More landfill hoops presented for DCC to jump through
TEN further issues have been outlined for the Dunedin City Council to address when it eventually replies to submitters’ concerns about its proposal for a landfill near Brighton.
The hearing for the council’s Smooth Hill landfill application was adjourned last week after the council agreed to commission an assessment of the public health risk posed by the landfill’s potential contamination of Otokia Creek.
The council said last week the assessment, which was not part of the council’s application, was expected to be completed in a matter of weeks.
Now, in another minute, chairman Rob van Voorthuysen has asked the council to produce, among other things, a rewrite of the set of proposed conditions for the landfill; confirmation of whether the council has applied for consents required under new national freshwater rules; and confirmation of a quantifiable target for waste that could spoil and attract birds to the landfill.
Beyond that, the ‘‘revised and restructured’’ consent conditions the council produces should include conditions on at least 11 further matters, the commissioner said.
These include establishing a bond and spelling out its purpose, plans to suppress blackbacked gulls at the council’s nearby Green Island landfill, and specifying what work would be done to negate the need for the Civil Aviation Authority to impose operational restrictions on Dunedin Airport if there was an increased risk of bird strike due to the new landfill.
‘‘The above list of matters is of course not exhaustive and we appreciate that the applicant may very well intend to address other matters in reply and we look forward to receiving those reply submissions in due course,’’ Mr van Voorthuysen said. Yesterday, the Otago Daily
Times asked the council if the further directions from the commissioners would change the timeline it had indicated for the council reply.
‘‘The minutes from the commissioners encapsulate all of the issues discussed during the hearing, which the applicant has been asked to respond to and which we intend to do.
‘‘The commissioners have not set a timeframe for this step in the process, but we still aim to respond as soon as possible,’’ a council spokesman said.