The NSW Environment Protection Authority allowed more than 800,000 cubic metres of landfill on a part of the site above an aquifer and within the region’s drinking water supply catchment by 2012, despite Gosford Council only approving 80,000 cubic metres of landfill in 1998 linked to a golf course redesign of the steep site.

The EPA failed to act on council complaints to its Newcastle office from as early as 2005 about the volume of waste and site operations.

The EPA continued to licence the regional landfill site until the council initiated legal action against the golf course operator in 2012 alleging environmental harm, but in 2014 entered confidential negotiations with the operator that allowed the landfill facility to proceed.

Mountain Districts Association on Friday asked Ms Berejiklian to establish a commission of inquiry after an independent review of the landfill facility in July, commissioned by the EPA, raised serious questions about the environmental risks of adding another 1.3 million cubic metres of landfill to the site, and operator Verde Terra’s plans to control the risks.

Association spokesperson Dr Stephen Goodwin said an inquiry was needed after more than a decade of decisions beyond public scrutiny, and the independent review raising concerns about the lack of any environmental impact assessment of the expansion proposal and past regulatory oversight.

“We have a right to know how a remodelling of Mangrove Mountain golf course in 1998 led to a regional waste facility for the Central Coast in 2017, with no public involvement and no public approval process,” Dr Goodwin said.

“We want this site closed so there’s no more landfill, and we want it remediated to protect the Central Coast’s drinking water supply.”

The call for a commission of inquiry comes as an ABC Four Corners report on Monday, “Trashed”, looks at “the big business of rubbish and where it ends up”. 

Dr Goodwin criticised an EPA statement released after the SLR Consulting review was made public in July, in which EPA executive director of waste, Steve Beaman, acknowledged “community concerns over the storage of muddy stormwater”, but said the “good news” was the review found “no evidence the landfill is affecting ground or surface water quality”.

The statement did not acknowledge SLR Consulting’s call for “stronger and more thorough regulatory oversight” from the EPA and Central Coast Council, after finding “the existing fill mound sits currently in abeyance, with an un-profiled surface, temporary waste capping placed, little vegetation and without the benefit of a final stormwater management network, all presenting a possible pollution risk if allowed to continue”.

The statement also did not acknowledge the SLR Consulting review’s apparent doubt about the landfill expansion plan, after noting that “judicious location of a landfill is the single most effective environmental management tool”, and the site’s location contravened guidelines for landfill operations.

If assessed under current regulations “the site would be deemed inappropriate for a landfill”, the SLR review found.

Dr Goodwin said the EPA and Central Coast Council had not addressed community concerns about future environmental risk, after the SLR review found “there appears to be no baseline data of groundwater quality”, and no apparent investigation of the relationship between surface and groundwater.  

“The EPA doesn’t address the question of risk. It could take years for the impacts to be realised, just like at Williamtown (where fire fighting foam contaminants at Williamtown RAAF Base have leached into surrounding areas). We’re not reassured by their water testing,” Dr Goodwin said.

“Neither the council nor the EPA wants to be responsible for what’s happening up here.”

Documents obtained from the former Gosford Council – which was amalgamated with Wyong Council to form Central Coast Council – showed former general manager Paul Anderson wrote to the then Environment Minister Robyn Parker in May, 2013, complaining about EPA approvals to Verde Terra over a number of years, without the council’s knowledge.

Mr Anderson said the EPA had allowed the company to import 800,000 cubic metres of waste, “or 10 times the volume allowed by the consent”; had knowledge of plans for another 800,000 cubic metres of waste, and had approved the inclusion of waste materials “more likely to generate leachate”. 

”This work has all been carried out under licenses issue by the EPA in an area within the catchment of drinking water dams on the Central Coast,” Mr Anderson wrote.

“These licences continue to be issued annually despite the fact that council officers raised concerns with the EPA’s Newcastle office in 2005 about the volume of waste being imported and the manner of operation of the waste site.

“The licences issued by the EPA do not appear to have had any regard to the development consent issued by Gosford City Council, to say nothing of the impact discharges from the waste may have on our drinking water supplies.”

Mr Anderson advised Ms Parker that the council was forced to embark on “an extremely expensive and lengthy court battle to attempt to rectify the problems which have arisen and to enforce compliance with the development consent”, and Verde Terra was relying on the EPA licences as part of its defence against the council.

Dr Goodwin was highly critical of a council decision to vacate a two-week NSW Land and Environment Court hearing against Verde Terra in September, 2013 for mediation, which allowed the landfill facility to continue.

In a statement on Sunday the EPA confirmed the current proposal relies on the 1998 golf course redesign consent, in addition to amendments agreed to by the council and Verde Terra after mediation in 2014.

The EPA said the SLR Consulting review “assessed the environmental risk in accordance with current best practice”, and the community “had free access to the reviewer (ie without the EPA), on a number of occasions”.

The Mangrove Mountain site has been closed to waste since 2014 as its future operations are determined.

The Herald, Newcastle