Unfortunately, we’ve hit a bit of a snag with the Development Application for the new waste transfer station at the Macs Reef Road tip site. The consultant who was contracted to assess the DA (Council will generally engage a third party to assess DAs in which Council has a direct interest) ‘discovered’ a potable bore in the vicinity of the site, and this unfortunately means that the new facility falls into the category of a Designated Development.
The upshot of this is that the DA for the waste transfer station must now be supported by a full Environmental Impact Statement, rather than the less stringent Statement of Environmental Effects that had originally been prepared. The Director-General has identified the items that must be addressed in the EIS, and Council is in the process of engaging a consultant to complete the task. Fortunately, we had done a pretty thorough job on our Statement of Environmental Effects, and this will minimise the additional work required to prepare the EIS.
This new requirement will mean that the approval process will probably not now be complete until the New Year, but assuming all goes well, the facility may still be operational by the end of the financial year.
See Palerang Blog entry Macs Reef Road WTA DA approved for an update on the approval process.