennis Hill has a different take on the situation and says most townspeople are opposed to the project.
He says the company should look at an alternative site outside the Avon Valley.
“What we proposed is railing waste out to completed mine sites, in other words, existing holes in the ground that have to be rehabilitated,” he said.
“To set it up, it will be more expensive than just trucking it to the other side of the Hills, which is the proposal at the moment [but] in the long term it will be much cheaper because rail is half the cost of road transport.
“And, now we’ve got the collapse of the Tier 3 railway so all of our wheat is going to travel down the York to Lakes Road, a single lane road, and then we are going to have rubbish coming up from the city going the other way so a huge amount of traffic.
“York’s an agricultural area, but relies heavily on tourism; anything that impinges on that, the main road into the town, it’s going to have an impact.”
Mr Stock concedes there will be more trucks on the road if the proposal gets the green light.
“About six movements an hour, but by any objective measure, and we’ve had a traffic study done as part of our planning submission, the amount of trucks we are going to put on that road is not an issue, it doesn’t change the status of that road or the safety considerations of that road,” he said.
“I think we are something of a lightning rod for dissatisfaction.”
Mr Stock also says SITA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars looking into old mines being used to hold waste and the idea is not feasible.
“The rail is prohibitively expensive and the facilities don’t exist,” he said.
“Firstly, the quarries are too deep and you can’t leach it, the water that comes out of the rubbish, and the steep inclines mean you can’t pump it.
“Secondly, quarries are left with basically unstable sides and you can’t have people working at the bottom of those, it is not safe.”
York and Toodyay both identified as metro dumping sites
Toodyay residents are also fighting a proposal to have metro waste dumped in their area.
Alice Bernal is from the Avon Valley Environmental Society which is opposing Opal Vale plans to set up a landfill site on Chitty Road.
The development application was rejected by the Shire of Toodyay, but the company took the matter to the State Administrative Tribunal, which ruled in its favour.
The SAT approval can only be acted upon if the Department of Environment Regulation issues a works approval.
Ms Bernal says they are in the same boat as York, both sweating on appeals.
“Private waste companies are trying to come into the Avon Valley and we’re fighting it tooth and nail,” she said.
“The Swan Valley can’t take any more of Perth’s waste so they are just going to dump it in rural towns, and SITA has already earmarked Gingin if York doesn’t get through.
“Toodyay is critical; if Opel Vale gets in SITA will get in, in York.
“At least Toodyay Council was fighting it, York Council is doing nothing, and the scuttlebutt I hear is that SITA has done a deal with the council to give them five years free waste disposal.”
Mr Stock denies a deal has been struck with the York Council.
“Not at this point no but, in other cases where SITA is involved as a landfill operator, that is a possibility down the track,” he said.
York Council CEO Ray Hooper says the council is yet to see a planning application but even when it does, it is not a decision it can make.
“Within the council there are certainly those that will be opposed to it but council won’t get a vote,” he said.
“The decision is based on planning law; they changed the way it was done a few years ago, I think to remove the emotion from it, and base it purely on planning law.
“My view is the State Government has failed to address land and waste management in the metropolitan area, so it has to go somewhere and they are now looking for options.
“They’ve made a commitment not to use any land on the coast so they are looking to the east and somewhere not too far from Perth to transport the waste.”
No effective waste management strategy in place for Perth
One thing all parties seem to agree on is that there is not an effective waste management strategy in place for Perth and its surrounds.
Mr Hill says this causes difficulties.
“The DEC and the EPA will not allow any more landfills on the Swan coastal plain because they are leaching into the underlying water table, but they don’t think that is a problem up here,” he said.
“So, individual operators are taking advantage of the situation to apply for licences willy nilly on the other side of the Darling scarp.”
A DER spokesperson says the State Government, through the Waste Authority, is currently developing a strategic waste plan for Perth and the Peel region.
The York matter now lies with the Office of the Appeals Convenor with 35 appeals lodged against the EPA’s decision.
Mr Stock says he expects the Allawuna project to be approved by the Environment Minister Albert Jacobs once he receives the appeal report.
It is planned to replace SITA’s jointly-owned facility near Byford, one of six landfill sites across Perth.
Ms Davies is hoping the rural landfill projects will be stopped.
“I think it will kill York, who is going to want to go to York, or Toodyay where all this rubbish is being offloaded?” she asked.
“The WA Government needs to focus more on recycling and alternative technologies.
“In WA we recycle 30 per cent of rubbish, in South Australia, they recycle 80 per cent of waste through incentives.”
Ms Davies says she hopes the petition will make people think about where the waste is going and realise they cannot just put it over the hill and hope it will be out of sight and out of mind.
