Martins Creek Quarry

Despite the court case brought by DSC closing in April last year, a ruling has still not been made. However, Jacqui Tupper (DSC) notified MCQAG that the court has advised the parties that judgment on the Martins Creek Quarry matter will be handed down by the 17th August 2018. 

The following is a mail-out from MCQAG on 11th July. We encourage you to contact Umwelt to give them your perspective on how that quarry affects you. BHSAG committee members will be meeting with Umwelt. The cumulative impact of both quarries on our area is still a major concern.

Dear Members and Friends

you are receiving this email because we have you in our database as either a financial member of MCQAG or you have lodged your email on our website for updates on Martins Creek Quarry Expansion.

As you may know, MCQAG has never advocated for the closure of Martins Creek Quarry, only that any new consents require the facility to operate at a more reasonable scale that enables the quarry to coexist with residents and neighbours around the site and along the haulage route.

Quarry Expansion Update

Daracon has commenced the “Response to Submissions” stage of the State Significant Development Application process. Daracon has engaged Umwelt an environmental consulting firm based in Teralba as the lead consultancy to perform this work. 

MCQAG committee has met with Umwelt in the past three months, they have explained that they will be re-commencing community consultation and various environmental studies on the project over the coming months.

Umwelt have posted a Community Information Sheet to affected residents during the month of June. The flyer provided information on Daracon’s “Refined Project”. We are aware that many residents have not received this flyer and so we have attached a link to the document: Daracon Community Update

As you can see in the flyer Daracon’s refined project consists of;

• 900,000 tonne per annum by road
• 60 truck movements per hour
• 280 truck movements per day
• No loading of trucks or pit operations prior to 7am six days per week

The MCQAG committee’s view of the “Refined Project” is that the 7am starting time for load out of trucks and quarry operations is good news for impacted residents however the intensity of the operation proposed on an hourly basis in this refinement match and even exceeds that which was experienced in 2014 and 2015 when life around the facility and along the haulage route (particularly within the activity centre of Paterson) was simply unlivable; with intolerable impacts on our way of life, rural amenity and village character. The proposed increase in daily truck traffic is a 1166% increase in the currently approved 24 trucks per day from the site and the annual extraction limit proposed is a 300% increase from the currently approved 300,000 tonne per annum scale.

We Recommend You Take the Following Action

As noted in the community information sheet link above, Umwelt is commencing stakeholder engagement with affected residents. MCQAG encourages you all to register your interest with Umwelt (via their email social-team@umwelt.com.au) to ensure you get to participate in their consultation process. Importantly MCQAG strongly recommends you;

• Register with Umwelt to participate in the consultation process using the email above
• When dealing with Umwelt, remain steadfast regarding the issues that effect you and your community, remember the issues and impacts detailed in your submissions have most likely not been addressed with the refined project parameters listed above
• Keep records of your discussions with Umwelt
• Do not allow Umwelt or Daracon to divide and conquer, We must all remain united together to fight against the scale of the refined project to protect our way of life, rural amenity and village character.

We will provide updates to you all as the RTS process continues. Importantly please do not hesitate to contact MCQAG representatives on the telephone number or email below if you wish to discuss this further. We are happy to assist and advocate for you when dealing with Umwelt or Daracon.

MCQAG’s next committee meeting is on the 24th July at the Paterson School of Arts Hall, members and residents are welcome to attend.

Regards
James Ashton 
Secretary MCQAG
0413 616 677
info@mcqag.org

Brandy Hill Quarry.

There has not been any communication from Hanson since the CCC meeting early this year. However, James Moore has contacted Hanson regarding an offer they made at that meeting to provide a traffic speed display. The display is mounted on a trailer and would show drivers their actual speed as they approach the display. It does not record any data for subsequent analysis, and Hanson have asked that BHSA cover insurance for the month that they would allow. With the need for insurance and PSC, RMS and resident approval for a suitable location, there are a few hurdles before this could happen.

Although Hanson predicted at the last CCC that their Response to Submissions (RTS) may have been be ready by April, that has not yet happened, and could be months away.

We continue being wholly disappointed in the complete lack of any compromise in Hanson’s project scale, despite the years of CCC meetings and the huge number of opposing submissions from the community. Our disappointment in Hanson is even greater when we see that Daracon, who have never asked for 24/7, reduced their proposed hours of operation and also reduced their proposed road haulage annual tonnage by 40%, maximum trucks per day by 35% and maximum trucks per hour by 25% in their “Community Update” document. At least Daracon appear to be prepared to make some concessions in their Response to Submissions. Hanson have offered none. We can only hope that the NSW Department of Planning rejects Hanson’s approach.

