Daracon's Refined Project Announced

If you were one of the lucky few who have received the Daracon flyer in the mail you will have learnt that Daracon has "refined" the Martins Creek Quarry Expansion Project.

They say in their flyer after reviewing all of the submissions, Daracon have chosen to amend the project parameters as follows;

• 1,100,000 tonne per annum

• 60 truck movements per hour

• 280 truck movements per day

• Un committed tonnage of product by rail

• 7am starting time at the quarry for loading of trucks

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.

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

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 (one on one interviews and collaborative forums) 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.

Department of Planning gets the message at community meeting

It was a full house in the Paterson School of Arts Hall last night, standing room only.

After intros from official attendees; Dept Planning, Daracon, EPA, Dungog Shire, Dept Premier & Cabnet and Maitland State MP. Howard Reed Director of Resource Assessment from NSW Department of Planning opened by explaining the process and told the audience that the determination of the project would go through the independent Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC).

He advised he had visited and met with Daracon and quarry staff, Martins Creek residents and other relevant community groups. The meeting was then opened to the floor for community to ask questions and lodge their concerns.

During the evening a gentleman in the audience moved a motion "that the community reject any expansion of Martins Creek Quarry and demand the Government and Dungog Shire Council regulate existing consents" The motion was seconded and then overwhelmingly passed in favor by a show of hands from the audience.

At the end of the evening Howard Reed stated he was now well aware that the community was resolute an forthright in their views and he would have to take that with him back to Sydney.

Here below were just a few of the comments collected from the crowd attesting to the current impacts, the lack of consultation and known future impacts that would occur from an expansion of the facility; 

Lady says we don't want quarry men out of work but we live here because we love our lifestyle

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Lady says blasting shakes her house on merchant Rd will #daracon pay for the crack through her brick house

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Man says this is #daracon attitude let's throw 2000 pages at these country kids

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Lady says @MCQAG not asking to close quarry we want local jobs at quarry but asking to run quarry at a reasonable level

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

She says merchant Rd dust a problem her children have had to move due to asthma

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Lady in crowd says she and her children are woken up at 5:30am 6 days per week, says it is awful to think #daracon want to start even early

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Bolwarra resident says she hears trucks at 4:30am and council condition required 70% by rail

— MCQAG (@MCQAG) November 2, 2016

Daracon breaks their silence on EIS progress

The MCQ CCC was convened for the first time by Daracon since December 2015. At the meeting Daracon presented three documents outlined below;

1.      A table of issues raised in October 2014 and how these have been addressed by Daracon

2.      A table of how the consultation process has resulted in changes to the proposed development and EIS

3.      A letter responding to questions on notice from MCQAG

The information presented by Daracon attempts to dismiss issues raised at the CCC over the past 12 months and seeks to infer that the proponent has resolved all issues raised through this consultation process.

When questioned at the meeting, Daracon confirmed the peak rate used in the EIS is 80 truck movements per hour 13 hours per day, 6 days per week. Daracon confirmed the EIS has made no allowances to mitigate early morning impacts nor impacts to rural, village and urban amenity along the haulage routes.

Attendees were also informed that the draft EIS is being submitted to the Department of Planning in the next 5 to 7 days for an “adequacy test” as we understand it the adequacy test is where the department will review the information provided by the applicant to ensure that adequate detail is available on the proposal for members of the community and other stakeholders to understand the proposal. If the information is adequate it will be placed on public exhibition, if it inadequate it will be returned to the proponent with a request for additional information.

Based on the level of detail and the lack of real consultation during the development of the EIS by Daracon to date we presume the adequacy test will find the EIS to be deficient and require additional information before it is placed on public.

We will keep you posted on this.