FROM TRASH TO TREASURE
Says can’t afford to clean this up But living it up on luxury yacht
THE operator of a controversial recycling site in Lara believes a revolutionary waste to energy plant holds the key to removing massive piles of waste on the site.
David McAuliffe said his Broderick Rd business was at an impasse, with his company halting trade and spending in recent months amid ongoing legal battles.
As fears grow that his firm could ditch the site and leave the public with a $100 million clean-up bill, Mr McAuliffe has been spending his days on a luxury yacht in Queenscliff Harbour.
He told the Geelong Advertiser yesterday he was committed to restarting C & D Recycling, and recycling the estimated 350,000 cubic metres of materials stockpiled on the site.
“We’ve lost several million dollars,” Mr McAuliffe said.
“If we were going to walk away from it, we would have walked away 12 months ago. We’ve hung right in there.”
After several years of disputes, the City of Greater Geelong had tried to have C & D Recycling’s permit cancelled.
But the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month decided against cancelling the permit, in the hope a solution could be found to reduce the massive amount of waste.
“Both the CFA and the EPA have serious concerns with fire safety and risks to human health, and other risks associated with the current stockpiles,” VCAT deputy president Mark Dwyer said.
“(But) it would seem to us to be a disappointing environmental outcome … for all the stockpiled material to be disposed of to landfill as a consequence of the cancellation of the permit, when there is at least an opportunity for some of the material to still be recycled, or for alternative re-use or treatment options to be fully explored.”
VCAT instead imposed an enforcement order calling for a series of plans and works, while placing greater responsibility on the land owner, the Australian Sawmilling Com- pany. In the meantime, parties will be back in VCAT next Tuesday, arguing over a fire prevention notice.
Mr McAuliffe said he had spent $600,000 to meet fire safety standards, but had stopped spending money on the site in February.
VCAT was told earlier this year that neither he nor his company had the $2 million required to comply with even the basic fire safety conditions of the permit.
Mr McAuliffe agreed to speak with the Geelong Advertiser after he was photographed on a 28-metre long luxury yacht in Queenscliff Harbour. The Eagle One, which has a large jacuzzi on one of its three decks, has been advertised for charter for $45,000 a week. Multiple sources have told the Geelong Advertiser that Mr McAuliffe has been regularly sighted on the vessel in recent months. He stated that the yacht was owned by a family trust, from which he had divested in 2006. He expects Eagle One to be taken to the Whitsundays by August. “I am the agent for the owners. The director of the company … is based interstate. “The trust has just brought it over from Fremantle. It is here in Queenscliff to undergo compliance (works).” Mr McAuliffe said it was his money, and not the trust’s, that was poured into C & D Re- cycling. “(The yacht) has absolutely nothing to do with Lara,” he said.
His hopes to revive the Lara site now lie with a European proponent of a gasification plant. While admitting the facility would require tens of millions of dollars to create, he believes he could secure the necessary funding.
VCAT described the proposal as “uncertain, and most unlikely to be achieved in the short term (if at all) by Mr McAuliffe”.
Mr McAuliffe said a “toxic” relationship with the council was a key factor in C & D Recycling’s woes.
He described conditions, such as the need to spend $7 million on a visual barrier around his site, as “onerous and absolutely ridiculous”.
“We never felt comfortable that we could get council to the point where we could go ahead and spend millions,” he said.
The toxic fire at SKM Re- cycling’s Coolaroo facility in July last year brought further attention.
“That process (with the council) was adversarial, and to a degree toxic, and then Coolaroo happened.”
More than 4½ years after operations in Lara began, there are varying reports about what is stored on the site.
There is no agreement on the number of used tyres, oil drums and asbestos buried in the wider mix of construction and demolition waste.
“Some of the stockpiles are believed to contain contaminated material, although no comprehensive survey has been undertaken to determine the content and characteristics of all of the stockpiles,” Mr Dwyer said.
But Mr McAuliffe said he did know, citing his own figures that included 40 per cent dirt, 30-35 per cent timber and 4 per cent plastic, plus small amounts of steel and metal.