Armidale’s $14-million dollar landfill and waste facility on Grafton Road has received final approval from the Planning Assessment Commission.
The Commission has allowed Armidale-Dumaresq Council to build all five of the waste cells that were put forward in the initial development application.
Each cell will hold 150,000 tonnes, and the landfill will be able to receive up to 15,000 tonnes of waste every year.
The Commission has imposed 30 conditions on the project, which is not expected to be constructed for at least another 12 months.
The project was referred to the Commission in September last year, and a public meeting was held in Armidale in May.
Landholders, conservationists and tourist operators in Armidale say they’re unhappy the proposed landfill and waste facility has been approved.
Gara farmer, Ron Piddington, has been fighting against the proposal for over 10 years.
He says he has grave concerns for the Gara River near the landfill and says he isn’t confident in Council’s ability to stop leachate escaping the site.
“Once it’s poisoned, then I’m not going to be relying on it for stock water,” he said.
“I don’t believe for one minute they won’t start dumping bad things in there.”
But Director of Public Infrastructure at Armidale-Dumaresq Council, David Stellar, says he believes the Planning Assessment Commission has imposed sufficiently rigorous conditions on the landfill to ensure the environment is not harmed in any way.
“We believe that the conditions that they’ve put on are probably over and above what they would normally put on a normal landfill site because of the environmentally-sensitive area downstream from the site,” he said.
“I assume that they have seen that there’s been additional mitigation strategies put in place.”
The chairman of the Planning Assessment Commission, Dr Neil Shepherd, declined ABC News’ interview request.
