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Sue Higginson, NSW Greens Member of the Legislative Council, the state’s upper house, wants two primary outcomes for the community of Mangrove Mountain – no more dumping at the Verde Terra site and the full remediation of the land.
By Jacquelene Pearson
Sue Higginson MLC met with community members from Mangrove Mountain and the Central Coast last week following the release of the latest judgement in the Mangrove Mountain landfill saga.
A golf course remodelling project was approved by the former Gosford City Council in 1998 which included consent to import 240,000 cubic metres of clean fill. However, by 2012 the site, formerly owned by the Mangrove Mountain Returned Services League Sub Branch and located adjacent to the Memorial Club, was filled with 900,000 cubic metres of waste.
It appears the EPA had granted the proponent amendments to the conditions of its Environmental Protection Licence (EPL) without telling the consent authority, Gosford City Council.
Somehow, in 2014 Gosford City Council agreed to court orders which would have permitted over 2 million cubic metres of waste to be dumped on the site.
A courageous community campaign halted any further dumping at the site and pressured government, unsuccessfully, to hold a commission of inquiry. How could a huge waste dump have been allowed at the highest point in the Central Coast’s drinking water catchment?
In 2018 Verde Terra submitted a Development Application to the Central Coast Council which became a deemed refusal leading to a fresh round of action in the Land and Environment Court.
Sue Higginson, a former Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) solicitor, gave the community her interpretation of the latest Appeals Court Judgement.
“Quite seriously it is a mess,” she told The Point following her meeting with the community. “That is basically where we are and it is unbelievable that nobody in any position of authority is championing this and they should be.
“We don’t even have counsellors, we have left the community high and dry,” she said.
“The whole thing is out of control. It has been out of control for a long time and without state intervention it doesn’t look like it will be brought back into control.”
Several legal matters are yet to be resolved between Verde Terra, The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and Central Coast Council. There is still the matter of the deemed refusal of the 2018 development application.
Higginson believes the proponent should be required to submit a whole new development application before any more dumping can occur at the site and that should include a full Environmental Impact Assessment and statement (EIS).
However, community members are concerned that the legal costs accumulated since 2018 may weaken Central Coast Council’s bargaining position and it may enter into another set of negotiated court orders that allow the dumping to continue at Mangrove Mountain without a full environmental impact assessment.
Higginson has undertaken to write to the Environment Minister, Penny Sharpe and ask questions of the EPA.
“We will get some representations off and get some responses and try and get some outcomes. We will get those letters done very quickly,” she told The Point.
“I think the core messages are as a result of the Court of Apeal Judgement, Verde Terra has not been able to push against the system, as it tried to, any further than what it has.
“The court of appeal has held the line. Verde Terra has to comply with the consent orders. It can’t go any further. The 1998 development consent and 2014 court orders are all they can do,” she said.
“We have got an absolute environmental mess on our hands and we need serious intervention.
“The site is completely inappropriate for a landfill, needs remediation and, if that requires state government intervention, then that is what we are calling on
It is clear Verde Terra is trying everything it can. It has busted through council and tried to bust through the Land and Environment Court and it has a development application that is likely not compliant.
“We have got a developer that is clearly not acting in the public interest. They may always talk about their environmental values but it is entirely inappropriate for a landfill site to be in a water catchment.
“This is a development anticipated in 1998, but never anticipated to be a landfill. It wasn’t appropriate in 1998 and it isn’t appropriate now.”
Both the Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe and the Member for Gosford, Liesl Tesch, have taken an active interest in the landfill but there has been no statement from the government about next steps.
It is understood the Central Coast Council will soon hold a formal meeting of its Mangrove Mountain and Spencer Consultative Group which was set up by the elected councillors in 2017-18 as a way to work with the community to find a solution to the landfill mess.
The Point has sought comment from Verde Terra via their legal counsel but has not received a response.