We continue to:

1. Vehemently oppose 24/7 quarry operations and the huge increase in both the average and maximum trucks per day and per hour. These would be a totally unacceptable assault on the amenity and residential character of the area.
2. Demand that Hanson provide an off road pathway along Brandy Hill Drive and connecting the the Jacaranda preschool and Brandon park, bus bays and other safety improvements.
3. Stand by all the other mitigation measures outlined in BHSAG’s submission.

Next Steps

• We will continue investigating the speed display sign offered by Hanson.
• Meetings will be held with Umwelt next week.
• We are already drafting a presentation to the Independent Planning Commission- IPC (the new name for the Planning Assessment Commission – PAC).
  Once NSW planning accept Hanson’s RTS, and make recommendations to the IPC, we expect the IPC to hold a public meeting where key parties will be invited to make short presentations. That will be our last and only avenue to have some restrictions placed on Hanson’s ongoing operations.

Thats all for now. Thanks for your ongoing support. Any feedback via this website is always appreciated.

It is time to report on the latest development in the planning process for Hanson’s Quarry expansion. Because the Social Impact Assessment was severely lacking in the EIS,  Hanson is required to respond to the many resulting objecting submissions and address community concerns.

Hanson has engaged Ellen Davis-Meehan of Key Insights Pty Ltd to independently review and help Hanson update the SIA. Part of the process is to contact community representatives to better understand the concerns raised.

BHSA put Ellen in contact with residents of Giles Road who have serious issues with noise, vibrations and dust and she also met with the community members of the CCC on 15th September. We had a very good hearing and will post the minutes when they become available. Hopefully her understanding of the concerns will translate to a more realistic SIA and modified plan for future quarry operations.

On a totally unrelated matter, VOWW will be having a meeting on the 29th November at 6.30pm at the Woodville Hall near Iona Public School. Newly elected councillors for West Ward and the Mayor have been invited to come along to hear community concerns and answer questions from residents. This is an excellent opportunity to talk about everyday issues such as local roads, intersections, flood plain development, Quarry issues, bus stops etc. It is not meant to be confrontational, just informative for both Councillors and residents.

There will be tea/coffee and cake with a Christmas flavour after the meeting. We hope to see some residents from the Brandy Hill/Seaham/Nelsons Plains area join with those from Wallalong and Woodville with a common purpose.

There is still no news on the Martins Creek Quarry expansion or the court case brought by Dungog Council.

Margarete

Firstly, there is still no news on the Brandy Hill Quarry expansion but we can be sure that Hanson will be watching the progress of the Martins Creek Quarry EIS with keen interest. We certainly are watching the Martins Creek Quarry because it has many of the same issues that we expect will arise in the Brandy Hill Quarry expansion, and the Department of Planning & Environment’s (DPE) handling of that is a precursor to how it will handle the Brandy Hill Quarry expansion.  Let me remind you that Daracon trucks and their other haulage contractors are the major users of Butterwick Road & Clarencetown Road through West Ward of PSC. Residents along Butterwick Road, Clarencetown Road, Brandy Hill Drive and Seaham Road are already suffering with the noise of early morning empty trucks heading towards Martins Creek as early as 4.30am. Of course there is the cumulative impact with Hanson’s trucks. The roads are set to deteriorate faster with Martins Creek Quarry paying no levies to any council. Hanson does pay a road levy per tonne moved.

Hanson have asked all the attendees at the CCC meetings for their permission for the minutes of the meetings to be included in their EIS. A new chairperson has been appointed for future CCC meetings. More information will be posted at a later date. The next CCC meeting is being planned for February 2017.

In this post:

A. Update on submissions on the Martins Creek Quarry EIS
B. Land & Environment Court (LEC) hearing on Daracon’s application for a deferment of Dungog Shire Council’s (DSC) court action.
C. Situation appraisal
D. Next Steps

A. Update on submissions on the Martins Creek Quarry EIS

Submissions closed on 24th November and have now been posted on the DPE website. Click here to view them.

Some organisations including Martins Creek Quarry Action Group (MCQAG) asked for more time to complete their submissions, and those will be lodged this week.

In total, 846 public, 12 agency and 100 business and organisation submissions (including BHSA) were lodged. Those are amazingly large numbers. There were 25 from our postcode, so our thanks to all the people who took the time to put their concerns in writing. This is definitely a situation where the DPE is taking notice of our submissions.

