By Violet Li
Surrounding communities of Stevensons Brothers Industries (SBI) landfill claim that the operator’s proposed planning permit amendments will lead to increased traffic, dust, and diversion of stormwater to the nearby residential areas.
SBI initiated the amendments to respond to the council’s Planning Contravention Notice on 11 January 2023, which was said to have found that “some works and operations on site are not consistent with the current endorsed plans and that certain documents for endorsement have not been prepared to council’s satisfaction“.
A Planning Contravention Notice is taken when there is a clear breach of the planning regulations, planning permit conditions, unauthorised developments, and illegal uses, according to the City of Casey.
An application to amend the permit was lodged in late February alongside documents for endorsement under relevant permit conditions.
The proposed amendments include a less-stringent wheel wash condition for trucks on the site.
The updated version allows for the use of the wheel wash where ‘appropriate’, stating that a wheel wash on dry days is considered not appropriate as there is a risk that wet wheels would pick seeds or other materials.
At the time of the writing, the amendment has attracted more than 20 objections.
Lindsay Jones* (not their real name), a resident in the nearby Settlers Run estate, said the amount of concrete dust from trucks going out onto Ballarto Road was already huge. And that it would be worse under the proposed “watered down“ conditions.
“They haven’t been able to manage the dust. Their method of management is to use the water truck every now and then to put water on the dust,” she said.
“But that doesn’t go constantly all the time. If you’ve ever driven along there, you’ll see, unless the water truck has just been, there’ll be just a load of dust.
“Watering down that condition is only going to create more dust. It is not a benefit to the community. It’s only a benefit to SBI.”
As a property owner in the Settlers Run estate, Ms Jones also raised concerns over a proposed quarry pit stormwater control which she claimed could lead to leachate runoffs onto the neighbouring Settlers Run golf course.
The quarry pit, where the landfill cell sits, currently accepts runoff flowing from Cranbourne Botanic Gardens due to topography.
The amended plan notes that the diversion of this stormwater away from the quarry pit is difficult.
To prevent this stormwater from entering the quarry pit, a temporary recommendation is made that ‘a diversion structure is installed along the upper batters of the southern quarry pit wall to divert stormwater around the side of the wall, towards the south-west, into the existing perimeter stormwater drains along this boundary’, which leads to the neighbouring Settlers Run Golf Course.
Ms Jones was worried that stormwater that went through the quarry pit could carry leachate, which would potentially harm the environment if discharged into the golf course.
The amended plan states that rainfall runoff generated in the waste is treated as leachate, while SBI is developing and implementing practices to divert, capture, and extract rainfall within the cell area that does not come into contact with waste.
SBI believes that exacted rainfall should be considered ‘stormwater’.
“If it’s called stormwater in the future and they’re allowed to discharge stormwater into Settlers Run Golf Course, that’s going to not only increase the volume of water coming onto the course but also increase the chance of contaminants,” Ms Jones said.
Most of the permit amendments revolve around the site’s traffic management.
Permit Condition 15 has been revised to allow trucks exiting the sites to turn right to ‘serve properties located on the north side of Ballarto Road east of the site’.
The condition originally required commercial vehicles to enter the site via Ballarto Road from the Cranbourne-Frankston Road intersection and exit the site only via Ballarto Road to that intersection.
The amendment notes that as there is no through access to the east of the site, these truck movements will be ‘minimal’.
The proposed amendment on Permit Condition 21 is to permit trucks to be queued in front of Weighbridge 2 on-site as reasonable before 7am to ‘minimise queuing on Ballarto Road’.
The original permit only allows the site to operate after 7am, which means no truck will be in action before that time.
Casey Council is currently liaising with the applicant, statutory referral authorities, and non-statutory referral teams about the application.
The amendments will be advertised until 31 March, which has been extended from the original date of 14 March. Residents can also lodge objections anytime after 31 March if it is before the decision-making by Casey Council.
SBI has been contacted for comment.