The majority of submissions oppose the expansion in some way. While there were many submissions supporting the expansion, they were mostly Daracon employees, suppliers and subcontractors, using form letters from Daracon. An analysis of the public submissions showed that the vast majority of the support came from Newcastle and Maitland, and the objections came from Paterson, Vacy and the haul routes, as can be expected. The supporters are those who make money from the quarry versus the objectors whose lives are being by adversely affected by its current and proposed operations.

The submissions that we found most interesting, and we encourage you to read them for yourselves to form your own conclusions, are:-

1. The DSC submission which outlines why the court action has been taken. The main points are the annual tonnes being extracted far exceed the 300,000, that 70% is not going by rail, and that various land use rights are being breached. Please refer to that document for the details.
   It also states that “Dungog Shire Council acknowledges that Martins Creek Quarry does present a valuable natural resource and does not object to its operation in some form as long as the scale of those operations have had an appropriate environmental assessment and the operations do not significantly impact on the rural/residential amenity of residents residing in close proximity to the Quarry itself or along the transport Haulage routes. The Martins Creek and Paterson communities have over the past 10 years had their amenity and in some cases health negatively effected by excessive truck movements and the resultant impacts”  MCQAG and BHSA agree with that position.
2. The 9 page letter from DPE to Daracon (Buttai Gravel) is in the folder ” DPE request for Response to Submissions”. It specifies in some detail all of the things that the DPE requires to be addressed in Daracon’s Response to Submissions (RTS). The lack of meaningful consultation and any resulting compromises to reduce resident’s concerns, and a large number of traffic and noise issues were included.
   In light of the court action which is challenging Daracon’s use of the current 900,000 tonne annual extraction rate as the baseline to ask for a further increase to 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), the DPE now requires Daracon to submit two extra versions of the EIS. One for an increase of 1.2 mtpa from 300,000 tonne, and another for  a 900,000 tonne increase from 600,0000 tonne. The 300,000 tonne rate is what  DSC claims in their court action, to be the Quarry’s current licensed rate.
3. The RMS submission expressed concerns that it was not consulted about Gostwick bridge, while the EIS states that it was. The RMS is very concerned about the damage that the high volume of trucks is doing and will do to that historic one lane bridge, and also states that for the proposed traffic volumes, it should be replaced with a two lane bridge.The RMS also expressed concerns about the practicality of the proposed intersection upgrades and also that they do not comply with road standards. Land acquisitions and the impact on parking spaces in Paterson’s Main Street and access to businesses, all require further detailed analysis.
4. The MCQAG submission will be worth reading as it is a very thorough compilation of all the adverse impacts on the amenity of residents and visitors to the area, and includes a number of professionally prepared technical rebuttals of the EIS.
5. The PSC submission did echo and expand on the concerns that BHSA presented on 15th November. It included:
   • Restricting any noise from trucks to between 7am and 7pm.
   • The need for significant levies to fund road upgrades and maintenance,  and
   • A levy to also fund safety and amenity improvements in the form of footpaths, bus stops and intersection upgrades.
6. The Maitland City Council (MCC) submission is very disappointing. Draw your own conclusions on what might be going on behind the scenes there!

B. Land and Environment Court (LEC) Action

DSC has taken Daracon (Buttai Gravel) to court over what it claims are 19 points where Daracon’s operations have been or are currently in breech of the conditions of the consent or licence to operate the quarry, as applied to State Rail before Daracon took over. see the DSC submission.

The case is listed to be heard in the LEC in Macquarie Street Sydney for 3 weeks from 13th February 2017. Daracon recently applied to have the case deferred to September 2017, so an all day hearing was held in the LEC on Friday 9th December for the judge to decide on whether to grant the delay or not.  A number of MCQAG, VOWW and BHSA representatives attended the hearing. Though the judge did not announce his decision on the day, he promised one before Christmas. We are very hopeful that the delay will be rejected, so that the case proceeds in February.

A summary of the hearing follows. It explains much about Daracon’s behaviour. The court case is likely to be a key factor in how the DPE handles the EIS, and more importantly, whether the current operations, which have destroyed amenity for residents, will be curtailed back to the levels that applied under State Rail, or perhaps be stopped completely, until a new consent is approved by the DPE.

Daracon did not argue their reasons for asking for the delay, rather just stated that they believe that they have an unrestricted licence for the quarry and therefore are not breaching any conditions. Daracon claim that there are no restrictions on how much they extract, on how it is transported, the times of day they do it, and that there are no levies they should be paying for the upkeep of roads or anything else!

DSC argued the merits of their case and that it needs to be resolved ASAP in the interest of residents, and because in most probability, a court decision is required so that the DPE can rule on the EIS. The other point they made is that Daracon believe and are acting as if they have an unrestricted license, and have stated that if a new consent has conditions or restrictions that are unfavourable to Daracon then they would chose to not adopt the new consent., and simply continue doing what they are doing. DSC want the court case resolved so that Daracon’s operation are curtailed to State Rail levels in order to restore local amenity, and that the only option for Daracon to increase output is to progress the EIS, and then abide by all conditions imposed by the DPE.

DSC argued that Daracon have systematically delayed the court case. It has already spanned 84 weeks, while most similar matters are resolved within 10 weeks. Daracon have also been slow progressing the EIS and have already stated that responding to all the submissions, and in particular resubmitting versions of the EIS for 1.2 and 0.9 mtpa increases, will take probably to the end of 2017.  With their stated position on reserving their right to only adopt any new consent if it does not disadvantage Daracon, the development application is also being used as a delaying tactic. The court case therefore must be resolved quickly so that the principles of the court can be upheld: That delay is undesirable, and that no party should be prejudiced by delay. In this case residents are being prejudiced every day that Daracon operate as they are. We will post an update when the court’s decision is available.

C. Situation Appraisal

Daracon believe they have an unrestricted license to operate the Martins Creek quarry. They pay no levies for roads, operate the quarry without the costs and restrictions that other quarries have, and will win whatever contracts they can to make profit, with  no compassion for residents.

Daracon are racing to extract whatever rock reserves remain (which have most likely been overstated in the EIS), and have been using the expansion EIS to delay any restrictions being imposed, and/or to hopefully get increases granted by DPE without restrictions that are too onerous being applied.

Daracon certainly don’t want the court case to proceed, as it could put a stop to their current activities that have so impacted residents, and would  force Daracon to rely on the outcome of their EIS with the DPE. A hefty fine is also a possibility.

In our view the crucial factors are: the poor infrastructure, particularly the Gostwick bridge and many inadequate intersections and road sections, and the impact on amenity, employment and the businesses in Paterson (with and without the proposed intersection changes) and along the haul routes. The DPE letter requires Daracon to properly consult with residents.  We take that to mean they must negotiate and  propose some voluntary restrictions, so that  the DPE does not need to impose any. Other quarry projects have had the numbers of trucks and haulage times severely restricted when travelling through villages like Paterson. The DPE is likely to impose significant levies on truck haulage to pay for the very expensive upgrades required for whatever volume of trucks are allowed in a new consent. In the light of the existing rail siding, I expect the DPE would severely restrict road haulage but allow higher quantities to go via rail.

Daracon did not listen to the concerns of residents and modify their proposal to mitigate any of the valid concerns raised. The objections contained in the submissions to the EIS are exactly the same objections that were raised when the expansion was first proposed!

So, with regards to the local Brandy Hill quarry,if Hanson do not include concessions in their EIS on operating hours rather than persisting with 24/7, it will be clear that they also have not taken the SEARs seriously. If there is nothing in their EIS about working with PSC to ensure that road shoulders and intersections are improved in a reasonable timeframe, then again they will also not have taken the SEARS seriously. If there is nothing definite in their EIS about working with PSC to build and maintain a pathway along Brandy Hill Drive linking to Brandon Park and the Jacaranda Preschool, then meaningful consultation will not have occurred. If any of the above are not addressed to residents satisfaction, it is clear that the DPE will ask Hanson to go back to the drawing board for that to happen before they complete their RTS (response to submissions).

D. Next Steps

• Hopefully the LEC judge will rule next week that the court case proceeds in February.
• MCQAG will be encouraging us all to attend the court hearing to support the DSC legal team.
• The court case outcome should be known, hopefully by March/April.
• The BHQ CCC should meet again in February. The timing of the Brandy Hill Quarry  EIS going on public exhibit is still unclear. Whether it complies with the SEARs better than MCQ, remains to be seen.

Conclusion

The responses of DSC, PSC, RMS and DPE to the MCQ EIS are very encouraging. The LEC case is critical to resolving Daracon’s excessive and illegal unrestricted operations, and then making the EIS the means for setting the rules for ongoing operations.

We are hopeful that Hanson learns from the MCQ process and prepares its EIS to comply with the community consultation aspects of the SEARs.

Thanks for your support. We are making a difference, and will continue to do so.

Have a merry Christmas and may the New Year bring extra happiness.

BHSA